The Simoqin Prophecies

Packed with references both to Western texts I recognized (Robin Hood, Arthurian legend, even some Harry Potter) and to Asian ones I largely didn’t, this book tells the story of the chosen one destined to stop the rise of the Dark One, who is going to return to life after his previous defeat. Or are there two chosen ones? It’s all a bit unclear and knowing. It wasn’t the right tone for me but if you like send-ups of chosen one narratives it might be pleasant.

Meh. Not bad, but not as funny or epic as it thinks it is, the two rarely work well together and this is another example of them failing. As usual with such attempts it's too over the top, too many characters, too many concepts too many races with little distinguishing them.

Some sort of demony like things, and some sort of super-human used to live in the world with the lesser races mre or less aligned as best they could. Then the super-humans left somewhere else, the demons and dragons all vanished and the background level of magic decreased. Now the date for the prophecy as come around, the ancient evil is due to be re-born and the hero will rise to meet him. Fortunetly various city leaders have this all worked out, and an appropriate show more prince is shanghei'd into fulfilling the conditions and quickly trained to appropriate Heroic standards, along with the usual bunch of sidekicks each with their own capabilities. The silly names proliferate, but it's pretty clear who each character is. The main bad-guy is some kind of ape-race but many of the others aren't so clearly described, I never did get a grasp on the asur, let alone their factions. There's a lot of attempts at 'cleverness' thinking through the background, but ti's all throwaway lines, and doesn't have the same effect as in pTerry's work, although there are similarities.

Finally it is too long, Humour needs to be pointed, and once made start anew, this just drags on, but does at least come to an ending eventually. Apparently there are more in the series, but I won't be reading them. show less

One of the finest trilogies of all time. Yup you read that right. Of all time. Never have been as enamoured of a book as I have been of a gameworld trilogy. A true delight of a read. So many references that you still pick them up after reading the book 5 times. Read this at all costs.
http://blog.kaipakartik.com/2010/04/samit-basu-and-gameworld-trilogy.html

An interesting potpourri of oriental and occidental fantasies. I almost quit reading after the prologue; but I am happy that I continued.

A tongue in cheek ride through (mainly indian) mythology, history and culture.

Can't wait to read books 2 and 3.