Nagasravika's Book Reviews Blog

Martian Time-Slip  By Philip K Dick Published Year: 1999 Page Count: 246 pages  Medium Used: Paperback  Genre: Mental Illness, Schizophrenia, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mars, Space Opera, 2024-read.  Rating : 5/5 🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳 I have enjoyed reading this story .. it is tense and heart pounding. It involves time travel, some ancient God magic, memory altering reality and some amazing silly robotic tutoring!  Reading Philip K Dick's books gives me a warm, smug feeling. He tells a lot while seemingly telling little. Like his other books, this one doesn't disappoint. He transported me into his reality of planet Mars with its strange native, aboriginal inhabitants, migrants from Earth and children (mostly normal,some anomalous) born on the planet. Seeing the world through his eyes and reading what it means is an absolutely amazing experience.  How powerful and strong is the characterization of Arnie Kott, the man who plays the negative shaded villain. His stream of ...

 Three Daughters of Eve By Elif Shafak  Published Year : 2016 Page Count: 368 pages  Medium Used: Paperback  Genre : Spirituality, God, Romance, Young Adult, Oxford, 2024-read.  Rating : 5/5 🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳 Some spoilers ahead !!   When I finished the book and set it aside, I thought I will go with a maximum 4 star rating. Then I sat down to think and reason out what Elif Shafak is trying to convey through her work and it just blew my mind. She is a gifted writer with a propensity to convey so much more than what's visible on the surface. Her character development is impeccable and story pacing is flawless. The worlds she has built are very immersive and sucked me total into their spheres.  She ponders on bigger concepts of what is God's intent when bad things happen to good,innocent people and why doesn't he/she interfere in the act to stop it from happening. She brings an unique voice into the world of literature. I consider myself a deeply spiritual pers...

Kairos  By Jenny Erpenbeck  Published Year : 2023  Page Count: 267 pages  Medium Used: Kindle PW  Genre : Romance, War, 2024-read  Rating : 1.5/5  Winner of Booker International Prize 2024  DNF at 78%  I am going to be very, very wary about Booker prize winning books from now on. Thankfully I didn't waste any money on buying a paperback,while I had the chance. I couldn't make heads or tails of this story. On the one hand, its a drawling, endless story of a romance between a teenager and an older man - 34 years her senior - that has gone fetid. On the other, there is lot of information about the war or some political situation in Germany and Russia during the years of World War 2 and during the time spanning the love affair. I couldn't piece together all the different characters that were mentioned for the very simple reason that they are all alien to me. The war and the conditions during the 1940s or the 1980s of Germany/Russia are alien...

Children of Ruin  (Children of Time #2)  By Adrian Tchaikovsky  Published Year: 2019 Page Count : 434 pages  Medium Used: Kindle Paperwhite  Genre : Science Fiction, Space Opera, Aliens, Adventure, Good Prose, 2024-read.  Rating: 5/5 🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳 These are the best evolution of species books ever!!  Adrian has turned into such a novel, brilliant author for my scifi taste buds. He is churning out the right material to quench my hunger and yearning for proper science fiction books. I usually take time between books of a series but after I put down Children of Time, I had to start this. I am amazed at the creative capacity of the author's mind. He not only gave us planets populated with human - spider species, sentient and highly evolved octopi, but also an alien infested planet that is deadly and highly fatal to all it comes in contact with! Absolutely loved this book.  The interweave of past and present is mind blowing. What happened when earth went ...

 Red Queen  By Victoria Aveyard  Published Year: 2015 Page Count: 383 pages  Medium Used: Paperback  Genre : Action, Young Adult, Book Review, Booktok, Fantasy, Magic, Political Intrigue, 2024-read.  Rating : 3/5  I, somehow, couldn't build enough interest in this story to make me move it faster. I took well over four days to finish .. dozing off intermittently and picking up when awake. I am surprised that this book has so many ratings on goodreads and majorly positive ones at that. I am a bit disappointed with the world building and the character development. The characters are not what they seem to be. Few of them switch their alliances and true colors in the story.  Reds are red blooded people who have been living an oppressed life as servants, workers and slaves for centuries. Silvers are silver blooded people who have been their oppressors and extractors of their loyalties with a steel hand. Silvers have special talents with magic like they ...

 New Moon  (The Twilight Saga #2) By Stephenie Meyer  Published Year : 2006 Page Count : 500 pages  Medium Used : Paperback  Genre : Romance, Young Adult, Vampires, Werewolves, Coming of Age, Fiction, 2024-read.  Rating : 4/5  Disclaimer : Few Spoilers in the review!! This is the second time I am reading this book. I haven't watched the movies even though they are very, very popular. I guess I saw some scenes and can say with high confidence that the makers made a lot of justice to the book description. At times I felt like I could feel Bella's pain and at times it felt utterly silly and superfluous. But overall I am excited to pick the next book in the series. Yes. The problems that are awaiting to be tackled by the conglomerate of vampire lovers and werewolf lovers of Bella are serious. Like all the characters which are not trying to kill Bella, we too fall in love with her character and want to protect her. It doesn't feel like we are making a huge ...

 Children of Time  (Children of Time #1) By Adrian Tchaikovsky  Winner of Arthur C Clarke Award 2016 Published Year: 2015 Page Count: 600 pages  Medium Used: Paperback  Genre : Science Fiction, Space Opera, Evolution, Spiders, Sentient Creatures, 2024-read.  Rating : 5/5 💝💝💝💝💝 This story is just superb. The ending floored me and brought a sheen of happy moisture to my eyes. I loved this book so so much. I couldn't put it down at all. I followed every scene with utter rapture and this makes for one of the best space operas I ever read! It lead to a reconfiguration of my brain and thinking in that I saw small, sentient creatures like spiders and ants in a new light. I began appreciating them for their qualities and features they could bring to the table. They have outdone humans not only in their technological evolution but also in their look at the big picture with kindness attitude.  Doctor Avarna Kern is the last remaining human of the Old Empire...

 Egypt (Rai Rahotep #3) By Nick Drake  Published Year: 2011 Page Count: 275 pages  Medium Used: Kindle PW  Genre : Historical Fiction, Ancient Egypt, Murder Mystery, Suspense, 2024-read.  Rating : 2.5/5  This book is the last installment in the Rahotep Series by Nick Drake. I think in the triology, this book is the most disappointing and underwhelming to me. Most of the book takes place in kingdoms and places outside of Egypt. The evocative nature of Ancient Egypt - as when the Pharoahs and Queens were ruling it - is not there in this book. I was amazed by the atmosphere that was created in the first book, Nefertiti. This is a rapidly put together story without much thought, I felt. Its easy to see how most of the story is a concoction and not based on real or known historical facts.  Ankhesumun is 21 years old when her husband, the boy king, Tutankhamun dies in a hunting accident. She is married to Ay who is really an old despot with rapidly failing h...

 Where the Crawdads Sing  By Deliah Owens  Published Year: 2018 Page Count: 368 pages  Medium Used: Paperback  Genre : Coming Of Age, Mystery, Murder Investigation, Court Room Drama, Animal Behavior, Romance, 2024-read.  Rating : 5/5 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Disclaimer : Some Spoilers from the book mentioned here!  This is a fantastic story. Very riveting. A mashup of multiple, different genres that have churned out a totally engrossing and worthy read. Like the lagoon and the rivers which the main character Kya navigates through .. everyday of her life in the marshes, this story and the prose have a sweet, smooth flowing quality to them. The book was unputdownable. I liked the parallels the author was able to draw between the different mating strategies, romantic behaviors of animals and the different lovers of Kya. The characters are well developed and got me very invested in their fate.  The author tied up all the loose ends into a tight knot, leaving no lin...

 The Forty Rules of Love  By Elif Shafak  Published Year: 2011  Page Count : 350 pages  Medium Used: Paperback  Genre : Mystical, Spiritual, Fiction, Rumi, Shams of Tabiz, Religion, Love, 2024-read.  Rating : 5/5 💝💝💝💝💝 Disclaimer : Some Spoilers from the book mentioned here! I just wrapped this up and I couldn't imagine putting myself in the shoes of either of the main characters. They had both experienced a truly, unique kind of spiritual love with people they couldn't hold onto. Needless to say, my emotional state is in a turmoil and nerves are strung raw.  This is a very complex book with layers upon layers of wisdom and spiritual guidance. The author has tried to simplify and make us understand what it means to look at the world - all flawed and filled not only with saints but also with drunks, robbers, murderers and prostitutes - through eyes of acceptance and open hearted love. She shows through the experiences of two people - Rumi of 1...