Shaman in the City-Vikas Trivedi & Smita Agarwal

Book: Shaman in the City
Author: Vikas Trivedi & Smita Agarwal
Publisher: Leadstart Publishing

Do you think events of the past an impact on our future?

Shaman in the City by Vikas Trivedi & Smita Agarwal tells us the story of something that goes wrong with a brilliant automobile engineer living in London, on the verge of his project breakthrough. When a family emergency forces Vivaan to visit back to India, he must face his own past, riddled with guilt. Though, that guilt is not the only secret he carries like a burden. Vivaan is also blessed with the power to foretell the future and sense the past - of any object or person by merely a touch. Vivaan makes some interesting friends on his trip to India, leaving his special project in the trust of his friend and colleague - Mahira. Soon, he will learn, that an ominous past is chasing him and a strangely familiar face of a woman in his visions is pointing him towards something - that would throw open heinous secrets of life & death, and liberate Vivaan from his past.

The first thing that strikes you is the length of the book. It is a small read, but the overall impression is that of a well-rounded story. The plot is quite interesting as it intertwines a small aspect of the otherworldly with that of an international thriller that spans countries. The story begins on a nice note and as you initially wonder the reason about that part of the story, the reason comes to light after a short while and that is quite impressive. Another interesting aspect of the story is the focus on the details about the vehicles and that shows the level of detail that the authors went into to craft the story. However, not everything is rosy about the book. The book moves too fast with respect of the content, causing the readers’ interest to waver and wane. Another thing that could have been improved is that while the first part of the book is detailed, the complex second half is a bit rushed and leaves quite a few loose ends.

Coming to the characters, I liked how the character of Vivaan is designed. The focus is on his love for automobiles and his zeal for them. His special ability could have been a nice touch, but while we see it on and off, and is a critical part of the story, I would have loved to see a bit of a backstory about it and how it came into being. The antagonist was another interesting character and I liked how it pans out in the end. Mahira’s character was a nice study and if the authors decide to come up with a sequel, I would love to see a bit more of Mahira and her story,

Overall, this is a nice book and a quick read. The book scores a 4/5 for me.

A copy of the book was provided to me in exchange for an honest review.

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