The Manticore's Secret

GameWorld Trilogy #2

by Samit Basu

Being a Hero isn’t easy—but it’s a lot easier than being a Dark Lord.
Dark forces just aren’t what they used to be in the good old days.

The Manticore’s Secret is the spellbinding sequel to The Simoqin Prophecies: Part One of the GameWorld Trilogy. Once again Samit Basu creates a mesmeric landscape bursting with weird and wonderful characters and a gripping narrative that’s complex, playful, sometimes sombre but always dazzlingly inventive.

A mysterious Dark Lord and his grotesque army threaten all that is good on earth… or do they? The heroic immortals who vanquished his rakshas father long ago have returned to do battle with the forces of evil, which is good news… or is it?

In the shadows a secret society of shapeshifters battles deadly mind-controlling foes who threaten history, humanity and the future of the planet. A beautiful, amoral rakshasi plots world domination while a strangely civilized barbarian fights to save the world.

But the world is spinning out of control. Because the gods are back. And they want to play…

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Indian Literature, Mythology, Science Fiction Fantasy, Science Fiction, Humor

528 pages, Paperback

First published December 12, 2005

About the author

Samit Basu is an Indian novelist best known for his fantasy and science fiction work

Samit's most recent novel, The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport, was published by Tordotcom in the US and Canada in Oct 2023.

His previous novel, the anti-dystopian near-future The City Inside (Tordotcom, '22) was on the Washington Post and Book Riot best SFF of 2022 lists and earlier shortlisted for the 2020 JCB Prize (India) as Chosen Spirits.

Samit's first novel, The Simoqin Prophecies, published by Penguin India in 2003, when Samit was 23, was the first book in the bestselling Gameworld Trilogy and marked the beginning of Indian English fantasy writing. The other books in the trilogy are The Manticore’s Secret and The Unwaba Revelations.

Samit’s US/UK debut, the superhero novel Turbulence was published in the UK in 2012 and in the US in 2013 to rave reviews. It won Wired‘s Goldenbot Award as one of the books of 2012 and was superheronovels.com’s Book of the Year for 2013.

Samit has also written children's books, published short stories for adults and younger readers in Indian and international anthologies, and has been a columnist and essayist in several leading Indian and international publications.

Samit also works as a screenwriter and director. His debut film, House Arrest, was released as part of Netflix’s International Originals in 2019, and was one of Netflix’s top 5 most viewed Indian films that year. He wrote the film and co-directed it with Shashanka Ghosh.

Samit’s work in comics ranges from historical romance to zombie comedy, and includes diverse collaborators, from Girl With All The Gifts/X-Men writer MR Carey to Terry Gilliam and Duran Duran.

Samit was born in Calcutta, educated in Calcutta and London, and currently works between Delhi and Kolkata. He runs a newsletter, Duck of Dystopia (samit.substack.com) and can be found on social media at @samitbasu, and at samitbasu.com

Reviews

[K.J. Charles]

Middle parts of trilogies are always tricky, with the need to expand on a created world and set off a new adventure while also creating enough unresolved plotlines to keep the reader hooked for book 3. This one plunges the reader into a whole lot of new characters and concepts that shed an entirely new light on the events of book 1, and not particularly easy ones at that, so it takes a bit of a while to relax into. Once it gets going the plot charges away, giving us an epic fantasy that is simultaneously its own story, a meta commentary on epic fantasy, and an affectionate mickey-take of many beloved genre tropes. The pseudo-scientific names for creatures are perhaps the worst puns I have seen in years, full marks. Also full marks for turning a throwaway gag into a crucial part of the climax about 400 pages later. That's *class*.

It isn't easy to write a spoof which is also a serious story in which we are fully invested in the characters. Nor is it easy to manage a cast this size, particularly not when a bunch of them take on other people's identities/have secret IDs. I whizzed through this gleefully, need a lot more of Kirin the reluctant(?) Dark Lord, and have book 3 cued up. A pleasure.

[Kalin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even more convoluted than the first book. The stage is getting deliciously cluttered. The stakes, ever more mysterious. The nods to gaming, as thrilling as ever. (By the way, if you enjoy nods to other works of art, or life in general, you'll love this trilogy.)

The only thing that mars my enjoyment is the casual slaughter (and at one point, it takes on an MAD-weapon scale). Let's see if the final book will justify it.

Particular titillations:

https://choveshkata.net/forum/viewtop...

[Gangambika · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this book was the funniest of the three. I LOVE the idea of little, colourful, fat, cheerful men who sing nonsensical songs and eat ravians. One of the scariest predators on Gameworld look like something out of sesame street?! I mean, C'mon! Not to forget other wonderful things that happen throughout the book. Drama, romance, sex, wars and dragons...this book has it all. Not to mention crazy ravians and three people inside one shapeshifter head. Special mention must be made of Fluffy, aka Steel Bunz, one of the cutest assassins you'll probably ever meet. This book is a treat!

[P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second part of the trilogy. A bit uneven, though very exciting in the good parts. The whole book is a gearing up exercise for the third part. I love the world Samit Basu has built. Very quirky, enthralling and a potpourri of fantasy elements where East meets West. The characters are very likeable and we find ourselves naturally rooting for them. That being said, this book was too long a warm-up for the war to come. The bit about Gods controlling the game was interesting at first, but it grew into a hindrance with frequent interruptions of the narrative. Are these gods stand-ins for Basu's multiple authorial alter-egos? It didn't work for me. If you can ignore these facts, it's a great read. This trilogy is a very important attempt in Indian fiction where world building and fanstasy have never been taken to such crazy, dizzying heights.

[Anangsha Alammyan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second book in the Gameworld trilogy. Things get serious here.

The Manitocore's Secret is viscerally different in tone from its prequel. While The Simoqin Prophecies was more about introducing the characters and poking fun at fantasy tropes, this book takes the tension several notches higher. New characters are introduced, with mind-bending plot twists on every page. After a while, I didn't know who to trust anymore.

We get to meet our favorite characters - Maya, Kirrin, Spikes, Rukmini, Asvin, and Lady Temat. We also unexpectedly meet some minor characters from book one who have a vital role to play in the plot.

The book is surprisingly philosophical. There are several allusions to the real world, but the thread that runs through the whole book is that of duality - or the lack of it. When we read a story, we often crave duality: the existence of good vs evil and the need for one to triumph over another. In the Gameworld trilogy, there's no global duality that applies to everyone. It's more like a game of chess, with every character having their own color and different agendas and moves. In the end, all the players have one common goal: they want to survive.

There is duality, yes, but on infinite smaller planes.

That's what makes this book so different from your usual middle book in fantasy trilogies.

That's what made me jump right into the next book as soon as I finished this one.

[Manikanta Avinash · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is even better than the first part! If the first part is just a setting to introduce the main characters and start off the narration, this has lot more plot items and excellent dibs at typecasts in the fantasy genre and is equally fun and entertaining as the first one.
The plot with all the Gods discussing the Game World is pure magic. It has elements of philosophy, making fun, surprise everything. That part is a brilliant work by Samit Basu.
All those references to various religions, mythologies too are very subtly placed and goes with the flow. I still don't know in which genre this book goes. Its definitely a fantasy but is it a spoof of fantasy genre or a light-hearted fantasy book which pokes fun of itself? Whatever it is, I am in love with this series which is important for any fantasy tale to be successful.
I would LOVE to see it as a motion picture trilogy like LOTR but I don't think the book is famous enough in India itself and I don't think Western people can completely understand the Genius of Basu as many references include Indian Mythology.
I am eagerly waiting to read the third part...

[Supritha · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a huge disappointment- both in terms of it's storyline & as a suggested 'must have' of the sci-fi/fantasy genre. Not having read the Simoquin Prophecies, the plot of this second novel in the trilogy was easy to comprehend. Basu has used a simple mode of narration, which makes the reader feel at ease. His descriptions of the various characters in the story are to be lauded as well, since they act as fodder even for the most unimaginative minds. The characters themselves are waaay too many in this novel, such that one loses focus on the story (which relatively goes nowhere) while trying to manage the mish-mash. The ideas are heavily borrowed from classic Greek & Indian mythologies, alongwith the Copyleft to the fantasy worlds created in Harry Potter, LOTR, the Mummy series, & Star Wars. Basu's resulting novel is a cocktail of everything one might have read in the sci-fi/fantasy genre, in a very obvious manner. If only Basu had ditched several characters from his story to concentrate on developing the plot, & utilising his own ideas, this novel would have impressed even an average bookworm. Alas!
Final comment- E+; barely read-worthy.

[Grimread · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sooo many characters. And yet almost all of them are lovable, which is a good thing when you have a book with many different settings at once. Because the feeling of just wanting to skip the chapters where your character of interest is absent, also isn't present. But all this can lead into much confusion if you don't pay enough attention, which can happen when listening an audio-book. No flipping back for the lost information, as you have no idea at what time it was.
I like how Basu manages to give the characters insight to situations so that they don't appear like some retarded puppets that are lead by their noses when you, the reader, know that they are being mislead in some unfair way. It is so nice to know that Kirin knows that Maya isn't the real Maya but knows exactly what he is doing. You are also free of the future misunderstood situations and other annoyingly obvious complications that usually come with this kind of comical or tragic plots.

[Saurabh Modi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome

[Anushka Sierra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This and other reviews soon to be up on Feminist Quill .

Synopsis: It’s the long-awaited return of the Ravians. It’s the crowning of the new Dark Lord. It’s a new age of terror and war come upon the land–

The Dark Lord sneezed and felt very sheepish, because Dark Lords weren’t supposed to catch colds.

Manticore’s Secret contains some of the best passages I have ever read, regarding Dark Lords and Dark Towers in general. It has lived my head, rent free, for half a decade now and remains one of the top examples of funny writing I reach for, and which I aspire to.

(Is it obvious that I’m jealous of Samit Basu? Well, of course I am. The man wrote the first of this trilogy at 23. The best I could conjure up at that age was a mess of pining drivel about whatever breakup was going on at the moment.)

It’s still kind of the best I can conjure up.

Shut it.

Well, since I’m beginning to sound like one of Maya’s journal entries, we might as well start there. The long-winded entry at the outset of the book doubles as the reader’s exposition ticket, getting us up to speed on what’s been happening in Kol and its neighbouring countries since the first book ended.

Maya has been busy falling in love with Prince Asvin the Chosen One, being jealous of Queen Rukmini hitting on him, and bemoaning the loss of her university-era carefree attitude. War is coming, and magic is stronger than ever.

And she hates Kirin, due to his Dark Lordyness.

The Kirin-Maya-Aswin triangle continues to develop in the most atypical of ways. The quality of the triangle is further improved by its surprise conversion into a love quadrangle – and the accompanying introduction of Red the shapeshifter.

For Rukmini, born as she was in the wild, when Red was beyond the calming influence of the Rainbow Council, had shown Red strange new feelings—the intensity of the desire she had felt for Asvin had left Red breathless. Rukmini had had none of the restraint of Soma and Tamasha, born while Red was practicing (however inefficiently) the self-control that was the defining characteristic of all shapeshifters.

I’ve always found Red a little annoying – she seemed at first like an unnecessary distraction, a minor character being given too much space. But Red is the real main character of The Manticore’s Secret. Her introduction and developmental arc is by far the most significant one in this book. She is powerful, unique, and unpredictable, yet guided by a moral core that defies all plausibility by continuing to exist.

As a shapeshifter, Red has no name, no defined personality, and no defined face or figure. She has warring voices in her head that have very definite but always opposing views of what she should do. And, being young and lacking in self-control, she sometimes makes the mistake of naming these voices in her head, which turns them into full-fledged personalities.

The voices in her head – Soma and Tamasha – are of the opinion that Red should utilise her powers to their full extent. Grabs for power. And perhaps, in the full extent of time, world domination.

Spikes, on his other side, was regarding them calmly. ‘Is that really Maya?’ he whispered. ‘No,’ replied Kirin. ‘It’s a rakshasi.’ He looked at her again; she was fast asleep.

Although Red shows, at the outset, a degree of affection for Maya and attempts to rescue her from Kidnapping 2.0, it’s clear that she’s driven by her desire to be free of control and discipline – to live in the grey areas where the heady rush of power she craves will not be restrained or judged.

The larger arc – that of the GameWorld and the gods who are using it to play a game for their own entertainment – is given to long-winded philosophical discussions and sarcastic commentary in equal parts. However, the parallels to Terry Pratchett’s work are more pronounced here than anywhere else.

Tsa-Ur the Magnificent, Devourer of Worlds, Hood of Destiny, Wielder of the Divine Poison, has been banned for three Games for Unbecoming Conduct—he had bitten the Sacred Ibis during a points dispute in the last Game.

The gods and their games, even the specific gods present here – the Goddess of Chance, the Trickster, and Tsa-Ur, are practically identical to those shown in The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic. There’s even a throwaway line about how dinosaur fossils on GameWorld are put there by the gods to give the inhabitants of the world a sense of history.

(Reviews for The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic at the links.)

It was a little annoying – to Maya as well as to me – that she spent almost the entire book being kidnapped. Again. But, along with the storyline making fun of Aragorn, this storyline does give us a good look at the nature and capabilities of the Ravians. Her kidnapping is also punctuated by multiple escapes that ultimately are of no avail because she ends up coming to where her captor wanted her to be anyway. 🙄

The Manticore’s Secret is as well written and replete with puns and literary references as its predecessor. However, it tends to be long-winded in parts and seems to do more work towards setting the scene for Book 3 than it does towards standing on its own legs as a story.

Reviews of the other books in this series:
1. The Simoqin Prophecies
3. The Unwaba Revelations

[Keerthana TS · Rating 4 out of 5]

After finishing Simoquin’s prophecies, I picked a different book to read. But I found myself constantly thinking about the story and the characters so I decided to continue the gameworld series. I read/listened to the second book on Audible as I had half read - half listened to the first book and found myself enjoying the immersive experience the narrator provides.

Recommendation - I highly recommend this book. Listen to the narration to complement the reading experience.

Pros - interesting story line with focus on Kirin. I thoroughly enjoyed his journey of learning to be a dark lord. The concept of the game world becomes very clear in this book (the first chapter of the first book now makes sense)

Cons - too many characters to remember, I found myself caring about only a few (Kirin, Spikes and maybe Maya?). I hope these additional characters have a role to play in the third book. The concept of the gameworld was used very conveniently whenever needed, the rules of the world, the powers/abilities of the characters were not consistent (unlike in Harry Potter where the rules of magic were clear).

[Robbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm rounding up from 4.5 stars. This wasn't as wacky as the first one, but still had a good bit of humor in it. However, it was also a lot more dramatic and leaned more heavily into the grand plot, which kind of twisted and turned in unexpected ways. It felt a little clunky to me at first because it started with the presumption that things kind of fizzled out after the events of the first novel and people settled into place to prepare for a war. It also wasn't really about the conflict between the Dark Lord and Kol, with completely different villains being the problem and a new set of antagonists being set up for the final book. There were things that I liked and didn't like about how things played out, but it never failed to be interesting nor threw me out of my sense of disbelief and definitely left me looking forward to seeing where it goes from here.

[Pooja Singh · Rating 3 out of 5]

After Reading the first Part of the trilogy, I was expecting too much from it but I understand that second part of any trilogy are a bit tricky. I was a tad bit disappointed with this book. I think it failed a little bit with handling the number of characters introduced which was done quite artfully in the first book. So the failure of this book is that it doesn't stands upto the stature of the first book. I am quite excited to see how all the loose ends (and there are many ) will be tied up at the end of the trilogy.

[Zivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is definitely a second book in a trilogy. Don't expect to be able to stop here. I've already got The Unwaba Revelations on my shelf.

We learn more about the universe and the forces that shape it. There are many mysteries and revelations that illuminate events from the first novel but so many forces are plotting behind the scenes it can be hard to follow.

But the important bit is the breaking of the fourth wall and the satire of the fantasy genre. It's reminiscent of the very early Discworld novels, but dark.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I listened to the audio for this book and it was so good. I've always said a bad narrator can ruin a good book, in this case a great narrator made a good book an exceptional one. Ramon Tikaram is an amazing voice actor and he really makes the gameworld come alive.

[Balkha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read review here:

https://bookishexperiences.wordpress....

[Siddhartha Gunti · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like fantasy fiction - do give this a read. It gives you a rush of everything you like (Harry potter, Indian mythology, LOTR...) with a good story and loveable characters.

[Disha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as cool and funny as the first one but cool and funny enough I guess

[LS · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great book!

[Tathagata Kandar · Rating 4 out of 5]

OK. This was kind of a let-down after the first book. But I agree that it might be because my expectations were fairly raised after The Simoqin Prophecies. The first book had a fairly new style of writing, different from the contemporary fantasy works which was a novelty which had wore off for the second part.

In addition I felt the book was slower in pace and a little deficient in characters.

Having said that, the storyline and the sudden references to the well-known novels was still enjoyable.

In this book we delve much deeper into some of the characters especially Kirin, Maya, Temat and Amloki. Also there is a GRRMartin-esque flavour of suddenly killing off some of the characters without any warning - even the Gods were not in favour of the same :D

There were a lot of subplots which grow really strong in this part - some mysteries solved and lots new emerge.

And with so many unanswered questions, Samit ensures that you do buy the final book :)
BTW my favourite character - Melnkohli flaikatcha - don't ignore him after the first chapter.

[Sandeep Vasudevan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I vaguely remember reading The Simoqin Prophecies, which was the first part of the series, and I vaguely remember that although I was quite impressed by the characterisation and general mise-en-scene, I did think there was something left hanging, something else needed, a certain je-ne-sais-quoi that made its presence felt through its absence -- if that makes any sense.

But this one fills the gaps. Though one starts off feeling that one should have read Simoqin, the book takes on a character of its own, and it's a feeling of impending doom (war/heroism/something else?). The world is very well fleshed out, the races are quite distinct, and each character and race has shades of grey instead of being purely black-and-white.

The greatest part of this book is how the so many concepts of fantasy are turned on their heads. The Dark Lord is not incorrigibly evil, the heroic immortals (and I KNOW these are the elves) are not as heroic, or at least as altruistic, as they usually are, and there is a distinct shadow of a Foreign Hand.

Very well written, and I eagerly await the finale. I'm told it's called The Unwaba Revelations.

[Kimaya Mathew · Rating 1 out of 5]

If only, if only I could have given this book no stars then i think the justice would have had befallen on the planet earth...
I do not believe the daringness of the author when he took over all the mythology factors. From "'Harry Potter" "Chronicle of Narnia" "Lord of the Rings" "Ramayana" "Mahabharata" every Indian, swedish, scanadavian, egyptian, european, american, british, irish myth and folktale that has been taken in this sorry excuse in the name of the book is really disgusting. It is, as if, i am reading a badly mixed every culture fable in the story line.
Story line is so loose. All the characters are so weak and pathetic that at one point you feel like slapping all of them and make them see some sense in their childish actions. At one point, some hollywood and bollywood factors can be seen which just makes the entire reading experience that much sad and boring.
All in all, waste of time, money and eye-sight

[Priya · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tried reading this book twice. But both times, I lost interest even before the half-way mark. And I'm really disappointed because I liked the first part in the series, 'The Simoqin Prophecies'. I bought Manticore and the next one, 'The Unwaba Revelations' assuming it will be like the first. Nope. Not even close.

The parts in the book about the actual story happening on 'Earth', with Kirin, Asvin and Maya were good. Interesting. But in between it shifts to this game that the 'Gods' are organizing and.. well.. it was boring boring boring. Maybe that's how sci-fi is, I don't know and I don't care.

So, I give up.

P.S: Seeing how I didn't like 'Turbulence' either, Samit Basu might just remain a one-book wonder in my library.

[Chinmay · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book does good on linking the story from the previous part and moves forward with the story of each character. The fight sequences are really good and the situation of the world as it changes has been written wonderfully. I like the way Basu eloquently writes at length about how the world changes around the characters. Do not want to write more so as not to spoil the fun for people who haven't read it yet. Though I would recommend this as a must read.

[Soundarya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was let down a bit. Had very high expectations after reading the first book. Maybe the third /final in the series will be to my liking. It is still a good read. Like the characters a whole lot more now.

[Nitya Iyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Samit Basu has delivered once again! I'm grateful I reread the first novel in the series before reading this one, because it reminded me of where all the characters were in their own personal arcs. But as a whole, for me, the story continued to work and the puns kept me amused.

[Johny · Rating 5 out of 5]

After a disappointing end to book one, Mr.Basu surprises you with his second book. Filled with humor and brilliant fantasy, this is one of the best fantasy books I've read.

[Vaibhav pandya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book was a good read but not as good as 1st installment of the series , now moving on to next and last part of the series

[Aleesha Vaz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basu keeps the curiosity alive.. with an intresting cliff hanger at the end.. can't wait to read the next book.

[Devesh Yamparala · Rating 4 out of 5]

It continues where the first book left and does indeed manage to keep the interesting stuff going.
If you read the first book, you cannot stay long without reading this!