Hello Friends!
How’s you Sunday going? Had any cake? Did any reading? How’s the weather? I hade some cake, done some reading and the weather is quite good so far. It’s been a great Sunday so far and I hope you are all having a great Sunday too.
I’ve received a eCopy of “Time Crawlers” from the author, Varun Sayal, in exchange for my honest review. Thank you, Varun!
If you don’t know the book, here are some information about it before I give you my review.
Blurb
Billions of universes run slightly parallel to our own universe; worlds full of infinite possibilities. There are many humans living in those parallel worlds, leading their lives, in a very similar way to how we are leading ours. But their respective realities differ from ours in some very peculiar ways.
Inhabitants of some worlds have already been visited and are being ruled by aliens. Some traveled through time, back and forth, and some have taken their space exploration to advanced stages using their powerful spaceships. Some created ruthless artificial intelligences that are fulfilling dark, human desires. Some developed advanced weapons technologies thousands of years before we did.
I believe a writer’s brain can somehow tap into this multitude of universes and take a peek into the events happening in each of them. This book, comprised of six stories, is my attempt to narrate to you tales from six different parallel universes. These stories are events that my brain somehow tapped into and captured in detail.
Let me know if your unconscious mind visited the same universes as mine.
Eclipse
No attacks, no blood-shed, yet there was an invasion and a conquest. Who are these shape-shifting aliens being hounded by an eclipse?
Death by Crowd
The dark desires of the masses; darknet websites fueled by a crypto-currency. What lurks in the background – an advanced artificial intelligence?
Genie
He rubbed a lamp alright, but what he got was the shock of his life. An entirely sci-fi take on the djinn myth.
Time Crawlers
There are individuals who existing in multiple time periods at once, and there are those who know about them….
The Cave
The fate of an advanced imperial race hangs in balance as a dark celestial entity meets a legendary protector.
Nark-astra, The Hell Weapon
The weapons he possesses make him the destroyer of worlds, and he burns for revenge. A high-tech take on ancient Indian mythology.
Don’t forget to follow Varun on his accounts on:
Goodreads | Twitter | Amazon | Facebook
My Review
Most people may know that I can’t resist a short story. I write them sometimes, even translate it to English. So when I got Varun’s email about his book, and I saw that it was a collection of short stories in the sci-fi genre, or as Varun put it “Alien Invasion, Dark Artificial Intelligence, Time-Travel, High-Tech Hindu Mythology, Djinn Folklore, Telekinetics and life-consuming Cosmic Entities are the themes“, I had to give it a shot and read it.
I could give my review for each story, but let me talk in general, because I feel like you should enjoy each short story without my words in your head. Over all, I was not disappointed.
I quite liked the take on some Mythology and Folklore. Sometimes it’s gets tiring to see the same concepts in books, but Varun’s book was definitely refreshing. Even though it’s a sci-fi book, and the stories happen in the future, the characters still maintained their realism, which makes it possible to connect with them and makes us wonder if some of those events that happen in the short stories will happen in real life.
And like any good short story, it left you wanting to read more, story after story, until we had finish the book. From Aliens, A.I., to a Genie and the lamp, and conspiracy theories of course. You get subjects and ideas in the stories that makes you wonder about our present and what may exist or happen in the future. And, personally, I love when a book makes me wonder about the world.
Time Crawlers was my favorite. I know… that’s the short story that gave the book it’s name. But seriously the concept of that story made me think about life, past, present and future and I just loved that.
Each story not only has it’s on plot, setting and characters… it also has it’s own writing tone. And I liked that too. It gave each short story a spotlight and made it stand out from the others.
If you like short stories and want to got on a sci-fi journey, I recommend this book.
Don’t forget to comment, don’t be stranger. If you have any book recommendation you can leave a message using the form on my Contact Me page.
If you are an author and want me to do a review of your book you can go check out my Request Review page.
I always welcome new books to add to my list and I’m always excited to do reviews and read books.
Love,
Jess
Jess Bookish Life 