Demons of Time by Varun Sayal (Book Review- 4*/5) !!!

There are not many books which are written in a fantasy world which really impresses the reader. It takes a lot of back-end work for the author to ensure that the world he creates is not only easier for him to understand but also makes the journey of his readers entertaining and thrilling. Varun Sayal has done the same with his first book in the Time Travelers series named “Demons of Time”. The book also has the tagline of “Race to the 7^th Sunset” which is actually based on the theme of the story. Whenever Time traveling becomes the core of any story, it becomes very difficult for the readers to maintain timelines and understand the aspect of each and every world that the author creates with his imagination.

This book begins from 3077 BC and is written in quite relevance to India with even the characters’ names based on Indian culture and tradition which makes you feel at ease as soon as you start reading the book. The cover-page does make it look quite Western but the book reflects complete Indian-ness and makes you excited for how author is going to show India and World in the future years. Author has played a wonderful game (in a good sense 😉) by traveling the characters from 3077 BC to at most 2024 which for us is just within a decade kind of future from today. This makes it more exciting to know how these old Sanskrit-based characters are going to play their part in this technologically advanced world.

Another thing which author has taken care is to keep as less characters as possible so that readers can easily go through the story without finding it hard to go back and remember which character they had missed among ample of them. The important characters such as the protagonist Tej, Rigu, Kumbh, Vetri, Manika, Gajendra are very well developed as you can actually understand their mindset and character. Even the other small and supporting characters are nicely described.

The kind of twists and turns that takes place in the first half of the book when Tej is told about his own reality and the way he needs to go to future to save a mass killing gives the book a powerful start. Then the way in the future, the character of Ravi is utilized for Tej’s campaign is what gives this book an acceleration in the second half. His conversations with the intelligence department, colleagues etc. are very entertaining and the way he uses his mind in this new environment and the way he learns the new technology etc. is nice to read and go through the journey of a character along with the time leap. Another thing I would like to mention is that the whole journey of time traveling right from preparation to getting to the target is of just 7 days but still the steadiness in the story-telling speaks a lot about the writing skills of the writer.

The author ensures that he gives reasons and logics to everything he is talking about but also takes care that he doesn’t become too technical to make it hard for readers to comprehend why the certain activities are taking place. The explanation of physical concepts is done in a very easy language which makes this book one of the recommended books if you want to get into other tough books from the same genre. I liked the narration of the story as author choses to talk about everything in equal quantity- hate, love, betrayal, magic, physics, emotions, happiness, sorrow, anger, time-traveling events, relationships, etc. The book before ending throws another twist with an edge of emotion to it which makes us excited for the 2^nd book in the Time Travelers series. I wish author keeps all the upcoming books in the similar pattern- simple yet thrilling. I give this book 4 star out of 5.

Thanks.

ABHILASH RUHELA