Title: Samudran: The Extraordinary Journey of an Ordinary Man

Author: A R Vikram

Publisher: Self-published

Release Date: 30 November 2022

No of pages: 381

My rating: 3/4

Samudran: The Extraordinary Journey of an Ordinary Man by A R Vikram follows the story of a 23-year-old photographer, Samudran, aka Sammy, who gets a last-minute offer from Professor Rajan to work on his dream project on a remote island. Sammy accepted the offer and joined Professor Rajan’s team on Maisyoor Island, where the research team is conducting a study on the unique flora of the Island.

The book is divided into three parts. The first part is a bit slow; as the team settles in, Sammy explores the island on his own, meets Meila, and falls in love with her. The pace of the book picks up in the second part as Karthik, Sammy, and Sangeetha learn of the danger facing Maisyoor island and its inhabitants. Someone in their team is behind this all, and the third part revolves around whether or not Sammy is able to thwart their plan and save the island and its people.

I always enjoy reading books with themes or topics or discussions related to religion. This is the first time I have read a book with an atheist character as the main protagonist (Sammy), and I find it refreshing. I want to make it clear that this book is not about religion. Religion plays no role here. It’s just that the protagonist Sammy, is an atheist so we get to know his perspective on religion, which I personally liked.

Meila is the daughter of Tharuman, the leader of the Oksatan Tribe. She is an explorer who loves to wander alone in the forest. There is nothing much to tell about her. Of all the secondary characters, I liked Kargam. He cared for his people more than anything else. He was honest about his intention on why he wanted to marry Meila and surprisingly very understanding and supportive when he came to know about Sammy’s love for Meila.

I’m a sucker for slow-burn romance, where two people gradually fall in love and develop a relationship based on more than just attraction. I don’t believe in the love-at-first-sight thing. So Sammy’s instalove doesn’t feel real to me. Because I wouldn’t be so blind and quick to decide to stay on a remote island completely cut off from the outside world for a person I barely know. But if you’re a person who likes instalove thing, then you may enjoy the romance part, which covers almost 50% of the book.

The third part has my favourite travel trope, and it is good except for one scene where a poisonous fox bites Kargam. It would have made sense if the poison had killed him, but instead, it made him forget himself, and he tried to kill Sammy. I find this scene completely unnecessary and implausible. Kargam is very understanding and supportive of Sammy and Meila’s relationship. He helped Sammy in many ways. Both men (Kargam and Sammy) get along well. Why spoil it in the name of a twist?

Throughout the book, we were told how the two tribal groups, Oksatans and Yerthingans, were familiar with the Tamil language. As a native Tamil speaker, I was curious to know the kind of Tamil they speak. But I’m slightly disappointed to find that no actual Tamil words or phrases were included in the prose. Instead of “she asked in Tamil,” if the author had sprinkled some small or common Tamil phrases here and there, I would have felt a sense of connection with the characters.

To conclude, I like the plot. The concept is good, but I feel the execution could have been better. The book is unreasonably lengthy (381 pages) and could be minimized to 200 to 250 pages with proper editing. There are some typos and grammatical errors, which shows the carelessness of the editor, and it’s so annoying. The book cover could’ve been better. There are things I liked and things I felt could have been better. I hope this detailed review will help you make a decision.