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Gopal

Gopal

A chronic reader, I started reading books when I was a kid, say around 10. Books have been my best friends since. I picked up the habit from my father, who was my first source of books, he brought me new books and encouraged me to continue to read & expand my horizons.

I have read a lot of books so far and I don't think my collection in... more »
  • Pune/Mumbai, MH, India
  • member since September 29, 2009

Reviews

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Displaying 1-10 of 66 reviews
  • Delhi Durbar (Raisina Trilogy)
    • Rated 4 stars

    “An insight on how Indian politics and politicians operate. The nexus between bureaucrats, politicians, fixers and power brokers is exposed for all to see.

    The books looks at the festering sore of Indian politics, the largest democracy in the world which has established mass corruption as an honest to God profession.

    The saga of Indian politics, the way the fixers can get anything done for a price, be it making the PM's son the President of BCCI or arranging for ex-army Chief current VP of India to take over as President and then trying to instigate a coup.

    This is a story of what Indian politics is and what more can it become.

    Told from the POV of Jasjit Singh Sindhu an ex-investment banker who has taken up his fathers role as a political fixer after his death, the book captures Jasjit's journey across the murky world of Indian politics and babudom, where currency rules supreme; principles and faith espoused by the people on the country's leaders are second to profiteering.

    Verdict: It's worth a read.”

    Gopal wrote this review Sunday, June 24, 2012. ( reply | permalink )
  • DANCE OF GOVINDA: Krishna Coriolis Book 2
    • Rated 5 stars

    “KC #2 continues in the same vein where KC #1 left off. It helps that Ashok has written all the books before hand. It helps in the continuity of the story line without any jarring notes in the telling. ”

    Gopal wrote this review Thursday, May 24, 2012. ( reply | permalink )
  • FLUTE OF VRINDAVAN: Krishna Coriolis Book 3

    FLUTE OF VRINDAVAN: Krishna Coriolis Book 3

    by AKB eBOOKS, Ashok K. Banker
    • Rated 4 stars

    “Ashok Banker continues to rock thru the KC series. He redefines those boundaries of mythology that we have always set store by. An honest and open to interpretation look at Krishna & his antics. Bankers look...”

    Gopal wrote this review Thursday, May 24, 2012. ( reply | permalink )
  • The Best Thing About You Is You!
    • Rated 4 stars

    “It teaches life lessons. Must Read for everybody whos disjointed with life.”

    Gopal wrote this review Tuesday, April 17, 2012. ( reply | permalink )
  • Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves [Hardcover]
    • Rated 5 stars

    “The ULTIMATE HERO is back. Book 5 of the Shane Schofield series (Scarecrow And The Army of Thieves) is bigger, better and deadlier than ever.

    Anarchy... That is the theme in the latest Shane Schofield adventure. Matt Reilly sets this book on the other side of the hemisphere from the Ice Station. Artic Circle - the home to The Dragon an cold war Soviet base which has an atmospheric weapon which when unleashed will cause acid rains on the entire northern hemisphere bringing untold damage to Russia, China, India and the US...

    The Dragon has been taken over by The Army of Thieves a renegade band of fanatics loyal to their leader "Lord of Anarchy". The Army sets the tone for the conflict when it promises to unleash the weapon in 5 hours. Their demand: Nothing. Their objective: Total Anarchy.

    With Russia scrambling to protect the base unleashes a nuke at it inorder to prevent the weapon from being unleashed, the nuke is re-targeted back to it's base by the Army leaving a chilling message, they have the capabilities and resources to withstand any attack. The US President mobilizes any US asset in the area to help prevent this imminent catastrophe.

    The ULTIMATE HERO is then thrown headlong into this chaos, having only Mother, The Kid, Mario, Zack, Emma, Chad and Bertie - the robot for company. Testing weapons for the Marines in the Artic after the repeated assasination attempts by the French DGSE wanting a piece of him for the floating bounty put on his head by the French for his actions in Scarecrow, the "Scarecrow" is dealt with an hand that has seemingly insurmountable odds.

    With the diabolical Lord of Anarchy anticipating the "Scarecrows" every move, thwarting his every action and messing with his head by invoking his past.. Schofield has a tough task at hand.

    The book sets a frenetic pace with the action jump starting from the first page and not letting go till the end. This one is a page turner and a must read for adrenaline junkies”

    Gopal wrote this review Thursday, April 12, 2012. ( reply | permalink )
  • Temple of the Gods
    • Rated 2 stars

    “Well Wilde & Chase are at it again. The Wilde-Chase series started off at Altantis and now has come a full circle with a quest about Atlantian Gods and the mysterious sky stone. Hopefully Andy McDermott will retire the lead characters and let the other mysterious cultural sites breath in relief and peace.

    I can't remember a single quest or adventure of the duo which does not lead to destruction and Wilde is supposed to be archeologist not a bomber for pity's sake.

    As the world monuments undergo carnage at the hands of the duo, we also have evil diabolical villans who always have an upper hand till the final pages and then in a stokes of geniusly deviced stupidity hand it over and get defeated. I mean ya I know the good guys are supposed to win but .... argh... forget it.”

    Gopal wrote this review Thursday, April 12, 2012. ( reply | permalink )
  • Kingdom
    • Rated 2 stars

    “The book caught my interest because it was based on Tibet. A problem prone and intriguing area geo-politically. The combination of Tibet and Shangri-La in 1 book; it was a given that I was gonna pick this one to read.

    I expected something along the lines of adventure cum thriller, but it was a book that was deep in the mysticism, occult, black magic and shamanism. The expose on Shangri-La was much awaited through out the book, but when the characters reach the point we expect them to reach the mystical land all that we find is a third person description of it rather than a first person view point and the story just doesn't work for me.

    It has potential but somewhere in the narrative the author was playing with too many angles, occult, Nazism, Shamanism, Tantric Yoga and what not. As a result the plot was sacrificed and the end is not just upto the par on which the story starts.

    Overall a disappointment.”

    Gopal wrote this review Saturday, April 7, 2012. ( reply | permalink )
  • KRISHNA CORIOLIS#6: Fortress of Dwarka
    • Rated 5 stars

    “Magic. I bow down to Ashok Banker. The sheer scale of visions invoked by his words is nothing short of magic. As a reader I am transported to the events as can see them occurring right in front of my eyes.

    Fortress of Dwarka picks up from where Rage of Jarasandha left us. RoJ saw left us with a half-played chess match between Krishna & Jarasandha where we see Jarasandha trying to trick the brothers (Krishna & Balarama) through the use of vortals.

    Vortals!!!!!!!! They are the best concept which justifies playing with time and still not affecting the timeline.

    The Fortress of Dwarka is a fitting continuation in Krishna Coriolis. Eagerly awaiting the next book in the series.”

    Gopal wrote this review Saturday, April 7, 2012. ( reply | permalink )
  • The Lost Story

    The Lost Story

    by Amit Goyal & Sudhanshu Gupta
    • Rated 2 stars

    “Read this one courtesy of my sister who had purchased the book. I generally do not read books by Indian Authors. Chetan Bhagat has dented my confidence in Indian Authors so badly that I don't dare buy any books written by them with the exception of Amish Tripathi, Ashok Banker and Ashwin Sanghi.

    So the only occasion that I get to read Indian authors is when my sister comes for a visit as she buys Indian authors and digs them as a matter of fact.

    The premise for the plot is good, it is a collaboration effort between two authors who write either the first part or the second part of the story. The condition is that they do not discuss the plot lines or the plot progress with each other. The base story is interspersed with short stories. I must say that short stories are well done in patches.

    There are some stories which are good and intriguing enough to read, but there are also stories which give you an headache. The base plot is a combination of both and leaves you with the hangover.

    The story crosses over so many times that the entire narration appears to be blotched and ruins the plotline IMO.”

    Gopal wrote this review Saturday, April 7, 2012. ( reply | permalink )
  • Atlantis
    • Rated 3 stars

    “Picked up this book by David Gibbins on a lark. Atlantis has always a held my fancy. In fact anything to do with ancient civilizations and I'm a sucker. I picked up the book as the burb looked interesting.

    The plot was really good, but the problem was it got lost in too many technical details. Yes the writer comes from and archeaological background and it shows. A lot of page time is spent on academic and archealogical detail. I have no problems with details but they tend to be too long-winded and often made me lose the plot. I had to go back a few pages and figure out what exactly was happening w.r.t the characters before the technical explaination

    IMO this was unnecessary and took focus away from the story structure. Most of the details that Gibbins spent pages on seemed more like a filler in the story to increase the page count that actually counting for anything in the story.

    What also got my goat was that Atlantis has been lost for so many centuries and suddenly they find 1 clue and viola within a couple of days they have found the island, the people and have deciphered exactly what went wrong that caused the civilization to disappear. It sounded a bit far fetched to me. Also there are a lot holes w.r.t to the characters. Nothing is mentioned about Jack Howard and Costas friendship except that they were in Intelligence together. Also Howard doesn't really show any qualities that should inspire others.

    Mid-way through the story we have a villian coming in with delusions of grandeur. Howard is able to take out the entire group of villians by himself while being shot and bleeding from his wounds makes him look like a Rambo. The book started off as a treasure hunt and from there migrated into the realms of thriller and action/adventure; ultimately doing justice to neither.

    So I would rate it 2.5/5 in general. I'm gonna read the next book in the hopes that the author improves his writing style once he's has some experience.”

    Gopal wrote this review Saturday, April 7, 2012. ( reply | permalink )
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Displaying 1-10 of 66 reviews

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