Review: Tense Action, Mighty Adventure
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 28, 2012
TRADE WINDS TO MELUHHA by Vasant Davé is a coming of age novel filled with action and adventure, a love story set in prehistoric times. It is a story not just of love and adventure, but also about murder and evil. It is about the abuse of society's weakest in order to further the ends of the wealthiest--and to be more specific would spoil the surprise at the end of the novel.The book is filled with characters that flee, fight, love, and narrowly escape death; and although their names may at first sound strange to our ears, we identify with them, largely because the author cares so much about them. He has created living, breathing, flesh and blood men and women who yearn for a better life. We walk with them on prehistoric ground recreated not just from the author's imagination, but from scholarly research.It is 2138 B.C., the Bronze Age, Sumeria (roughly, present-day Iraq). Samasin, the main character and stableboy to a wealthy Babylonian, is accused of murder. Taken into custody, he escapes a death sentence due to unique astronomical events which are actually recorded in clay tablets discovered in Babylon. He goes in search of Siwa Saqra, the name that the victim uttered before dying. He travels from Mesopotamia to Meluhha, thought by most scholars to be the ancient name for the Indus valley. During the voyage, he meets beauties, wrestles with pythons, saves damsels in distress, saves a pangolin from a cobra (one of my favorite scenes),and persists until he finds Siwa Saqra. He returns to Sumeria to initiate proceedings against the antagonist, where the reader learns the ugly truth behind the murder and the nature of the trafficking between Mesopotamia and Meluhha.I loved reading this book. Throughout I wondered whether Samasin would succeed. Does good triumph over evil? I recommend TRADE WINDS TO MELUHHA to all readers seeking a mighty adventure.