Skip to main content

Book Review: Neverfound Land by Durriya Kapasi

Generally, fantasy fiction novels are by product of total imagination, there you will be in different landscapes with strange set of people and other creatures like monsters and dragons and so on. However, it is rare to see a fantasy novel mixing up other land and earth’s setting into one to present a captivating backdrop. Well, Durriya has done this miracle second time, with her novel Neverfound Land.


This novel is a proper sequel to her previous novel ‘Once Upon a Genie’. Well, to have proper fun off this novel, we would recommend you to go through the first one – Once Upon a Genie. And even if you missed it, no worries the author has made all possible attempts to make story linkable – as you will have a strong and informative preface, and then you will see it all through the formative years of Solomon – the protagonist of the novel.

In the first novel, we saw that Daisy – a young beautiful girl – falls in love with a genie named Khalil. However, they were not destined to live together. Thus, they parted, but out of their love born out Solomon – the dashing child. Not to forget, he is a special child owing to that love affair. The major chunk of the story goes into explaining that he is a special child – if you have seen Superman movie – well then you could relate perfectly.

The story is based around Soloman and his discoveries about his past life, parents, his genie world and some other things. As soon as it comes out that Solomon holds special powers, trouble begins visiting him frequently. Because of his roots to the genie world, he gets into deep trouble and it increases many fold when his foster father gets kidnapped and mother grows restless. But why is that people from the genie land are behind him. There has to be some mystery to be solved, some fear to be diminished for someone? Yes, as a reader you need to find out that. In search of truth and to save family from an untoward crisis, Solomon has to take a route that is not only tumultuous but less-traveled.

Talking about sequel, it seems to be a perfect resume to the things left behind in ‘Once Upon a Genie’. Over a time, Durriya has evolved as a writer – she got better with cross-cultural settings and many other aspects that matter most for building a credible novel. However, the only suggestion is that the length of the novel could have been lengthier, as in fantasy fiction as you travel along with your characters, you feel like being into that backdrop forever…no wants to come out of that…remember The Lord of the Rings series.

Anyway, without giving away we can conclude that it’s a riveting read for her new as well as familiar readers. This time she has kept a tight vigil on her narration, and attributes like well-written and well-edited contribute most to its overall success.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Poem Summary: Where The Mind Is Without Fear by Rabindranath Tagore

Poem by Rabindranath Tagore: Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls Where words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit Where the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. Short Summary: This poem is written by Rabindranath Tagore during pre-independence days, when India was a colony of the British. The underlying theme of the poem is absolute freedom; the poet wants the citizens of his country to be living in a free state. According to the poem, we see that the poet is expressing his views there should be a country, like where people live without any sort of fear and with pure dignity…they should
68 comments
Read more

Book Review: The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond

Among all Ruskin Bond books, The Blue Umbrella has, so far, gathered immense applaud from readers and critics alike.  This is a short novel, but the kind of moral lessons it teaches to us are simply overwhelming. This is a story of Binya, a poor little girl living with her mother and an elder brother, Bijju, in a small hilly village of Garhwal. One day while herding her two cows back home, she stumbles upon some city people enjoying the picnic in the valley. She is enthralled to see them well-groomed and rich. She craves to be one like them and among many other things of their, a blue frilly umbrella catches her attention. She begins craving for it. On the other hand, the city people get attracted by her innocent beauty and the pendant in her neck. The pendant consists of leopard’s claw – which is considered a mascot widely in the hills. Binya trades her pendant off with the blue umbrella. The blue umbrella is so much beautiful that soon it becomes a topic of conversation fo
64 comments
Read more

Poem Summary: Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Ozymandias is a short poem of fourteen lines written by Percy Bysshe Shelley. The concurrent theme of the poem is that nothing remains intact and same forever in this world. Even the brightest of metal, one day decays with passage of time. The throne name of Egyptian King Ramesses is Ozymandias. It was his dearest desire to preserve himself forever by building a huge statue that he thought would never tumble down. Stanza 1: I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; Summary: The poet narrates the poem through the eyes of a traveler who seems to have come back from a remote and far-away land, referring to Egypt. The traveler r
23 comments
Read more