The Curse of Kukkutarma - Prateep Roy

Author: Prateep Roy

Genre: Historical Fiction, Science Fiction.

Rating: 2 stars.

In a Nutshell: The story was unusual and quite imaginative but the writing style left me wanting more. In a strange paradox, the knowledge as well as the inexperience of the author is clearly visible.

Story:

1911, Calcutta, India. 10 year old Opamanyu (lovingly called Opu), a prodigy in studies, is sent to England after his intelligence is recognised. Opu’s dream is to create a time machine that goes into the past, as he wants to meet one of the characters in the Mahabharata. When he is in his twenties, he succeeds in making such a machine with his Brit girlfriend Isla. But his first journey ends up landing him a century in the future than in the past. With the help of a local scientist, Opu ends up rectifying his timetravel machine (named “Atitayan”). The next time travel trip is undertaken by the scientist’s sister, an anthropologist named Tanya who has keen interest in the Indus valley civilisation of about 2500 BCE. The rest of the story is divided across these three timelines – the past of the Indus valley, the recent past of 1911, and the present.

Where the book worked for me:

✔ The uniqueness of the plot. A blend of sci-fi and historical fiction is a very ambitious and imaginative idea.

✔ This is the first time I'm reading anything about the Indus valley civilization in fiction. (There was the Hrithik Roshan movie on this but I'll pretend that doesn't exist. 😀)

✔ The author’s knowledge and his research (he has been an anthropologist and researcher for three decades) comes through very well. Right from the introductory glossary of the sites in the Indus valley civilisation, he shows his grasp over the topic.

✔ I appreciate how he gave a prominent role to men and women in the story, regardless of the constraints of the time period. Historical fiction is quite woman-biased at times, and sci-fi is more male-oriented. But there’s no such bias in this book.

✔ I enjoyed the realistic insertion of historical figures in this fictional narrative- popular figures such as Jagdish Chandra Bose, H G Wells as well as not so known names such as Frank Wilfred Jordan.

Where the book could have worked better for me:

❌ For the most part, the book is either historical fiction or science fiction. Only towards the end do the two genres combine. The problem is, historical fiction readers and sci-fi readers are, very often, in two distinct reader groups. So with such a demarcation between the genres, the book will end up boring/disappointing those readers who prefer either genre but not both.

❌ In some scenes, there was too much info dumping on science and history. This takes away from the plot flow. Facts work better if woven naturally into the narrative than being presented as standalone ideas.

❌ The writing to put it very bluntly, needed a lot of crisp editing. It was overly descriptive, there is a fair bit of telling rather than showing, there are abrupt scene changes, a fair amount of repetition, needless inner monologues, word usage errors and even an inconsistency in the spelling of the main character’s name. There are also character inconsistencies, anachronisms, and time travel loopholes. (Now I know the idea of time travel is nothing but the author’s imagination. So I never look at it technically or scientifically. But some errors were glaring.)

❌ I couldn't digest the insta romance between Opu and Tanya. He was so involved with Isla over many years and he suddenly gets attracted to this modern girl with no rhyme or reason. Similarly, Tanya falls for Opu but during her travels, she succumbs equally quickly to Abhija’s charms. The romance element in the book was disappointing (and also, unnecessary.)

❌ This comes from my personal preference. I hate scenes that border on animal cruelty. So one particular scene with a horse made me gag.

❌ There are three broad timelines in the story. However, a major part of the book goes only one timeline at a time. It is only towards the final quarter that the timelines start alternating. I think it would have been better to show some glimpses of Isla’s uncertainty and despair over the time period when Opu was missing rather than suddenly shifting to her in chapter 20.

I guess you can see why the writing brought my rating of the book down. Most of my feedback boils down to editorial problems. So maybe a different/better editor for the next book in the series?

All in all, this could have been a path-breaking story but because of the inexperience of the writer, it ended up dissatisfying me.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author and these are my honest thoughts about it.