Line of Control- A Thriller on the Coming War in Asia

There is so much about war and fighter aircrafts and warfare and tanks and radar.. it got too much at times. Too heavy is what I kept telling reading this book.

An excellent read. The author had brought out the details of action/ operations as close to real action as far as possible. Breathtaking, one doesn't want any break after start reading

Loved it!!! I have become a fan. Will be reading all his books.... This book was gripping from the start and it kept the tempo till the end

superb narration

Mainak has a good ability to reproduce the same effect as Clancy. I'm reading the Jack Ryan series and this book reminded me so much of that. The plot is strong and well developed and the story is woven in an interesting fashion. This book has all that is necessary to keep you engaged and makes for a racy read. This involves war and the emotions run high while reading this one especially if you are a fan of reading about wars. There are a few mistakes however but one can ignore those given that this is fiction. The blurb seemed interesting and therefore I decided to read it during a flight and was satisfied enough.The descriptions about the war and the details covered are good and that shows the research and understanding of the author about the nitty gitties of the same. It has adequate amount of suspense that any gripping novel should have. And that's what makes you keep reading it till the end. It arouses fears and patriotism abound and that is quite essential for the plot and narrative. This gives you a lot of details on the warfare used and you will learn a lot on facts and about these warfare. It touches the hot and sensitive topic of India vs. Pakistan which again keeps you hooked.In all, it was a good read.

Seeing the blurb, cover and the praises in the description I was honestly pretty excited to read the book. In past such type of books have been really good for ex, Nation At War Series which is one of my fav by Varun Tejwani. You can check out reviews for the same on my website.Apart from that, the book honestly felt like a cross hybrid between a military weapons encyclopedia and your typical 90's bollywood classic. That's the best I can describe without much revelation of the plot. I am a reader of political thrillers but here the story didn't grab my attention at all. Surely, it was a fast paced and the descriptions along with some gore were quite to the point but it didn't connect at all.It felt maybe too fast to get in sync with the plot or maybe it was boring, I really can't say. I somehow managed to finish it as it was quite predictable. The author truly states that it is indeed a reflection of the world we are living in right now. It felt like someone just edited real life news too much and just mixed it up really good with a lot of conspiracy theories that are always roaming around in the political realm.In a gist if you love your typical and very predictable bollywood 'war' thriller you'd love this new flavour but there's nothing much to it unless you are extremely into knowing about new weapons and tactics.

I have always loved reading books from this Author, he has set a standard for himself. Reading the book when news about "Isis starting a new province in Kashmir" so could relate easily. Plot is interesting and gripping till the end, finished in one go. As the title reads all action is at the Line of control (India and Pakistan) and activities related to it. Author has worked hard to build the characters and situations for the story. He has done justice to all characters and situations. He is successful in narrating the story by running parallell sub stories as there is so much to explain, happening at same time. Though somethings you might not agree with the plot/author but it is not completely impossible scenario.There is no one hero, no good side, bad side, only few fanatic bad power hungry people, how dangerous it would be if power is given to bad religiously inclined people. To know more read the book.Pros:I liked all the Quotes at start of each chapter.Would recommend it to all readers who love reading fiction and thrillers.

The scenario that was depicted here is quite reasonable. The tactics and the equipment's that were described are also genuine. The heroics were portrayed in a realistic fashion.Two things that I would have expected from this book were-1. The position of Indian and Pakistani allies during a conflict of such magnitude were completely missing. The role that Afghanistan, Israel, France, Rusdia,Iran, Bangladesh would have played were obscure.2. None of the counties try to deploy strategic missiles with conventional warheads. This baffled me a bit as I would have expected such scenarios.Otherwise, it was a very good book to read and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

This book is a "future history" based on the Indo-Pak border in a world where an Islamicist Saudi Arabia has influenced Pakistan intoinvading Kashmir.Parts of it I found really good, but some of it was so "wooden" I had difficulty keeping up my momentum.It was almost like a script for a bad film, with snarling villains and lovelorn maidens.At some stages i felt the only thing missing was the Bollywood style singing and dancing.The use of hyphens as a form of punctuation was a little annoying.The Air weapons side seem well researched and plausable, but some of the Land and Sea action and tactics were amusing.Do the Pakistani Army really sleep in tents when going tactical?A trained killer stabbing a man in the stomach to kill him? Not the neck? OddThe stagey and unbelievable way that the bady guy Sethi hands money to his thugs in public conveniently allowing himself to be inadvertently filmed was unbelievable..Do the Indian Army really shout "Mortar shell coming in" or "Shells coming in" when under attack? Such a mouthful! Why not "Mortar", "Tubing" or good old "INCOMING"One part has the Indian Army throwing grenades at the enemy as they advance at a run. Frag grenades are classed as defensive grenades because the effective casualty radius of most match or exceed the distance they could be thrown, (30m ish) thus necessitating them being thrown from behind cover.SS-N-25 missiles on the Khukri class corvettes?There were more errors, but I have noted enough here to say that this author is not the equal of Tom Clancy.

Contrary to what was suggested in some of the reviews, this book is most certainly not 'better than Tom Clancy'. My expectations were set quite high, partly by the reviews and partly by the potentially refreshing setting and subject. However the book turned out to be very predictable, unimaginative and more or less an endless string of short, loosely related chapters. There is no doubt as to where the author's allegiances lie; one can predict what the outcome of the conflict will be from the very early chapters onward.If the comparison with Tom Clancy-type thrillers is made, these are rife with details of military hardware, (covert) units, tactics used and the like, which is the expectation that was set. These feature in this book as well, but not in any depth. As mentioned, the chapters are short and leave very little space for this sort of detail other than the mention of type numbers of certain weapons without any sort of satisfying background or elaboration. No surprises here, nothing we haven't seen a few times before on the Discovery Channel. The enemy is mostly blasted to shreds at the earliest opportunity.From a 'creative writing class' point of view, the characters are flat and don't develop throughout the story. Hardly any suspense is built up, it is almost as if the author is afraid to put his own side at risk of defeat, even though he's in control of the novel. This makes for a very one-sided and predictive storyline and negates much of the tension.Lastly, we could again be a victim of self-publishing without proper editing. The thing that most amused me about this book in the end was counting the instances where "it's" should be "its" and vice versa.All in all, despite the above, this is not the most terrible novel for true fans of the genre. However, it feels serialised and rushed. There are many opportunities throughout the book that I can't help but feel could have been developed more to make this a gripping story and a good novel indeed.

I approached this book with interest because it is in the same genre - geopolitical thriller/future history - as my own Amazon Kindle novel  The Schmetterling Effect . Both Mainak's book and mine extrapolate from the present to describe geopolitical events, including military action involving nuclear devices, that are set in the near future, though in different theatres and with different outcomes.Before I started to read Mainak's book proper, my interest was reinforced by noting from the product description that Air Commodore Jasjeet Singh (Retd.) Director, Institute for Air Power Studies, praised the Indian paperback version as being "better than Tom Clancy". In that regard, I consider that Tom Clancy's  Red Storm Rising  is the best work in our joint genre that I have ever read: I have a battered paperback copy of this that I bought over two decades ago and have read over and over again.I was not in the slightest disappointed by Mainak's book. On the contrary, I liked it very much. While I would not be so bold as to say that he is better than Tom Clancy, I can say that he is in the same class. His alarmingly plausible account of the course of a future conflict between India and Pakistan is masterly on many different levels, ranging through compelling descriptions of small scale infantry fighting, 21st century dogfights and tank battles up to the efforts of the sinister Emir to act as Pakistan's puppet master and the desperate attempts of the Indian government to ascertain what exactly Pakistan is trying to accomplish, and how. The characters are excellently drawn and real to life. Although, not unexpectedly, almost all of the Indian characters are sympathetic, the Pakistani military includes heroic people who do not draw back from undertaking a coup when their consciences so dictate.I found the story not only engaging and gripping, but educational in giving me for the first time an insider view of the tense relationship that exists between India and Pakistan. I hope that you enjoy it as much as me. The Schmetterling EffectRed Storm Rising

With all the concentration on Afghanistan and Iran, this is an interesting take on a potentially more likely future conflict in the Indian sub-continent that is highly likely, given the past history of animosity and belligerance between India and Pakistan.It's a good story with plenty of twists and will appeal to political/ military thriller readers who have little knowledge of the way these two countries are likely to square up to each other in any future conflict.A good read on an unusual theme.

This is the first book I have read written by an Asian about Asia and it is very interesting and an eye opener. I have been aware of the conflict between India and Pakistan for a long time and this gives a good insight from a different perspective. The story was convincing but hopefully this remains fiction. The only downside is that the characters appear too American which jarred with the Asian setting. Otherwise well written and keeps you wanting to know what happens next.