Book Review: Chronux by Sagar Kamath

Chronux
Author: Sagar Kamath
Publisher: Become Shakespeare
Rating: 3/5

You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.
~Marcus Aurelius

The quest to obtain power and become immortal has been a part of many mythological and fictional stories. Without such a theme, the stories would fail to match the standards. ‘Chronux’ is based on a similar concept where the hunger for power rules the major part of the story.

The story traces the journey of ‘Time’, a concept or reality, we don’t know. All that we know is that it is not only powerful but also unconquerable. When the small village of Aruhu, situated in the valley of Himalayas, witnesses the great transformation owing to the teaching and preaching of a stranger with a gem/ Chronux, it basks in the glory of happiness. It is only when the stranger disappears suddenly, leaving behind the ‘Chronux’, they smell something fishy. The episodes change and the Nazi’s attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki is what catches our eye. The author doesn’t fail to remind us what is constant all throughout, is time. It has been there all the ‘time’.

Through the pages of the book, the secrets are revealed and the long-lost knowledge redolent of history is refreshed.

With a dark, gloomy but powerful cover, this book presents intense imagery and thought-provoking title. The blurb is puzzling as the plotline is quite different from what the blurb makes the readers expect. The title of the book is perfect- suiting the theme in all respect.

The organization is fine but somehow the inclusion of various timelines failed to leave a lasting impact on me. The ancillary details about a particular scene/ place and a character acted as a turn-off. The author could have played intelligently with the minds of the readers by cutting down the descriptives and instead including the dialogues, but that is amiss. What greets one’s eye is extended monologue and a series of exclamations! The inter-connection between most timelines is missing and the reader might be left wondering.

The font of the text doesn’t match with the standard ‘Book Antiqua’. The blurb has a grammatical glitch. There is no doubt in the fact that extensive research has been done by the author and kudos to his experience that he could blend all the information so well. But I felt that the redundancy of the content could have been cut down and the thickness of the book could have been worked upon.

The major drawback is editing. Most of the paragraphs (I really mean it) end with an exclamation mark even though there is nothing to express in the last line.

Buying Link: Amazon