Book Review: Luka and the Fire of Life
If you have not yet flown on a magic carpet, you probably don't know about the seasickness. A flying carpet makes a slow, rolling, wavelike movement as it passes through the air, not exactly as if it’s floating on airwaves, but more as if the carpet itself has become a kind of silken air that can bear you aloft and take you wherever you want to go.
Luka is a twelve year old boy who loves playing video games. He is worried about his left-handedness in an essentially familiar right-handed world and secretly envies his older brother Haroun, whose adventures have turned into family legend. Stop here. Because now you need to shift yourself from the land of ordinary and adjust in a minutely imagined landscape of the extraordinary packed with riddling demons and benevolent wonderland styled creatures. Welcome to the sequel of Haroun and the Sea of Stories.
When Luka is twelve, his father Rashid Khalifa seems to be giving up to the passing of time. Rashid's life is slipping away. Luka discovers that the only way to save him is to steal the precious Fire of Life that burns at the top of the Mountain of Knowledge and for this, he must travel into the World of Magic. But this is not a familiar territory belonging to the fantastic. Here the laws of video games control an individual's progress. With his loyal companions, a Bear named dog and a Dog named bear, Luka sets off on his journey in this alternate world. Accompanying them, is the ghost of his father's death, Nobodaddy. The ghost-father is an avatar of real Rashid Khalifa and the more life the ghost gains, the more lifeless the real Rashid becomes. Thus begins Luka's journey in this new World resembling a multi-level computer game where he must collect enough lives to survive the increasingly dangerous levels waiting on his way.
In between this adventurous journey in an world of alternate realities, Salman Rushdie does not forget to include witty anecdotes, smart wordplay and intended puns. Examples :
Luka asks "Who choses the Over-Rat?" He chooses himself. "It's known as being Over-Rat-ed."
Luka's Mother's dislike of games consoles makes her "in-console-able".Often funny, often engaging, Luka and the Fire of Life is a story invented for children, of a boy who enters the world of magic to defeat evil forces. As for the reader it may be tough to connect initially. But once you get hold of that magic carpet probably you should not be feeling seasick anymore. I did not.
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I had received the review copy from Random House India. Thank you Rukun for giving me the opportunity. You can buy this book at amazon or at flipkart in case you live in India.You can also find the lowest price of this book in India at shoppingwish.in
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