Kevein Books and Reviews

The Sound of Boots is a general fiction novel written by two authors: Merena Toppo and Mansi Sharma. Stretching over 100 pages, the novel explores themes like guilt, redemption, father-son bonding, adverse time of Covid, and reflections of old days, betrayal in friendship, and a few more. The novel is set in the present time of Dehradun, but it visits Delhi through memory lane.   The story opens with Sanjay and his father Dilip sharing the same house in an unconventional and uncomfortable way. Initially, the authors build air about these two characters. Much has been changed since the untimely death of Madhu – Dilip's wife. The authors brilliantly captured the melancholia and gloominess that pervades when a close one from the family passes away. Sanjay is their son who lived and worked in Mumbai. After the death of Madhu, he became a kind of aloof and has had very less communication with his father Dilip. However, during Covid pandemic things changed. Sanjay comes back to Dehra...

Exit Game by Vidit Chopra is a riveting technically-oriented science fiction. The book takes us to a possible future that may encounter us in a couple of decades or in the next century. Those who are familiar with today’s trending technologies like AI, ML, VR, and so on will gel up with the main storyline immediately. However, laymen readers might face some challenges in grasping the full book in one go. Despite its high-tech level, the novel is gripping and keeps the readers hooked till the last page. Broadly, the story is between two people Ahmed (also known as Professor) and Genie. There is this company called Captivate Tech. It builds immersive and reality-altering games. It has mass following and it literally rules the world with their powerful products. However, once a former employee of the same company, Ahmed knows the ulterior motive of the company. Ahmed doesn’t know whether this company is run by a bunch of people or a single mind. Whosoever they or he is – it is called Ge...

Truce is a lovely book with some amazing yet strong teen characters. The author is a teen blogger and reader from India and it is quite evident in her work. The theme and age of the novel reflects much about the teen author Risha Chaurasia. “Truce” is a powerful word in maintaining peace in life. So, the title is not only objective but also subjective as the characters are named in accordance with the title…how…TRUCE – Tiya, Ron, Udit, Cayra, and Edi. These five characters are in the main light. There are some other auxiliary characters as well that put some catalytic efforts to nudge the plot, but these five hold the cynosure. In a sense, it’s a book of five people. The author has mixed them with different personality traits and family backdrop. Life seems cakewalk for them from a distance, but as one takes a close look, it’s way different than many could have thought. Ron and Cayra are filthy rich. They are so occupied with social responsibilities that it is hard to believe that wi...

In Mildred Bowers Armstrong’s poem ‘The Squirrel’ is a beautiful composition where the poet describes the playful and exquisite nature of a squirrel in a simple and joyful manner. This poem has been covered in the NCERT Class 7 English Textbook Honeycomb. The Squirrel Poem: He wore a question mark for tail, An overcoat of gray, He sat up straight to eat a nut.   He liked to tease and play, And if we ran around his tree, He went the other way.   The first stanza begins with the physical description of the squirrel. The poet in her imagination sees it as if it's wearing "an overcoat of gray," for it has gray fur all over its body with darker stripes. Its tail rolls about, twisting like a question mark. The poet also describes the food that the squirrel is fond of, it enjoys nuts and sits straight. She is attracted by its swift and joyful movements and there is a hide and seek game going on between her and the squirrel. The moment she gets too close to ...

The Genius of Indraprastha by Harshwardhan is a historical novel set in ancient Indian land with provinces like Gondwana, Hastinapur, and so on. This is the first book in the Gondwana Chronicles. The novel stretches over 350 pages, but reads like a sweeping saga – the intensity and pace of the novel are brilliantly done. Since the novel is lengthy, thus it takes time to settle down with its characters and backdrop. The author has used flashback technique in snatches. In fact, most of the adventure and plot-driven scenes take place in sweeps and past events. The story opens with Khidmatgars in possession of some silver chest. As the story chugs ahead, a lot of conflict areas lay open before the readers. Khidmatgars are foreigners in Gondwana land. They come from the deserts of Arabia, ‘Khidmatgars’ mean slaves. Their commander is Bakht Khan – he is famous for his unusual sanguinary fight at Uno selection and victories. He is a powerful character in the form of an antagonist. The aut...

The Concept of God by Vinoth is a slightly heavy philosophical book that stretches its scope to understand the true nature of God by including science and spirituality. We humans lay so much focus on reality that in a sense we are going away from god and its allied spirituality. Divided into seven chapters, covering topics from science to reality to time and God – this book by Vinoth presents the inner inquisitive of millions of humans across the world. The book is built around the concept of reality, entity, soul, energy, and of course puts a subtle yet impressive debate between Science vs. God. The author tried to make us understand the meaning of our creator: God, irrespective of our religions and faith. He insists that for us reality matters over anything. If we see, we believe, and we find logic to rational with it. However, this is more of comes from science. It is science that makes us believe in reality all the more. What about faith, God, and spirituality? As the book chug...

Two things to note about this novel… First, Anagha Ratish is a master storyteller, and secondly the novel is way beyond engaging than the normal genre of fantasy. Yes…it is a fantasy novel set in the world of pixies, magical powers, queer worlds, captivating kingdoms with lust of power, and what not. Going by the title, one gets clear perception that this is the first book in Celestia Chronicles, putting a riveting and adventurous action between fire and water. Broadly, it’s about two powers: fire and water. The former is evil while the later one has to save innocents from the marauding cruelty of Queen Zyra – the epitome of fire. The protagonist in the novel is Adaire. She is a human who stumbles upon the world of pixies. There she is confronted by important auxiliary characters like Sapphire and Faye, who are pixies, natives of Celestia. However, on the other hand, the queen of Emberglass causing havoc on its own people. She burns everything if gets hunch of rebel or she simply d...

Rage of the Immortals by Kanika is a fantasy novel set in some other world. The novel stretches over 300 pages, with short 49 chapters. Because of the short chapters, the novel exquisitely moves at a fast pace, otherwise in fantasy novels readers have to stick to characters and their out-of-the-world peculiarities to completely settle down. After initial chapters, the novel is packed with action, adventure, suspense and thriller, melancholia, and many other queer aspects. In short, for hardcore fantasy readers and those who prefer sci-fi Hollywood movies, it’s a treat. The novel opens with Lt. Sefina aka Kara, a Navy officer from New Nyssa, being found in ‘Underworld’ in the custody of Cifer. Much part of the novel drifts around these two characters, trying to understand each other’s personal space and other idiosyncrasies. They both are different. One being a human, and the other as demon with special magical qualities. Kara lands up being a ‘slave-type’ bodyguard for Cifer for li...

Shaming of Diya by Anuj Tikku is a work of fiction with an important message to the world which is acting blindly in the garb of Internet technology. Anuj Tikku has been a consistent author since some years, he’s written mostly contemporary adult books and his travel experience around the world. Before coming into authoring books and travel blogging, Anuj was a seasoned actor, with many commercial ads to his name, and also worked with stars like SRK. This is a short book about revenge – that is taken through the power of Internet. As the title suggests, Diya is the character that remains in the backdrop like banter, however, Tanuj is the lead character. In this book, Diya’s ex-boyfriend somehow circulates a porn video on the Internet that goes viral. Diya, though is an actress of erotic industry, doesn’t like it. She files an FIR against Tanuj – her ex-boyfriend. He is taken into custody and prison. A legal battle begins. In the prison, the author takes us to the grim and filthy re...