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Ajakava: An alternate history fantasy of Indian mythology
When yet another wave of colonizing Felters arrives to strengthen their fortress on the forest's edge, Velu, an indigenous hunter, knows they bring only pain and death. But with them arrives an intriguing older woman who hunts legends.
When Velu learns the woman, Lady Greyback, shares his terrifying visions of the ancient scorpion god, Ajakava, she invites him to research what they mean. But the Felters grow hostile, blaming Velu and the other hunters for deaths in a doomed expedition through the forest. Meanwhile, the visions become ever more persistent, hinting the god is awakening.
When a second Felter expedition seeks to extend their reach to the capital beyond the forest, only Velu and Lady Greyback know they will walk straight into Ajakava's clutches. While the lady sees new destruction, Velu sees memories of a long-forgotten massacre. What vengeance does the old god have in store, and for whom?
Find out what happens in Ajakava by Chaitanya Murali
When Velu learns the woman, Lady Greyback, shares his terrifying visions of the ancient scorpion god, Ajakava, she invites him to research what they mean. But the Felters grow hostile, blaming Velu and the other hunters for deaths in a doomed expedition through the forest. Meanwhile, the visions become ever more persistent, hinting the god is awakening.
When a second Felter expedition seeks to extend their reach to the capital beyond the forest, only Velu and Lady Greyback know they will walk straight into Ajakava's clutches. While the lady sees new destruction, Velu sees memories of a long-forgotten massacre. What vengeance does the old god have in store, and for whom?
Find out what happens in Ajakava by Chaitanya Murali
104 pages, Paperback
Published September 5, 2023
2 people are currently reading
12 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 6, 2024
Note:
All of these are my opinions and if you get butt hurt, you didn't read this note apparently.
Yes, I can rate books and have opinions however I want. What a sting!
Scroll to where you want this review is your big, I'm not your mentor
Better to read the review here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comm...
_________________________________________
Spoiler-Free Summary:
Felters have invaded Velu's land to claim a stake into an "unchartered" country. Meanwhile, Velu sees one of the newest settlers has a hunter's gaze in her eyes.
He gets to know her and from there, we scrape at a layer of Velu's world that we wonder...should we have left it in the past?
And what do the voices in his head mean?
_________________________________________
Characters and Terms:
Felter - A group of colonizers that have been conquering lands
Velu - The MC of our story, hunts with his sister, Bhavani, for a living.
Bhavani - Velu's sister
Lady Greyback - Newest colonizer occupier to Velu's land. Has a flitting look in her eyes...
_________________________________________
Real Thoughts:
Something we don't see in novellas is Indian fantasy and it's nice to see our culture slowly branching out of the waters of YA books into other territories.
I was lucky enough to snag a copy for free during the Indie Book Sale a few months back and found this novella. I can't say I liked the cover, but something about it...drew me in.
Why is the guy half naked?
Why is there an obachan that looks like she's gonna smack him?
And why is there a scorpion in the background??
I nearly put it aside after the sale, until the blurb spoke to me (even though it spoiled the whole story but that's another topic...)
Still, I'm glad I read it in the end! Murali threw in a few plot twists that even I, the pessimistic reader and wannabe writer, didn't see coming, and once the 50% mark hits, the ball rolls.
Ajakava is not too ambitious but just daring enough to be enjoyable to see where our protaganist, Velu, ends up.
Murali has somewhat of a debut problem, however, that he tells us more than shows with his writing, but somehow, changes that in the last part of the novella.
Other than that, if you like going into a person's head and their relationship with people, you'll probably like this novella. The fantasy aspect is woven into the story and then gets more apparant as time goes on.
It's a very short read, 104 pages, so there's not a lot of time commitment, unlike some other novellas which past the 150 page territory that make me consider that my family needs to schedule time with me to listen about POR vs FRA.
_________________________________________
Cover:
Yeah, I'm not gonna lie, I'm not a fan of this cover.
It's not the fact the dude is half naked, sure I question it, but the focus of the cover is not exactly the best.
There's 3 things in this cover that clash with each other. For simplicity sakes for a debut cover, 2 would do a better job. Dude and scorpion, skip the obachan, and you would have been solid.
Yes, he can even still be half naked and it would have been fine!
_________________________________________
Prose:
The writing "tells" a lot more than "shows", but it's not a BAD prose. I've read bad prose, this is not it, but as he grows as a writer, I think he might solve this.
_________________________________________
Pacing:
Slow until the 50% where we really start rolling my dosa-inflated body to the finish line (I'm back home for summer, LET ME BE)
_________________________________________
Plot:
Without spoilers, the plot is intriguing as we don't know why this lady has a hunter's gaze, searching her surroundings even though she just got off the boat, and why the guy hears voices in his head and how this all connects.
If you read the blurb on Amazon, you will get spoiled pretty fast, so take my spoiler-free blurb and just go with it head empty.
_________________________________________
Characters:
While they all are pretty 2D, you at least get a sniff of a multilayer in certain characters that they don't feel 100% a character trope.
For instance, Bhavani is the sister of Velu in this story, and she tends to have a stick up her butt, but does care about her brother even when she knows he's being a little too trusting to the Felters.
Velu- OK wait, he's pretty 2D, I'm not gonna lie, but Lady Greyback has some depth to her.
Anyway, you get to see Velu's thought process even though he's a bit vanilla, but he becomes the vessel for this fantasy story.
Basically, what I'm trying to say is... I'm not an expert novella character depth analyzer, but I'll get there-!
jfc that's a title
_________________________________________
Vibe:
Imagine someone colonizing India and people are being butts to the people who were born there. That's pretty much the vibe
_________________________________________
Worldbuilding:
We don't see much of the worldbuilding, but it comes to us in piecemeal. Without spoilers, you understand why this is fantasy after the 50% mark.
I like a novella as much as the next person, but sometimes I do wish novellas put us in the vibe and worldbuilding more. "The Deep" has the same problem but I understand why they do that for wordcount and pagecount sake, but damn, I need a crumb sometimes.
_________________________________________
All in all, I still enjoyed myself reading it, even though the cover is not the greatest (if it was me, I would have focused on one character or two, three seems distracting), this novella was a nice opening to my eyes that we can publish in different sectors.
Keep it up, dude, do more showing than telling and you have the potential of being a greater writer!
_________________________________________
Who should read this?
Read if you want a different spice to your novellas and want to diversify more.
You also like having darkness injected in your veins as not many happy feelings are found here.
Personal Rating:
4/5
A personal update:
I never really gave an announcement but thought to be clear, I've been MIA due to: (TW: Medical Diagnosis & Mental Health)
I was diagnosed with Thoracic Outlet Syndrome (TOS) a year or so back, but however, my symptoms do not align the traditional nature of this illness. I have a weird Carpal Tunnel that's it not Carpal. I have arthritis that is not exactly arthritis...so you can imagine how frustrating it to try to write....As such, my writing ability has tanked since the beginning of this year, however, I've been trying to retrain my hands to write and doing it mostly by trying to write my books...TBA when the fuck that gets published. Anyway, my mental health had tanked so I've been trying to take care of myself as much as I can. None of what I'm doing puts food on the table so I do these when I have energy....which is today apparently (The answer to the 1st cover is from bottom to top: Social anxiety (that's literally my resting bitch face look tbh), depression, and PTSD)
The reason I'm saying this as I said in the Raven Tower review, I was thinking of doing reviews once a month but never delivered so wanted to explain why, hence the spoiler tag and obviously there's triggers.
I do miss doing these and starting to believe maybe I can use that as writing practice once in awhile so I might kickstart this again. Sincerely, I hope you are doing way better than I am! Please be kind to each other!
-LadyElfriede
All of these are my opinions and if you get butt hurt, you didn't read this note apparently.
Yes, I can rate books and have opinions however I want. What a sting!
Scroll to where you want this review is your big, I'm not your mentor
Better to read the review here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comm...
_________________________________________
Spoiler-Free Summary:
Felters have invaded Velu's land to claim a stake into an "unchartered" country. Meanwhile, Velu sees one of the newest settlers has a hunter's gaze in her eyes.
He gets to know her and from there, we scrape at a layer of Velu's world that we wonder...should we have left it in the past?
And what do the voices in his head mean?
_________________________________________
Characters and Terms:
Felter - A group of colonizers that have been conquering lands
Velu - The MC of our story, hunts with his sister, Bhavani, for a living.
Bhavani - Velu's sister
Lady Greyback - Newest colonizer occupier to Velu's land. Has a flitting look in her eyes...
_________________________________________
Real Thoughts:
Something we don't see in novellas is Indian fantasy and it's nice to see our culture slowly branching out of the waters of YA books into other territories.
I was lucky enough to snag a copy for free during the Indie Book Sale a few months back and found this novella. I can't say I liked the cover, but something about it...drew me in.
Why is the guy half naked?
Why is there an obachan that looks like she's gonna smack him?
And why is there a scorpion in the background??
I nearly put it aside after the sale, until the blurb spoke to me (even though it spoiled the whole story but that's another topic...)
Still, I'm glad I read it in the end! Murali threw in a few plot twists that even I, the pessimistic reader and wannabe writer, didn't see coming, and once the 50% mark hits, the ball rolls.
Ajakava is not too ambitious but just daring enough to be enjoyable to see where our protaganist, Velu, ends up.
Murali has somewhat of a debut problem, however, that he tells us more than shows with his writing, but somehow, changes that in the last part of the novella.
Other than that, if you like going into a person's head and their relationship with people, you'll probably like this novella. The fantasy aspect is woven into the story and then gets more apparant as time goes on.
It's a very short read, 104 pages, so there's not a lot of time commitment, unlike some other novellas which past the 150 page territory that make me consider that my family needs to schedule time with me to listen about POR vs FRA.
_________________________________________
Cover:
Yeah, I'm not gonna lie, I'm not a fan of this cover.
It's not the fact the dude is half naked, sure I question it, but the focus of the cover is not exactly the best.
There's 3 things in this cover that clash with each other. For simplicity sakes for a debut cover, 2 would do a better job. Dude and scorpion, skip the obachan, and you would have been solid.
Yes, he can even still be half naked and it would have been fine!
_________________________________________
Prose:
The writing "tells" a lot more than "shows", but it's not a BAD prose. I've read bad prose, this is not it, but as he grows as a writer, I think he might solve this.
_________________________________________
Pacing:
Slow until the 50% where we really start rolling my dosa-inflated body to the finish line (I'm back home for summer, LET ME BE)
_________________________________________
Plot:
Without spoilers, the plot is intriguing as we don't know why this lady has a hunter's gaze, searching her surroundings even though she just got off the boat, and why the guy hears voices in his head and how this all connects.
If you read the blurb on Amazon, you will get spoiled pretty fast, so take my spoiler-free blurb and just go with it head empty.
_________________________________________
Characters:
While they all are pretty 2D, you at least get a sniff of a multilayer in certain characters that they don't feel 100% a character trope.
For instance, Bhavani is the sister of Velu in this story, and she tends to have a stick up her butt, but does care about her brother even when she knows he's being a little too trusting to the Felters.
Velu- OK wait, he's pretty 2D, I'm not gonna lie, but Lady Greyback has some depth to her.
Anyway, you get to see Velu's thought process even though he's a bit vanilla, but he becomes the vessel for this fantasy story.
Basically, what I'm trying to say is... I'm not an expert novella character depth analyzer, but I'll get there-!
jfc that's a title
_________________________________________
Vibe:
Imagine someone colonizing India and people are being butts to the people who were born there. That's pretty much the vibe
_________________________________________
Worldbuilding:
We don't see much of the worldbuilding, but it comes to us in piecemeal. Without spoilers, you understand why this is fantasy after the 50% mark.
I like a novella as much as the next person, but sometimes I do wish novellas put us in the vibe and worldbuilding more. "The Deep" has the same problem but I understand why they do that for wordcount and pagecount sake, but damn, I need a crumb sometimes.
_________________________________________
All in all, I still enjoyed myself reading it, even though the cover is not the greatest (if it was me, I would have focused on one character or two, three seems distracting), this novella was a nice opening to my eyes that we can publish in different sectors.
Keep it up, dude, do more showing than telling and you have the potential of being a greater writer!
_________________________________________
Who should read this?
Read if you want a different spice to your novellas and want to diversify more.
You also like having darkness injected in your veins as not many happy feelings are found here.
Personal Rating:
4/5
A personal update:
I never really gave an announcement but thought to be clear, I've been MIA due to: (TW: Medical Diagnosis & Mental Health)
I was diagnosed with Thoracic Outlet Syndrome (TOS) a year or so back, but however, my symptoms do not align the traditional nature of this illness. I have a weird Carpal Tunnel that's it not Carpal. I have arthritis that is not exactly arthritis...so you can imagine how frustrating it to try to write....As such, my writing ability has tanked since the beginning of this year, however, I've been trying to retrain my hands to write and doing it mostly by trying to write my books...TBA when the fuck that gets published. Anyway, my mental health had tanked so I've been trying to take care of myself as much as I can. None of what I'm doing puts food on the table so I do these when I have energy....which is today apparently (The answer to the 1st cover is from bottom to top: Social anxiety (that's literally my resting bitch face look tbh), depression, and PTSD)
The reason I'm saying this as I said in the Raven Tower review, I was thinking of doing reviews once a month but never delivered so wanted to explain why, hence the spoiler tag and obviously there's triggers.
I do miss doing these and starting to believe maybe I can use that as writing practice once in awhile so I might kickstart this again. Sincerely, I hope you are doing way better than I am! Please be kind to each other!
-LadyElfriede
July 28, 2024
Pretty solid story, I liked the incorporation of the forest as a character of the story that grew more and more defined as the novella went on. The prose was not distracting, which is more than I can usually say for indie books.
I didn’t fully understand Greyback as a character - it’s not enough to be two-faced, I need to understand why she became that way and what she’s thinking. There’s a lot of overt foreshadowing in the book that kind of ends up being fleshed out, but without understanding her motivations and even history, I don’t feel like I’m fully satisfied by the description of her character.
It would have been cool to include a map of the setting because I started to get confused at how far apart things were in the final scenes. Maybe I misunderstood, but it seems like the traveled out of the forest and to the Felter’s city incredibly quickly, when it had previously been emphasized how deep into the forest Ajakava lived.
Still a strong book, would recommend to anyone looking for a short Indian myth inspired fantasy.
I didn’t fully understand Greyback as a character - it’s not enough to be two-faced, I need to understand why she became that way and what she’s thinking. There’s a lot of overt foreshadowing in the book that kind of ends up being fleshed out, but without understanding her motivations and even history, I don’t feel like I’m fully satisfied by the description of her character.
It would have been cool to include a map of the setting because I started to get confused at how far apart things were in the final scenes. Maybe I misunderstood, but it seems like the traveled out of the forest and to the Felter’s city incredibly quickly, when it had previously been emphasized how deep into the forest Ajakava lived.
Still a strong book, would recommend to anyone looking for a short Indian myth inspired fantasy.
August 23, 2025
It's great to get a native Indian subcontinent view on mythology and fantasy. This brings in some great elements on colonization and old stories that we don't see as much in western fantasy. It's also a quick read, but there are some interesting ideas included. It's a great story to pick up!
August 25, 2023
This novella is the story of a young hunter, in a remote forest, as he and his people deal with the challenges of living off the land, and an influx of foreign invaders. These interlopers argue they are there to help, but their attitude and behavior undermines that argument. An ancient being exists in that forest, and the foreigners see opportunities for control, not coexistence.
This story is one of colonialism, of foreign lands seized by “the empire” with advanced weapons, many men, and no respect for the land and its history.
Eleanor, a naturalist, is the only foreigner to act outside conquer mode, but are her intentions as pure as drawing sketches of the local wildlife? And how to view that ancient presence in this world?
This story is one of colonialism, of foreign lands seized by “the empire” with advanced weapons, many men, and no respect for the land and its history.
Eleanor, a naturalist, is the only foreigner to act outside conquer mode, but are her intentions as pure as drawing sketches of the local wildlife? And how to view that ancient presence in this world?
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews