Sheehan stands out as a creative author who can kindle our enthusiasm, as he weaves a brilliant tale in "SkyView: Lord of the Wills". The fresh and intriguing plot has beautifully blended features: A theme centred around the protagonists chasing a huge wealth; a medieval historical puzzle intertwining modern-day feud among the family heirs over 700 years; the history that comes alive through SkyView - a supersonic jet with AR, to digitally reconstruct the events of the past; sophisticated AI ship and magical HoloTable.
The book explores history from a different perspective. Sheehan establishes the amazing reality that some powerful people behind, have twisted it deliberately. Besides, the adventure, action, fantasy, suspense, mystery and drama elements built into the story, aroused a non-stop curiosity in me.
The story revolves around the 'Wills' left behind by eight wealthy promoters of a group company who founded it in 1318. The founders are from eight different countries - The UK, The Netherlands, Ireland, France, Bohemia, Greece, Germany and Spain, united in Switzerland for business objectives.
Owing to differences of opinions on operational matters they part ways thus leading to factions of good and evil forces -'Pillars'. An ill-conceived succession plan in the 'Wills' triggers cruel conflicts between the rival 'Pillars', who are fighting even in the 21st century, to establish the legitimate 'Lord' for the massive wealth.
Sheehan has dexterously chosen the hero's name as "Will-I-Am' -- William -- a British -- who discovers that the company he has been working for, was originally promoted by his great-grandfather -- one of the architects of the 'Wills'! He is startled to know that he can inherit a huge fortune as a legal heir.
William learns that his grandfather died mysteriously. The cryptic will tempts him to unravel the mystery and go all out for the hidden fortune. The thought that every man is the architect of his destiny forces him to undertake a challenging quest. He digs into a murky past. He doesn't know that he has to face many impediments, betrayals, seclusion and astonishing realities. The story gets interesting when his mission is facilitated by six more legitimate heirs of the founders. They are challenged by the antagonists - 'disinherited' heirs from the rival factions of the splinter group!
The protagonists make bold attempts to corroborate their legitimacy for the ancestral properties, through the 'Wills'. The 'Wills' cryptically link events through the history, which they need to decipher, only via the SkyView. They need to untie the knots of schemed conspiracies that happened in the 13th century. Puzzling dirty politics, shadowy past and mysterious connections emerge.
The heroes realize that they have to always put their best foot forward. They know no gain without pain. The unsuspecting heroes do wrong speculations and suffer mental drains, due to the misleading acts of deceptive enemies. Their cohesion gets challenged by the clever enemies who try to manipulate the SkyView, thereby the contents in the wills, to their favour.
The story spirals into intriguing twists with an unguessable end. How the mysterious dots in the wills are going to be connected to evolve the big picture? That indeed galvanized my interests throughout!
Sheehan perfectly portrays William by depicting his multifarious abilities. He has handled the other character developments distinctively. A reader can see a piece of himself within the characters.
To invigorate the intelligent storyline, Sheehan with his wisdom and imagination cohesively handles some extraordinary features: Eidetic memory; cypher codings; invisibility shields; cradle - a parallel world operation by faking one's death! He describes through vivid scenes: Drive-in volcano; graphene embedded forearms for defence, mind-link communication, unlocking secrets through trace DNA; and fake arrests. Indeed, I felt like travelling in William's ship and the SkyView!
Sheehan engages the reader by carefully structuring the storyline with authenticity. He has beautifully brought out the conflict between the good and evil 'Pillars'. He maintains a good tempo, stays focussed on his aim and with balanced narratives and dialogues, he delivers satisfaction.
However the brakes in between: innumerable characters; unresolved suspense; repetitions; some incomprehensible descriptions.
Sheehan doesn't sound like a neo-author. The plot is well-researched with deep-rooted history interleaves, which sometimes make you wonder whether it's fiction or real!
My favourite lines: “To reach the heights of heaven you must also reach the depths of hell"; "Success is when opportunity meets preparation." The book with such numerous appreciable lines (I enjoyed ~ 50 lines), ticks the right chords.
I plan to read the sequel to understand how the remaining knots will be untied.
In essence: Efficacious plot with a very good entertainment quotient. A reader will certainly enjoy wonderful moments with the uniqueness and conceptual intensity in the storyline. You too can delight in a panoramic virtual tour across Europe and Africa as the story draws you in! Bonus - Amazing facts!!
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