Novel: The World’s Oldest, Most Powerful Secret Society
Author: Anand Arungundram Mohan
Genre: Fantasy Fiction, Thriller, Children Literature
Publication Details: 2AM Can-Indian Publisher, January 28, 2020
Pages: 139

Anand Arungundram Mohan’s novel The World’s Oldest, Most Powerful Secret Society is a recent breakthrough in the fantasy fiction genre. This novel extrapolates the possibilities of a superb fiction within fantasy genre to a new level and tries best to fuse the present circumstances with a mythological fancy (based on historical events) that it creates. Readers will agree that this novel reads more or less like a smooth visual movie which has a beginning, a zenith and an end. It has been prepared in a way that it connects with the readers of the day very easily. The storyline releases from the past and ends on a possibility of something to happen in the near future. The theme is friendship and also a secret society in making that would continue in the next works by Anand Arungundram Mohan.

The World’s Oldest, Most Powerful Secret Society takes off very surprisingly at the battleground of Kalinga. Though it is not a surprise that the novel takes us into the past, it is indeed surprising that the novel brings in Ashoka. Thereafter, winning the battle does not suffice Ashoka’s conscience and he is baffled and rattled by the destruction that war brings to the world. And therefore, not only he decides to quit battling and widening the boundaries of his kingdom but also decides to found a secret society of 9 exceptionally talented men who would take out research and collect information, scripts and knowledge to make many improbable things possible. Time travelling and flying vehicles were the main attractions which rather countersigns the technologies to make possible anti-gravity theory and relativity to an advanced level. This twist to history to create a surface for fantasy fiction makes things wonderful in the novel.

The story in the present begins in Hyderabad when 9 children are born the same day. These children grow up together as they live in the same society. There is strong friendship among these 9 and Leela, one of the children, names this group The Nifty Nine as she is a little aware, fond of music and keeps a stock of things happening around her. The author connects these stories only later because the shift is a little abrupt from the past to the present. However, once the present-day tale begins, readers must feel absorbed in it completely. Events go normal and one day everything changes with the death of one of the 9 friends, Gopal. Ram, being the eldest, tries to pacify all his friends but Leela continues to believe that she can still get Gopal back from the dead because someone she met at the hospital told her about a book that can do that… now, what’s the catch here? Is that the same book Ashoka’s secret society prepared? I won’t reveal. Will this book Leela talks about to bring back Gopal? I won’t reveal that as well. What will these children do? How do these children reach Pakistan? There is a hell lot of fun in this book and I am sure that the kids, teenagers and even elders will love reading the explorations and ventures of the kids once they taste powers, magic and exciting secrets…

The novel has been a very wonderful experience for me. I am sure it has many things to offer to the readers of different sections. It can offer joy to the kids and it can offer some excitement to the teenagers. Moreover, for the elders who wish to look for Indianness or an Indian inspiration in the works they read by Indian authors, there is plenty in this book. Anand Arungundram Mohan’s novel will impress the readers, I am sure about that. He has kept his story clean and his narrative very simple. Though there are the things that he could further develop, the novel is in a better position even the way it is right now. You can get a copy from Amazon India and read the novel right now in Kindle format. Click the link given below to buy:

Buy the novel – click here to buy it from Amazon India

Review by Kundan for Ashvamegh