Format: Paperback
Pages: 221
Publisher: Litizen.com
ISBN: 9788192391700
Price: INR 115
‘Labyrinth‘ is a quick and riveting read. Filled with fifteen short stories on a variety of diverse topics, this book is fun and fast. Each story brings with it a new setting, where each author attempts to portray a different emotion. No two stories are alike and each story leaves you wondering, “What if..”.
The stories in the book deal with a diverse set of topics such as the afterlife, the mysteries of the mind, manipulation and so on. Some of the stories do stary with you, even after you’ve turned the page. And since each story is so short, it can read fast, without getting bored.
‘Sym – World’ by Aditi Chincholi is easily the best story in the book. In the story, the protagonist is stuck in a virtual gaming environment, due to some evil doings and he cannot escape till he has cleared all the levels. The game, by itself uses the person’s mental and physical capacities, forcing many players to quit. The story is brilliantly executed and is a great concept.
‘The Puppet Show’ by Aditi Chincholi is another great story, and talks about subtle manipulations that can be used to hypnotise people. It shows how simple yet complicated an object a brain is, you think you are controlling it, but you can never be sure if the thoughts you are having are your own.
‘Crashing Impacts’ by Richard Fernandes is like an adaption of the movie ‘Lafange Parindey’ starring Deepika Padukone and Neil Nitin Mukesh. ‘Mists of Time’ by Niharika Puri is another Bollywood-ish story, dealing with morals and ethics.
‘The Night of the Wokambee’ and ‘Travel Through the Night’, both by Rishab Chaturvedi are scary stories, which have a great eerie feeling. They set the tone and leave you with goosebumps on your hand.
Each story has an inimitable theme despite it being read about in the past; the beauty of these writings lies in their essence of quality storytelling, eloquence, quirkiness, and depth. Of course, since these are by amateur authors, the stories do have a great scope for improvement. And like all short story books, some stories didn’t quite match up to the others.
But overall, it is a good start, and now the company has released its second book, ‘Carnival’, which is a massive improvement over this. Let’s hope the next books keep recording this improvement.
Overall Rating: 7/10
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1 comment
Rishabh says:
Apr 21, 2014
Thank you Chaarvi for this review. Very nice and objective. I’m happy you mentioned Carnival in the end :). Labyrinth is lighter than Carnival; a little more frothy at places. Thanks again.