A War Without Shadows

Book Review

Title: The Himadripuram Aventure – The Saga Continues

Author: Sitharaam Jayakumar

Publisher: Amazon Kindle

Pages: 169

 

A tale of rival kingdoms, war, and the eventual triumph of good over evil carries the weight of an ancient narrative tradition. The theme and setting of Sitharaam Jayakumar’s sequel to his earlier Himadripuram novella (which I reviewed in this space) belong to the realms of epics and myths.

In the first of these two novellas, a coup attempt against the King of Himadripuram is foiled and the putschists escape to the neighbouring kingdom of Dasarathapuram. This sequel shows how Adityaveer, the tyrannical king of Dasarathapuram, wants to subdue Himdadripuram using a new technology that can create submarines. But the plot is unfolding in an ancient time when the world hadn’t even imagined a submarine.

There is an ascetic scientist, Deva Kalpa, in Himadripuram who knows the submarine technology. Dasarathapuram decides to kidnap Deva Kalpa as well as his family. Torturing the family is the only way of persuading Deva Kalpa to betray his own country and help the enemy country with his technology.

Jayakumar builds an intricate plot which relies on the familiar tropes of two nondescript kingdoms, a binary moral universe of good versus evil, and the predictable arc of conflict – struggle – triumph. The narrative leans heavily on inherited patterns of storytelling, where moral clarity replaces moral complexity, which in turn tends to make both the characters and actions belong to children’s fairy tales.

Simplicity is a quintessential quality of all of Sitharaam Jayakumar’s writing with which I have been familiar for years. Simplicity is a great strength too in writing. However, it can teeter on the edge of thinness unless the writer takes extreme care.

A straightforward and traditional plot is not, in itself, a weakness. Some of the most enduring narratives are structurally simple with their clear conflict, moral trajectory, and an inevitable resolution. But, at the same time, that simplicity creates a symbolic weight (with complex characters), moral resonance (the plot bringing insights rather than incidents), and emotional clarity. Jayakumar’s narrative does strive to scale such heights but stops short mostly at the consolations of predictability.  

Jayakumar’s expertise in dealing with palace politics is commendable in many of his works which blend fantasy and suspense skilfully. But, like in its predecessor, this novella too labours under the weight of too many characters not doing enough of what they should be in a work of literature. The good is not clearly good and evil clearly evil in the human world whose conflicts have too many intricate shadows. 

The advantage of such a work is that if it does not challenge the reader deeply, it at least welcomes them easily. Its clarity and narrative momentum make it an eminently accessible read. Beneath their familiar structure, Jai’s (as his friends including me call him) works display a sincere attempt to tell a story of loyalty, conflict, and the triumph of good – an intention that lends the works a certain earnest charm.

   

Buy your copy of the book here.