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QALANDAR: Earth Needed A Superhero
A family man, Ali, haunted by his past seeks peace while a global war throws everything into chaos.
Only a pure heart can acquire the superpower that can save the mankind from extinction. Will the United Nations work with an unknown person and trust his mysterious abilities for the sake of humanity?
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This is a cinematographic attempt to write an action story based on a character with super powers.
There are many great books to read on Kindle online including good books for teens. Amazon ebooks also offers epic books for kids and adults, and some of the top selling books of all time including fiction books, fantasy books, mystery books and inspirational books. In the genre of good Sci Fi books, this book is a great addition and hopefully will be one of the best new Sci Fi books. Sometimes the most popular books of all time don’t need to have the best writers of all time. It is my hope that we not only want to become Kindle's best sellers, but I also want this book to be among the best selling books of 2019 and 2020. I also hope that people will admire my writing abilities and will help me to learn by giving me feedback. I hope that this book will target a wide range of readers and will be one of the best selling fiction books of 2020.
Only a pure heart can acquire the superpower that can save the mankind from extinction. Will the United Nations work with an unknown person and trust his mysterious abilities for the sake of humanity?
***********************************************************************************************************************************************
***********************************************************************************************************************************************
This is a cinematographic attempt to write an action story based on a character with super powers.
There are many great books to read on Kindle online including good books for teens. Amazon ebooks also offers epic books for kids and adults, and some of the top selling books of all time including fiction books, fantasy books, mystery books and inspirational books. In the genre of good Sci Fi books, this book is a great addition and hopefully will be one of the best new Sci Fi books. Sometimes the most popular books of all time don’t need to have the best writers of all time. It is my hope that we not only want to become Kindle's best sellers, but I also want this book to be among the best selling books of 2019 and 2020. I also hope that people will admire my writing abilities and will help me to learn by giving me feedback. I hope that this book will target a wide range of readers and will be one of the best selling fiction books of 2020.
154 pages, Paperback
Published December 18, 2019
6 people want to read
About the author
Fraz Ahmed
2 books5 followersThere are hundreds of awesome people around the world that have inspired me to write & highlight cross cultural communication scenarios to promote a peaceful culture of acceptance, peace, trust and love. I also love to highlight the similarities between different communities and behaviors as well as differences.
It was my long time urge to become a writer and give life to my ideas and imaginations. I have been working & travelling around the world since long and I think it is time for me to put my experience, observation and exposure out for the people to see through my perspective.
I enjoy being fascinated for days after reading good stories and watching good action and superhero movies. Music has always been an essential part of my meditation. I have been very lucky to be able to travel & visit around 28 countries of the world till now, which has helped me a lot to understand different cultures and human behaviors.
I hold a master's degree in strategic leadership and management and currently working as an international business development manager. I love to socialize, exercise, travel and play sports. I run a travel blog called perspectives.life with more than 60,000 followers.
Since being able to think & observe, I have realized that almost every human on earth is seeking peace and many of them keep waiting for a Messiah (Superhero), who can magically remove their pain and problems.
Currently I am working on a Crime & Thriller subject which is expected to be published in Mid of April 2020.
My First Book Qalandar has been published on Amazon.
It was my long time urge to become a writer and give life to my ideas and imaginations. I have been working & travelling around the world since long and I think it is time for me to put my experience, observation and exposure out for the people to see through my perspective.
I enjoy being fascinated for days after reading good stories and watching good action and superhero movies. Music has always been an essential part of my meditation. I have been very lucky to be able to travel & visit around 28 countries of the world till now, which has helped me a lot to understand different cultures and human behaviors.
I hold a master's degree in strategic leadership and management and currently working as an international business development manager. I love to socialize, exercise, travel and play sports. I run a travel blog called perspectives.life with more than 60,000 followers.
Since being able to think & observe, I have realized that almost every human on earth is seeking peace and many of them keep waiting for a Messiah (Superhero), who can magically remove their pain and problems.
Currently I am working on a Crime & Thriller subject which is expected to be published in Mid of April 2020.
My First Book Qalandar has been published on Amazon.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 23, 2020
Thank you to the author for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review
3 stars
Synopsis
A family man, Ali, haunted by his past seeks peace while a global war throws everything into chaos.
Only a pure heart can acquire the superpower that can save mankind from extinction. Will the United Nations work with an unknown person and trust his mysterious abilities for the sake of humanity?
Plot
Qalandar – roughly translated to mean “free man” or “Sufi Saint” – is basically a story about Ali discovering one day that he has superpowers, important to save the world from an imminent alien invasion. Set in Azaad Kashmir, this sci-fi story starts slow, with Ali enjoying a seemingly normal day with his wife and two children, only to end up experiencing a series of strange events after he goes to his stable. First, his dog starts acting rabid, then his horse runs away, and if that wasn’t enough, once he reaches work, there is a threat of war between India and Pakistan, and he has to rush home to pack up his family and leave for Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital.
The story touches upon the topics of religion, belief, faith, supernatural powers, rebirth and Sufism, serving in the army, and violence, although each topic is covered in a very swift manner.
After Ali leaves his work with Saleem, an addict co-worker, his main goal is to pick his daughter from her school, reach home, and leave Kashmir, as the buildings, roads and cars around him are being destroyed by a strange creatures flying around.
Once he picks his daughter from school and reaches home, he is told by his wife that according to the news, the destruction isn’t a sudden war between India and Pakistan; it’s worldwide . This basically means that they are stuck in their home, and are at God’s mercy. Ali is soon joined by his good friend, Hassan, who has been searching for dervishes or Sufis to cure his father. Ali has always disagreed with Hassan’s stance on this. The importance of this part of the story is later revealed. During all this commotion, the little kids manage to run to the forest after a small animal, where Ali mistakenly steps on a landmine. This is when Hassan picks his friend up, and with the help of the addict Saleem, drives him way off into the mountain to an old woman with magical powers, who agrees to cure Ali on the condition his heart is good enough to take the healing.
Ali, brought back to life by the power of a green crystal, is now Earth’s only hope to save it from the millions and millions of drones that have descended at the command of aliens. I can’t summarize the plot any longer without completely spoiling the story.
Story Line
I try to be kind to newly published authors for two reasons: a. they have little to no expertise in book publication/promotion and have to rely on reviewers to get word out about their book, and b. obviously having just started, they don’t have much knowledge of what boxes to tick and how to put their story into words that are both impressive and that sell .
While Fraz Ahmed has managed to bring to life a completely unique story, I feel the story has a lot of plot holes/faults/discrepancies that he’ll have to fix.
I am totally on-board with the idea of a story set with a beautiful landscape as its backdrop and wholesome characters who have just a tad bit of mental scars to heal. However, this story lacks in a lot of areas that a little bit of description about mountains and lakes cannot fix. For starters, the whole thing about Earth actually getting a superhero started after the 95-page mark, leaving only 50 or so pages for Ali to get accustomed to his powers and destroy the drones and their aliens. Also, in those 50 pages, the author was so absorbed in making Ali to be a superhero that he forgot that this is Ali’s FIRST time being a superhero, and the fact that he happened to just wake up and take complete control over his power (that he didn’t even believe existed merely TWO HOURS ago) is an extremely far-fetched idea to sell. Moreover, the part of the book focused on saving Earth has nothing but colorfully written scenes about Ali destroying drones, army weaponry raining down and the aliens regretting the attack. It’s basically a summary of the kick-ass-ing part of Independence Day or Pacific Rim, or any other related movie.
Don’t get me wrong. I am a HUGE sucker for sci-fi movies/books. It’s one of my favorite genres. But I love the character growth, the failed strategies, the hero’s faults, the thrill, the chase of the bad guys in all of that. Qalandar, although a good concept for a sci-fi book, fails to deliver the kind of depth I need from a book that’s about an alien invasion.
Moreover, I find many faults in the Dervish-bestowing-power plotline. For starters, who is the old woman? Where did SHE get her power from? What determines the power of a “good heart”? If a “good heart” is basically a man being kind to everyone and loving his family and saving someone from trouble, then isn’t every other person deserving of this mysterious power? I admit the world isn’t full of good guys, but there was nothing that made Ali particularly special enough to be deserving of this power. I also feel the whole part where he is resurrected was rushed, to the point that him being brought back to life made zero sense. I understand religion and faith are extremely sensitive topics, and you can’t brush on them without feeling you are overstepping some boundaries, which would explain the author’s hastiness to discuss these topics. BUT, the dervishes and Sufism are an important chapter in Islam, and while I am no expert in the subject, I have read enough on Rumi’s understanding of the subject that I find the green crystal and its connection to dervishes to be severely lacking.
I also felt that a lot of the “alien invasion” part is based on a lot of popular movies on the topic, with little to no depth on the subject. It’s literally a recount of spaceships appearing out of nowhere and attacking millions of reasons because….they hate humanity or something. It’s so unbelievable a topic that I wasn’t entirely invested in that topic. I also did not find any logic behind representatives from top countries around the world being able to sit in a SINGLE room and decide on a UNIFORM pathway within HOURS of an alien invasion. I could defend this by saying the attack happened weeks ago or something but I don’t think the time was mentioned specifically in the book. That leaves behind a lot of questions: how come there are no disagreements between the most powerful countries in the world about how to tackle this? How come China, Russia, Germany, USA and Europe can all see eye to eye on a man coming in and using mysterious powers to thwart millions of drones? I just don’t find it believable. I am not saying that it can’t be, but that it needs a lot more work to be plausible.
Furthermore, I feel Ali’s power was extremely convenient for him. Where comics on Avengers and DC heroes and others draw heavily on the fact that your powers are only as controllable as you make them to be this Qalandar power is conveniently easy to control. There are no drawbacks to how much Ali can channel the tiny, green dervishes, nor are there any side effects of suddenly becoming a superhero. Logically, I believe a person cannot just wake up from a death-like experience, find out they have a new power, and learn to harness it in a matter of seconds . If that were possible, Hulk’s constant plight with being able to control his anger, Thor’s inability to keep his power in check, and Ironman’s superpower being affected when his suit was defected would not exist.
While the author manages to put a fresh new perspective on the same-old “superhero” concept, the story manages to deliver only 25% of the actual concept. I also would like to mention that I found the start of the book to be severely lacking, especially because Ali’s fixation on his wife’s beauty and her goodness for paragraph after paragraph is not something you feel is important for a sci-fi novel. It’s great for a romance novel, but a book that is already 150 pages, and 30 of these are dedicated to how lovely his wife’s cheeks are? I find no reason to why this was important to the overall story.
Characters
This, unfortunately, was the worst part of the book.
Ali wakes up with a new source of unimaginable, almost-Godlike powers and yet gets no time to get used to his superpower. I admit the events happened within a few days of each other, but no one is prepared for powers of this extent.
Ali’s wife and children serve little or no role in him becoming a superhero, so they basically act as decorative characters, which are great for drama/fiction/romance novels but serve no purpose in a sci-fi novel
Saleem is literally one of the worst characters I have ever read about in a book. Not only is he obnoxious, stupid and incredibly irritating, but he also makes the storyline extremely hard to absorb. I found his dialogues to be very annoying and I couldn’t find any reason why he had to be inserted in the story. His only role in the book was to piss off Ali and Hassan, attract the attention of the aliens towards himself and endangering his and Hassan’s life, and also being a borderline perverse character with no morals. I admit a few negative characters can make a story interesting, but Saleem did nothing of the sort.
Hassan is basically an ex-machina of sorts: he exists in the story solely to take Ali to the old woman. He’s literally why Ali managed to be brought back to life. His belief in Sufism was enough to cure Ali but I would say this part of the story needs severe re-doing to make it believable.
The aliens/drones were picturesquely destructive, to the point that their motive to come to Earth was barely clear. I feel this part also needs a little bit more work.
Overall Impression
For a first-time effort, this is not a bad story at all. It could easily be a strong 3-star or 4-star book if it went through more editing and plot detailing.
One of the first things I thought when I finished this book was that this would be GREAT as a comic book. It ticks all the boxes for it, and there is enough zap and action in it to make the cartoons really colorful and interesting. If it were revamped as a comic, I would definitely read as many parts as would be published in this storyline. I also feel there is a lot of room for growth and story continuation in the plot. The book leaves off at an easy spot from where it can be picked up for an improved second part or comic quiet easily.
I would be willing to give this author another try if he were to publish another book. I also would recommend this book to any teenager who wants to dive into reading and has a hard time grasping fantasy/drama books and needs a light read.
3 stars
Synopsis
A family man, Ali, haunted by his past seeks peace while a global war throws everything into chaos.
Only a pure heart can acquire the superpower that can save mankind from extinction. Will the United Nations work with an unknown person and trust his mysterious abilities for the sake of humanity?
Plot
Qalandar – roughly translated to mean “free man” or “Sufi Saint” – is basically a story about Ali discovering one day that he has superpowers, important to save the world from an imminent alien invasion. Set in Azaad Kashmir, this sci-fi story starts slow, with Ali enjoying a seemingly normal day with his wife and two children, only to end up experiencing a series of strange events after he goes to his stable. First, his dog starts acting rabid, then his horse runs away, and if that wasn’t enough, once he reaches work, there is a threat of war between India and Pakistan, and he has to rush home to pack up his family and leave for Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital.
The story touches upon the topics of religion, belief, faith, supernatural powers, rebirth and Sufism, serving in the army, and violence, although each topic is covered in a very swift manner.
After Ali leaves his work with Saleem, an addict co-worker, his main goal is to pick his daughter from her school, reach home, and leave Kashmir, as the buildings, roads and cars around him are being destroyed by a strange creatures flying around.
Once he picks his daughter from school and reaches home, he is told by his wife that according to the news, the destruction isn’t a sudden war between India and Pakistan; it’s worldwide . This basically means that they are stuck in their home, and are at God’s mercy. Ali is soon joined by his good friend, Hassan, who has been searching for dervishes or Sufis to cure his father. Ali has always disagreed with Hassan’s stance on this. The importance of this part of the story is later revealed. During all this commotion, the little kids manage to run to the forest after a small animal, where Ali mistakenly steps on a landmine. This is when Hassan picks his friend up, and with the help of the addict Saleem, drives him way off into the mountain to an old woman with magical powers, who agrees to cure Ali on the condition his heart is good enough to take the healing.
Ali, brought back to life by the power of a green crystal, is now Earth’s only hope to save it from the millions and millions of drones that have descended at the command of aliens. I can’t summarize the plot any longer without completely spoiling the story.
Story Line
I try to be kind to newly published authors for two reasons: a. they have little to no expertise in book publication/promotion and have to rely on reviewers to get word out about their book, and b. obviously having just started, they don’t have much knowledge of what boxes to tick and how to put their story into words that are both impressive and that sell .
While Fraz Ahmed has managed to bring to life a completely unique story, I feel the story has a lot of plot holes/faults/discrepancies that he’ll have to fix.
I am totally on-board with the idea of a story set with a beautiful landscape as its backdrop and wholesome characters who have just a tad bit of mental scars to heal. However, this story lacks in a lot of areas that a little bit of description about mountains and lakes cannot fix. For starters, the whole thing about Earth actually getting a superhero started after the 95-page mark, leaving only 50 or so pages for Ali to get accustomed to his powers and destroy the drones and their aliens. Also, in those 50 pages, the author was so absorbed in making Ali to be a superhero that he forgot that this is Ali’s FIRST time being a superhero, and the fact that he happened to just wake up and take complete control over his power (that he didn’t even believe existed merely TWO HOURS ago) is an extremely far-fetched idea to sell. Moreover, the part of the book focused on saving Earth has nothing but colorfully written scenes about Ali destroying drones, army weaponry raining down and the aliens regretting the attack. It’s basically a summary of the kick-ass-ing part of Independence Day or Pacific Rim, or any other related movie.
Don’t get me wrong. I am a HUGE sucker for sci-fi movies/books. It’s one of my favorite genres. But I love the character growth, the failed strategies, the hero’s faults, the thrill, the chase of the bad guys in all of that. Qalandar, although a good concept for a sci-fi book, fails to deliver the kind of depth I need from a book that’s about an alien invasion.
Moreover, I find many faults in the Dervish-bestowing-power plotline. For starters, who is the old woman? Where did SHE get her power from? What determines the power of a “good heart”? If a “good heart” is basically a man being kind to everyone and loving his family and saving someone from trouble, then isn’t every other person deserving of this mysterious power? I admit the world isn’t full of good guys, but there was nothing that made Ali particularly special enough to be deserving of this power. I also feel the whole part where he is resurrected was rushed, to the point that him being brought back to life made zero sense. I understand religion and faith are extremely sensitive topics, and you can’t brush on them without feeling you are overstepping some boundaries, which would explain the author’s hastiness to discuss these topics. BUT, the dervishes and Sufism are an important chapter in Islam, and while I am no expert in the subject, I have read enough on Rumi’s understanding of the subject that I find the green crystal and its connection to dervishes to be severely lacking.
I also felt that a lot of the “alien invasion” part is based on a lot of popular movies on the topic, with little to no depth on the subject. It’s literally a recount of spaceships appearing out of nowhere and attacking millions of reasons because….they hate humanity or something. It’s so unbelievable a topic that I wasn’t entirely invested in that topic. I also did not find any logic behind representatives from top countries around the world being able to sit in a SINGLE room and decide on a UNIFORM pathway within HOURS of an alien invasion. I could defend this by saying the attack happened weeks ago or something but I don’t think the time was mentioned specifically in the book. That leaves behind a lot of questions: how come there are no disagreements between the most powerful countries in the world about how to tackle this? How come China, Russia, Germany, USA and Europe can all see eye to eye on a man coming in and using mysterious powers to thwart millions of drones? I just don’t find it believable. I am not saying that it can’t be, but that it needs a lot more work to be plausible.
Furthermore, I feel Ali’s power was extremely convenient for him. Where comics on Avengers and DC heroes and others draw heavily on the fact that your powers are only as controllable as you make them to be this Qalandar power is conveniently easy to control. There are no drawbacks to how much Ali can channel the tiny, green dervishes, nor are there any side effects of suddenly becoming a superhero. Logically, I believe a person cannot just wake up from a death-like experience, find out they have a new power, and learn to harness it in a matter of seconds . If that were possible, Hulk’s constant plight with being able to control his anger, Thor’s inability to keep his power in check, and Ironman’s superpower being affected when his suit was defected would not exist.
While the author manages to put a fresh new perspective on the same-old “superhero” concept, the story manages to deliver only 25% of the actual concept. I also would like to mention that I found the start of the book to be severely lacking, especially because Ali’s fixation on his wife’s beauty and her goodness for paragraph after paragraph is not something you feel is important for a sci-fi novel. It’s great for a romance novel, but a book that is already 150 pages, and 30 of these are dedicated to how lovely his wife’s cheeks are? I find no reason to why this was important to the overall story.
Characters
This, unfortunately, was the worst part of the book.
Ali wakes up with a new source of unimaginable, almost-Godlike powers and yet gets no time to get used to his superpower. I admit the events happened within a few days of each other, but no one is prepared for powers of this extent.
Ali’s wife and children serve little or no role in him becoming a superhero, so they basically act as decorative characters, which are great for drama/fiction/romance novels but serve no purpose in a sci-fi novel
Saleem is literally one of the worst characters I have ever read about in a book. Not only is he obnoxious, stupid and incredibly irritating, but he also makes the storyline extremely hard to absorb. I found his dialogues to be very annoying and I couldn’t find any reason why he had to be inserted in the story. His only role in the book was to piss off Ali and Hassan, attract the attention of the aliens towards himself and endangering his and Hassan’s life, and also being a borderline perverse character with no morals. I admit a few negative characters can make a story interesting, but Saleem did nothing of the sort.
Hassan is basically an ex-machina of sorts: he exists in the story solely to take Ali to the old woman. He’s literally why Ali managed to be brought back to life. His belief in Sufism was enough to cure Ali but I would say this part of the story needs severe re-doing to make it believable.
The aliens/drones were picturesquely destructive, to the point that their motive to come to Earth was barely clear. I feel this part also needs a little bit more work.
Overall Impression
For a first-time effort, this is not a bad story at all. It could easily be a strong 3-star or 4-star book if it went through more editing and plot detailing.
One of the first things I thought when I finished this book was that this would be GREAT as a comic book. It ticks all the boxes for it, and there is enough zap and action in it to make the cartoons really colorful and interesting. If it were revamped as a comic, I would definitely read as many parts as would be published in this storyline. I also feel there is a lot of room for growth and story continuation in the plot. The book leaves off at an easy spot from where it can be picked up for an improved second part or comic quiet easily.
I would be willing to give this author another try if he were to publish another book. I also would recommend this book to any teenager who wants to dive into reading and has a hard time grasping fantasy/drama books and needs a light read.
January 2, 2020
I think it is a best science fiction book to read in short stories category.
I read the e-book version from amazon.
I read the e-book version from amazon.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews