Book review of The Book: “The Transfer Protocol” Published by: notionpress.com in 2016 Author: Dr. Saket Chattopadhyay

Reviewed by Dr. VK Singh, Editor-in-Chief, InnoHEALTH

The bookstores world over are stuffed with sci-fi novels, but regrettably nothing substantial has come out in this genre from India. But maybe with publishing houses coming to the fore, this situation is about to change for good. This latest sci-fi book by Saket titled, The Transfer Protocol is a step in the right direction, I would say.

This novel is about Dr. Almast who is trying to develop a super-being that will have telepathic and telekinetic powers. Went above your head, did it? The super-creature can predict future actions of humans and control objects with its brain. The brilliant scientist is looking for someone who can fund his advanced research work and that is where Dr. Toros comes in the form of a saviour. But all is not as it appears, Dr. Almast would soon find out. Mixed into the fray is the doctor’s loving and vulnerable family. All the ingredients blend to give us a survivor, a fighter, and a hero that we can’t help but cheer on.

The futuristic ideas that are being portrayed are all outrageous, to be honest, but the way in which the scientific mumbo-jumbo has been explained is so simple that there is never any trouble in understanding the ongoing drama. Not to mention, the humor that is latent in some serious

situations. Certain places in the story, for example, when Dr. Almast hides in a fish tank and the fishy smell saves him from getting detected are humorous. Again, humour rises when he hides in a detergent tub in a ladies’ room to save himself and then nearly chokes. These doses of humor, interspersed with all the serious drama work, is a nice relief and enhance the quality of the plot.

The narrative flows so fast that it becomes impossible to predict what’s going to come next and that is what creates the magic in this novel. The story has been placed in America and yet the Indian-ness of the characters strikes you and helps you relate better to them.

The Indian book market is flooded with love stories today. I have nothing against the love stories and their writers. But for the overall growth of the publishing industry and for luring a wider array of readers, we need stories from different genres. Sci-fi has always been a very lucrative and successful genre and it’s something that needs to be nurtured and developed right now in India. The author has done well in this direction.