Tag: book reviews

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The media on my latest novel on Manipal

I’m always both excited and panicked when a new novel is launched. It’s out there, with a lovely cover, and you don’t know if it’ll do good or sink in, if readers would enjoy it or frown while reading. It’s panicky, but then what’s an author’s life without it? Sharing a quick listing of all the lovely interviews, reviews How to Steal a Ghost @ Manipal, an ebook which got published with Juggernaut has received so far. It also stayed in Top of the Charts within the app! Yay!

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INTERVIEWS

“A young student turns into a paranormal investigator to impress her boyfriend.” – Best subhead  found at Asian Age along with a rather lazy, old photo of mine.

asian-age-mumbai-2016-10-19 Continue reading “The media on my latest novel on Manipal”

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Anantya in Business Std, DNA, Telegraph….

Bits more of coverage for Cult of Chaos. Business Standard and DNA ran a preview of my book launch with an interview. DC Books Editors added it into their Editor’s Picks. While this is what Telegraph had to say.

The Telegraph, 5 April

While this was sinking in, She The People, a fabulous website on women achievers, approached me to do an interview.

Female authors in India mostly write about other women and their realistic struggles and you rarely find science fiction novels or  murder-mysteries written by women.  One woman to break the mould, follow her passion (and some of ours) and put some life into science fiction writing is Shweta Taneja, who recently wrote India’s first tantric-detective novel: ‘Cult of Chaos’ with a woman protagonist- Anantya Tantrist.

Read the complete interview here.

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The blog BooksAllAroundMe suggests a method to read Cult of Chaos and Anantya’s journey:

All in all if you have to read the book, the mind needs to be ready to accept the absolutely unexpected. It’ll throw a reader’s mind off gear with it’s charismatic story telling and an even effective story line. The book scores and relies heavily on ideas which might sound old and obsolete but that is where the boldness steps in and creates an aura of dominance and darkness. Everything is in equal measure and the scales of good v/s bad have been tipped to the hilt. It’s not everyday you come across stories out of the blue and this is one wonder which can leave you gasping for breath. It’s a deep dark temptation with it’s own set of secrets ready to pounce and devour the eager minds. A book with winner tagged in its own rights.If spice is what you were missing in your life get the book and traverse one of the most treacherous and over exciting path of tantrism and dark magic. Let chaos descend on earth and rule your hearts. 

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Over at Goodreads, here’s what readers are saying:

“Its a part pot boiler, part feminist, part fantasy and just pure fun.” – Sonali at Goodreads

“Anantya is a revolution in Indian fiction. She’s a tantric, and is pretty unapologetic of everything she does. She has casual sex, smokes beedis, has a foul mouth and a dirty mind too. In which universe would you have imagined that someone like that would be the heroine in an Indian novel? But she’s indeed the prime attraction of this book, you really take this journey along with her (the first-person narrative helping tremendously) and you really root for her. Her fearlessness is something I think will inspire a lot of young girls.” –  Uday at Goodreads

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Okay, off to jumping up and down with glee now. If you’d like to pick up the book, order from Amazon or Flipkart.

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Cult heads to China and reviews

Oh, it’s such a treasure, when someone else posts a photo of Cult of Chaos over at social media, tagging me. And there are so many spaces online for these little delights. The book’s been sighted at various stores in Mumbai and Delhi and I’ve been informed on Whatsapp, Facebook, Twitter and other places. But the best picture ever was this over at Twitter via @hershbhardwaj.

“@ Your book at @ stand in my friend Bob’s hand. Going to China. Had hard time exlpaining what a tantric is. He kept saying black magician.”

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I mean, how cool is this? Anantya’s a desi chick and till now, the book is just published in India (the only way you’ll get a copy out of this country is by opting for one over at Goodreads giveaway). I am hoping that Bob comes back to me and tells me if he could connect to the book at all, if Anantya was fun for him. Would be nice to know that and maybe I could think about other international markets for her.

On another note, I had two great reviews on two different blogs.

B00kr3vie3ws.com

Debdatta, not only came to the book launch and bought a copy (as well as made her blogger friend buy one) but also did this lovely review of it. Isn’t she a treasure?).

“Oh my! This book is a result of an amazingly creative and imaginative mind at work. The blurb of the book and my dismal summarization of it do no justice to the world of Anantya Tantrist. You have to read it to experience it.”

Read the complete blog on her website here.

Fantasy-smorgasbord.blogspot.in

Sachin runs an amazing fantasy book review blog (it’s a great place to find new titles if like me you’re into SFF stuff) so I was so glad when he called it ‘mindboggling’. Here’s a bit of what he wrote.

“Personally, what really excited me about the book was this mad bubbling brew of ideas and imagination that somehow gelled with an urban day-to-day setting (Anantya chugging along the crowded Delhi-Gurgaon highway cursing the traffic, for instance cracked me up like crazy!) and still made me shiver with both fright and anticipation. It’s a refreshing change from the genre as is now popular in India – where Fantasy is only inspired by mythological stories or perhaps a mix of history entwined with Dan Brownesque mystery-thriller format. Shweta goes on to break the mold and doesn’t check her punches – running amok with her imagination to give us a colorful account of a supernatural world juxtaposed against a modern-day Delhi where Apsaras do item numbers, CBI has special sections to deal with crimes of the “sup” nature and Tantriks are over-ground.”

Read the complete blog over at his website.