The Prophecy of Trivine by Tnahsin Garg, Srivatsan Sridharan, Pulkit Gupta

While on one hand the Indian Market is being flooded by formula stuff – Lust stories, campus stories, love on campus stories… and scaring me off from checking out the Indian Fiction section in bookstores, few new generation authors are slowly starting to step out of the crowd. When I was approached by Tnahsin Garg to read and review this book, I promptly accepted even though I am not a big fan of sci-fi books. I read them and like quite a few of them, but usually pick up the ones that come heavily recommended by friends. I made an exception with this book because I feel that I am ready to read variety in Indian fiction – irrespective of the genre.

The Prophecy of Trivine, is a sci-fi novel that follows the story of three humans men and an alien lady. When Xona, an emissary of an alien race, lands on Earth with one goal she had no idea what was waiting for her. Phil is a temperamental hacker who is on the most wanted list. Siv is a very dedicated research scientist and Arty is an artist who loves art and literature. Little do they know that they were the only hope that mankind ever had…

Alien race and prophecies – they are so different concepts for me. I am yet to read a single book that brings these two popular ingredients of sci-fi and fantasy together and as such it was the first thing about this book that caught my attention. Also, the authors have so expertly put in their work to highlight various aspects of human emotion that ranges from love to hatred, from empathy to selfishness and compassion to greed. The book forces us to think and consider a lot of aspects of our lives.

The characters are beautifully created and well developed. There are so many shades of humanity (and alienity – if that’s even a word!) have been painted in through a handful number of characters. Also, the narration is so seamless and compelling. This book also clearly highlights the creativity of these three authors who have built a amazing adventure world for us readers.

Special Kudos to the three dynamic authors for taking a step towards sci-fi genre and standing out of the crowd that churns out average quality work and yet become top-sellers. This is certainly a page turner and I hope they do sell a lot of books so as to encourage more youngsters to take the creative road instead of following the formula way. I will be looking forward to the sequel/s.