Jazeera: Legend of the Fort Island-Yash Pawaskar

Book: Jazeera: Legend of the Fort Island
Author: Yash Pawaskar
Publisher: Amazon Kindle

Do you think that nature has its own mechanism of correcting wrongs perpetrated by man?

Jazeera by Yash Pawaskar is set in the 14^th century BC. The political climate is terse, with the Northern Sultanate moving its capital from Delhi to Daulatabad and back and suffered huge economic losses in this transition. The southern states come together as the Sujaynagar Empire and aim to push back the Sultanate. Amidst this chaos, Jazeera, a fort island on the west coast of the country and a vassal of the Sultanate, is plagued by a mysterious Shadow, who starts kidnapping children from the island. Whispers suggest that there’s black magic at play to invoke the mighty Timingila. Jazeera’s ambitious Sultan and the pragmatic Wazir summon an Officer from the Sultanate to solve this mystery. The island has a haunting past, a turbulent present, and a prophetic future. Jazeera: Legend of the Fort Island unravels it all in a thrilling manner.

The book has an interesting storyline with 2 parallel tracks where we see life on the island as well as the mainland in overlapping chapters. Divided into 3 parts-The present, the past and the present again, the narrative in engaging and makes for a good read. The author has taken inspiration from real locations and as a person who has visited the said inspiration, the images painted by the author are quite vivid and inspired from the local folklore. The plot creates a mystery at first and as the book inches towards the end, the things unravel and wrap the story up with a bow. The one thing that could have been better in the book had we understood the mystery of the room with the mirrors from the beginning as that did not give that shock that it should have probably given.

Coming to the characters, Yash has taken time to create a backstory for each of the central characters. Be it the Wazir, the Queen or the Tyrant ruler of the island, each of them had their reason as to their actions. As the second part of the book begins, we get to know the story behind the current situation and as it progresses, you see the character arc getting established. The scene where the evilness of the king comes out was quite dramatic, yet it set the tone for the rest of the story.

One thing that deserves a mention is the presence of some very great quotes in the book that are quite inspiring and handy.

Overall, the book scores a 4.13/5 from me.

Grab a copy of the book here.