Book Review : A Flight of Broken Wings

A Flight of Broken Wings {Author Goodreads Link : Nupur Chowdhury}  is a Fantasy based theme, a book on an imaginary land. And, let me state at the outset : this is one of the best I have read in this category. I am simply blown away by the author’s imagination, its vividity, its clarity and its incredible newness. Rare is the book indeed that stands out alone, all by itself, without equal. And this book comes very close to it. It is hard to recall many books in the Indian fantasy fiction world that are in its class. Simply superb : easily a must read, rated 5 stars!

THE BOOK

The book creates a complete imaginary planet, an imaginery people with imaginary names and cultures, a true potpourri of newness. This is a story of two people – one mortal, the other immortal. This is the story of two planets, with one apparently ruled over by the other until the ruled got their independence. This is a story of how 600 years after independence, the mortal beings are still threatened by the immortals, and of their struggle against them to survive and remain free from harm.

The Mortals are Humans; the immortals are the Ariels, who are immortal, require no food – subsist on a world where they feed of sunshine, who can fly, who have wings and who have the ability to use as well as mould energy. These people, immortal, with strong internalized weaponisable qualities like energy blasts and fireballs, against the mortal Humans in what appears to be a fight for earth. The twist in the tale – Aerials aren’t actually bad; just a faction banished from their world  is bad. And these bad immortals plan to attack  their home planet – Vaan. Enter Earth and its role.

Vaan has no designs on Earth; but the Humans, belaboring in their belief of Vaan being evil, focus on developing weapons that can beat these immortals, and at that, they succeed. The Evil forces see how they can get an advantage over Vaan {Aerial Homeland}, use human help to beat the good forces of Vaan. One problem – they haven’t exactly informed the Humans of their fate in all this, persisting in attacking humans thereby keeping the distrust between Earth and Vaan alive.

Vaan is left with no choice but to send a spy to Earth, as a Human; and for that – they choose the younger brother of their queen, who is also the head of their forces. His task : infiltrate Earth, strike a friendship, and see no harm comes to either Earth or Vaan. Quite a tall order, given that Immortals are attacked on site on Earth, and that the immortals have silver feathers, silver eyes and are exceptionally strong and unique beings. This book is the story of this spy, as he successfully befriends a top Hunter {Key person in Earth Defences} and goes about helping Earth overcome the Evil Aerials. But when the opposing force is super-strong,immortal,can fly, and has internal weapons – the fight wont be easy…

THE ANALYSIS

That above is the longest summary I have written for the book; that should give the reader a good idea as to the complexity and pull of the story. The story and plot are near flawless, and extremely well thought-out. The story flows smoothly, without a hitch or a false turn anywhere, through innumerable twists and turns, yet keeping its integrity to the overall theme, which was brilliant. The characterization was excellent, and just right with well developed characters. Given  that we are dealing with an imaginary land and people, getting this right cant have been easy, as you have no ideals / thumbrules / stereotypes to go by. Sheer class,achieving this. And to top it all, the characters were people you will fall in love with - as much as the lands  / planets it described! Kudos!

The story pace is hectic; the plot flows smoothly and flawlessly at a relentless pace. The best part is though you are well aware of each persons real intent, the suspense and the pull remains intact, through clever use of emotions, story twists, and the pressure of seeing two enemies work together, wondering always, will one abandon the other? This is what succeeds in keeping you glued to the story. Best of all, the book is clean and clear, and can be read by all ages who can read flowing text.  This is rare book indeed, and I look forward to other books in this series. Rated 5 stars out of 5! My only suggestion : The cover design needs to be far more colorful and vivid, so that it can match the vividity of the story it contains!