Book review: Let the Game Begin by Sandeep Sharma

Tags

betrayal, book review, chess, kings, murder mystery, reincarnation, revenge, sandeep sharma, thriller

Seamless fusion of History with Mystery. Sandeep Sharma (author) weaves an intriguing revenge saga spanning over 4000 years.

Storyline– a spate of seemingly unrelated murders start unraveling once they coalesce into a common link. This kickstarts a tale of bitter betrayal and rousing rivalry between 2 warring kings of yore.

The author touches on myth (immortal Shamans), science (DNA replication, electromagnetic radiations) and philosophy (immortality, rebirth) to create an enthralling page turner.

I liked – Breathless pace of story. Numerous twists around every corner. Unexpected death of a key character. Effective use of flashbacks and flashforwards between 2 timelines. One of the best written prologues in recent times. Amusing undercurrents of competition between CLAW, RAW and police force.

Book review – Many Lives, Many Masters by Brian Weiss

Tags

Bhagavad Gita, book review, hypnotherapy, immortal soul, near death, past lives, reincarnation, sankhya yoga, spirituality

Twitter review – With great expectations comes great disappointment.

First things first – the book is already a blockbuster seller. That relieves me from the sin of jeopardizing a newbie author. It also means the author can pull a Rhett Butler snarl upon my opinions.

So why am I reviewing it? B’cos a blog post is long overdue in my schedule 🙂

Premise– A blonde laboratory technician cum swimwear model Catherine (ahem!) is depressed. She is plagued by childhood demons, ongoing nightmares and an abusive married boyfriend. She turns up for hypnotherapy at Dr Weiss’s clinic and discovers a chain of prior births.

Catherine taps into 86 prior births in lurid detail, speaks foreign languages fluently for brief spans, finds past relatives reborn as current colleagues and generally re-falls in love with life instead of nitpicking over its brief grief.

The novelty of the first 20 pages wanes rapidly as the process gets repetitive. Dr Weiss demonstrates more hand clapping and chest thumping than a sombre scientific approach.

To an Indian bred on the ‘immortal soul, mortal body‘ principle of Sankhya yoga (Bhagavad Gita), reincarnation concept is not a novelty. I was eager for the