The Signet Ring-Kapil Dabur

Book: The Signet Ring
Author: Kapil Dabur
Publisher: Leadstart Publishing

Do you believe in the concept of immortal beings, or chiranjeevis?

The Signet Ring by Kapil Dabur is a story about a brotherhood that strives to avenge the injustice meted to it eons ago by Lord Vishnu. With the story set in present times, it chronicles the journey of its two lead characters-Jupiter and Kartik as they set out to uncover the secret the Lord tried to hide ages ago. Blending present with History and Mythology, the book travels from prehistoric times through mythology, mixing it with technology, mythology and devotion as it tries to uncover the biggest treasure known to Mankind.

The Signet Ring is a book with an interesting twist in the manner in which it is told. Being a story that has elements of mystery, mythology and fiction, it was a good read that explored a different dimension of the Indian mythological stories about the avatars of Lord Vishnu. The plot was crisp and mature that would engage the reader and compel him to turn the page. The element of surprise was present multiple times in the story and the author has used some really interesting historical factoids to make the plot seem plausible. While the plot was great, the book suffers with some issues. The first being the time and location confusion as we see the story unfolding in multiple parts of the world but yet the characters manage to travel to Indian locales quickly. This could have been improved by mentioning the location of the chapter before it began. Second was the time inconsistency as the story spans a long time, but the exact passage of time is not understood at many locations. I really hope that a revision is done in the subsequent editions so that such a great story gets its due. The climax was good that tied the entire story up.

Coming to the characters, I loved the manner in which the antagonist of the book was shown to be slightly powerful than the protagonist, at least just before the end. The background stories of the characters tied up to the mythological equivalents was great. I expected a bit more story behind that of Dr. Indira and Mahesh as they were shown to be quite critical, but that harms the current storyline in no manner.

The book scores a 3.25/5 for me.

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