The greatest epic ever written about whales. Follow twenty whales on a spiritual journey around the world in a dangerous underwater adventure. 'The Pod' is summoned and led by a mystic Narwhal. The story that unfolds is narrated by a Beluga whale as they search for the life answers they all seek. You won't want to miss this opportunity to read the greatest epic written in many years. The dangers these whales face and the things they learn along the way give you a new way to look at this world we're all part of. Just like in our daily lives, diversity is key in unlocking the mystery for these whales. Narwhal, Beluga, Bowhead, Blue, Humpback, Pygmy, Orca, Pseudorca, Bottlenose, Beaked, Melon-Headed, Strap-Tooth, Pilot, Gray, Bryde, Minke, Right Whale, Fin, Sei and Sperm. All the popular whales are here in this book, now it's time to dive in with them!
The Pod is about whales on a spiritual journey around the world. They are summoned and led by Narwhal. They search for answers to life’s questions. Twenty different species of whales are summed to help them discover diversity is essential to life.
The wales discuss history, famous people, and religions of the world as they decide to participate and explore seven ocean trenches on the journey to find the Green Man, Khizr. The Green Man travels the world on the backs of two fish. He is an ageless character whose wisdom is beyond all earthly knowledge. The whales must find answers to secrets in each of seven ocean tranches along the route.
Brave travel vignettes of Graham are interspersed throughout the story. He travels a different path. They are enlightening and almost make a book within the book.
Have you wondered, what is the ultimate purpose of your existence on this planet?
Then this book is for you. The Pod tries to give us ideas in a very light and lively manner.
The Pod is an epic tale of twenty whales led by Narwhal searching the deeper meaning of their lives and existence, embarking on a courageous journey, swimming through and prevailing the challenges and odds of the seven trenches of the ocean. The different whales of the tale represent the various character, traits, life, and struggles of humanity, including its concerns of finding the truth of faith and religion. The Seven Trenches represent the monumental stages of development of humankind as it carries on to its quest to achieve a certain equilibrium, stability, and maturity. The ultimate ending of the venture is to achieve the golden lessons in life; through finding Khizr or the Green Man in the tale.
The author wants to impart wisdom through a unique writing style. I remembered a must-read novel we had during my high school days, a required reading entitled Florante and Laura. The writing style is the same, old scaled poetry. Others who are not familiar with it will certainly adjust. But for me and most, it makes things easier to understand and lighter to digest. I sometimes likened old scale poetry to singing a rap song.
The book is over three hundred pages, but it is not daunting! The novel is fun to read- a real page-turner.
I think this book is delightful material for an animated film o tv series. Or content of a computer game. The quest of the whales. I hope Sir Andy Graham should try submitting this. No harm in endeavoring to, right? It will be phenomenal!
Sir Andy Graham, I devour your book in one sitting. I am enlightened. You get through me as a reader. I get the wisdom you are trying to impart. I thank the universe for having you in this generation and that you can share your talent, this journey you had, and your gained wisdom. Keep on writing and continue inspiring us. Having a fellow writer with a boundless heart, I know this planet still has greater hope and prospect ahead.
I leave my review with a quote and reflection from the author of this book, an African proverb that says:
"A family tie is like a tree, it can bend but it cannot break."The way I see family, I can see how this is true, and it all makes perfect sense. You can label me however you want for saying this, but to me, everything here is our family. Earth is our mother, and the Sun is our father. Together, the two of them have raised us all over the years. We do countless kind things and commit countless atrocities to dear old mom, but all she does is bent. We can't break her and we can't break the old man either. He comes up every day, warms us up, and shows us that everything is going to be alright. They're great parents and we're a large family. Always has been, always will be.
I could give 10 stars to this book and the author. fun book, fun story, realistic, and full of information. I love whales, If you do not love whales, read it. If you love whales You'll love them more. written in a rhythmic way, characters and whales personalities are very attractive and poignant, and I think they are like that in reality!! in fact, the author describes them as if they are very true. It seems like the whales' community represents our own world. At some points I was going to drop tears, I will not spoil and tell why, you really need to read this. It touched my heart. How they get affected by changes around them, the poetic way is very simple and informative. Thank you so much for writing such a great book, I will read it to my son when he grows up.
This is a well written and inspiring book! The pod reminds me of the diversity of our human world - there are people with different lifestyle, habits, beliefs, characters. No wonder there are so many conflicts in our world. We need a true leader has the tolerance, respect, kindness and wisdom to show us a common goal, to unite our community and help each one of us seek self improvement.It hurts to see these whales lost their companions one by one, but it also moved me to tears when they showed love and support to each other, when they found the truth they had been seeking for.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Whales+found family+ocean adventure+ philosophy written in poetry. Do I have to say anything more? Perfect is the word. The plot of the seven trenches kept me on the edge every moment. The twists squeezed tears out of me. Each and every whale was such a great character. Their insecurities were so whaley, especially Bowhead's (I laughed a bit there, sorry brother Bowhead.) The ending made me an emotional wreck but a satisfied philosopher. I feel like I've been at the sea with them for twenty years. Thank you for taking me around the world with my very favourite creatures, WHALES! I just choke up a bit to think... Will he wait for Bell till the end? *Sighs and proceeds to dive back into the sea with this book*
This story is almost fully in rhyme and about a pod of different whale species who take on a journey which is presented in a very spiritual way. Each of the wale species represents different believes and types of people. At the start, when all the whales were still around, I found it very difficult to keep track of each of their personalities though later in the story this got better.
What I appreciated the most was the tone about humans throughout the story. The writer did a good job at bringing awareness about climate change, overfishing and similar topics throughout the story. I enjoyed the small informative interludes between chapters that give you a bit of information about an area the Pod is about to enter.
It was an interesting read, though I know it isn't my type of book and better suits someone who finds more joy in reading about different believes.
This book is filled with whale songs and understandably quite hard to write. 2 things I liked the most about the book. 1) The writing is joyful and very informative with descriptions about oceans and it's components.
2) The fact that the whales are super relatable to real people.
I would recommend this to all kids and most adults.
This book is so amazing and the author was brilliant because he wrote a poems of conversation between Narwhal and his friends in a journey to find Green Man, Khizr. It makes this book so classic and unique.
The quotes and proverbs in this book make this story more exciting. I love this African proverb that says, "A family tie is like a tree; it can bend but it cannot break."
I also learned about 20 types of whales such as Humback, Bowhead, Beluga, and also other sea life like kelp, spinner dolphin, lobster, and so on. I feel so excited to know about a marine's life after reading this book.
Every whale has different faiths and religions in this book, so we can learn how they tolerate each other even if they have different faiths. You can feel the adventures they went through to cross the sea and explore the world to find Khizr.
Finally, after completing the seventh trench, they found Khizr.
What I can say about this book is that you should read it because it is worth it. A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work.
This book brought so much positivity into my life . I really enjoyed this book. I'm starting excited to read more about marine's life after this and learn many types of them.
Congratulations on your amazing book, Andy Graham.
I'd like to thank the author for sending me a copy of this book, as well as BookTasters for the opportunity to write an honest review in exchange for reading it. ✨
Before sharing the story, what I found unexpected and interesting about "The Pod: An Epic Told by Summonded Whales" is that it truely is an epic - a long poem. The story is written in quatraine verse, which is no simple task and one that is rarely taken up. For that reason alone, some people will find "The Pod" an interesting book to read and analyze. Some people might have a tough time with it for the same reason.
I'll also note that I found the prologue of the book to be interesting as well helpful setting up the context of the story. So if you're someone who often skips the prologue, this is one to read to learn about the "King of the Sea", Khizr. In fact it is the search for Khizr that is the motivation for the story.
The story begins with the the Narwhal addressing a gathering of 20 different whales to motivate them to join the quest to find Khizr. In order to succeed this group of whales must learn to work together overcoming their individual limitations and fears. They swim the ocean rising to the challenges they encounter. But will they all make it to their goal? Do they end up meeting Khizr in the end?
Wasn't expecting that bittersweet ending!! The Pod is a story about whales traveling on a spiritual journey to find Khizr, the green man. I like the way this was written simply and easy to follow through despite having spiritual undertones. I also liked how similar this book is to the ocean, fun and shallow on the surface, but deep and mysterious underneath. While I think this can be read by everyone, I would recommend it to a much older audience as it covers dealing with grief, climate change, friendship, and love. The only downside for me was that I had a hard time keeping up with a lot of characters and since I have little knowledge about whales I also had a hard time visualizing them. Beluga's journal entries were my favorite though. Overall a great read.