Flood of Fire by Amitav GhoshMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Another saga of the Ibis family from the author. The book takes off from the point where the earlier book "Rivers of Smoke".
It primarily traces the life of Kesri Singh, Captain Mee, Neel and Mrs. Shireen Behram Moddie through the first opium war. It traces the history of how the British bulldozed the Chinese to hand over Hong Kong to them and forced them to accept the opium trade through which they made their riches.
Very well presented like the earlier two books. Well researched in terms of how the opium war proceeded.
All seems to end well for the British and the protagonists in the book. Neel unites with this son Raju, Kesri, Neel, Raju, Maddow and Jodu escape on Ibis towards Mauritius. Captain Mee and Mrs. Burnham perish. It looks that Zachary Reid and Paulette would start together on a new life as will Shireen and the Armenian Zadig Bey.
It appears that the author will not take this saga forward, but one wishes that he does.
The book ends with British taking hold of the island of Hong Kong.
A definitely good read. A suggestion read all the three books quickly unless you are of the type who remembers the story and characters for a long period of time.
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