Kim's Review : Queen of Someday - Stolen Empire Series

Sherry Ficklin's Stolen Empire Series is the story of Princess Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg and her journey to becoming Catherine the Great of Russia.

While the subject matter itself is extremely exciting and I was really looking forward to some Historical Fiction set in Russia, however Sherry's treatment of the subject is more reminiscent of Reign (featuring Queen of Scotland Mary Stuart), than The Tudors or The Borgias.

An innocent naive child thrown into the political intrigue of the Imperial Russian Court as a possible suitor for Peter the III, with a mother spying for the Germans, an aging Empress wanting to secure her own line, young and old men attracted to her beauty and an unreliable and slightly manic Royal suitor.

This book might appeal to a younger audience, but for me personally I wished that it had a little more substance than romantic dalliances.

I loved the concept of a youtube video link at the end of some chapters, that showed original paintings of the time and an actress playing the role of Catherine. However, I would not be picking up any more books in this trilogy.

Rating : 3/5

#100BooksPact 10/100

Kim's Review : Sita's Sister

Kavita Kane's Second Novel (after Karna's Wife) - Sita's Sister, demonstrates how much she has grown as a novelist.

This book tells the Ramayan from the perspective of Urmila - Sita's Sister, the natural born daughter of King Janaka of Mithila and Queen Sunayana - the wife of Lakshman - the Princess who supposedly slept away the 13 years of exile, so that her husband may remain ever alert & awake. She is often ignored in the main retellings of the Ramayana.

However, who is to say whose trials were worse - that of young bride Sita who accompanied her husband for 14 years in the forest or those of newly married Urmila forced to live away from her husband for 14 years while e followed his brother dutifully?

Sita's sister makes some excellent points. And unlike most retellings that say that Urmila slept for the 14 years that her family was away, here Kavita Kane's Urmila is the essential lynch pin who holds the rest of the family in Ayodhya together for 14 years. Kavita's Urmila is responsible beyond her years, a well educated scholar in her own right, grounded, sensible, emotionally stable Princess. It was a pleasure to see the Ramayan through her eyes.

Kavita also touches on Mandavi & Shrutakirti - their cousins who were married to Bharata & Shatrugna - and how the exile affected them too.

However, the most poignant redemption in this book is that of Kaikeyi.

This is a lovely book, well worth reading, especially if you are interested in different narratives of the epics.

Rating : 4 / 5

#100BooksPact 8/100

Brajesh's Review : Scion of Ikshvaku

I am a huge fan of Amish Tripathi, and was delighted to get my copy of Scion of Ikshvaku in London, through my parents. I finished the book in 3 days and continue to be excited by his unique rendition of the historical epics.

Many of the usual tricks return from the earlier trilogy of Meluha in the form of DeviAstra, Somras and Nagas. While one is by now quite familiar with the tricks and plot movers, the unusual take on such a familiar epic and subtle but significant movement of key plot-line with really strong character definition makes this another lovely read.

The references to the coming of a strong suryavanshi society in a city named Meluha give joy to the readers of the earlier trilogy. Economics and power remain at the centre of the plot while subtle conversations and hidden agendas lurk in the background.

Overall this book remains a page-turner and I just can’t wait for the next book. Amish you are truly the modern literary rockstar of India.

Rating : 4/5

Brajesh's Review : Girl Meets Boy

After being bowled over by Karen Armstrong’s “A Short History of Myth” I ordered two more books in the Myth Series.

Ali Smith takes the story of Iphis in which Telethusa metamorphoses her child to keep her alive, and turns this mythical narrative into a powerful feminist novel.

The protagonist Anthea goes through the realization of her lesbianism and finally marries the girl she loves. The counter point is her sister Midge who has a strong traditional outlook and struggles with capitalism and conventional relationships. The story is quite confusing in the first 30 pages where our personal gender stereotypes make it difficult to follow the narrative, but once you get comfortable with the style, the story moves at a fast clip and ends explosively.

Rating : 3 / 5

Kim's Review : Asura

Asura is actually the first published book of Anand Neelakantan who wrote Ajaya - Epic of the Kaurava Clan (a book I had loved, earlier last year). Asura is the Ramayana from Ravana's perspective.

I had bought this book long before I bought Ajaya, but hadn't gotten around to reading it and ended up reading Ajaya (even though it was just the first of 2 books and the second one still hasn't been published) before Asura. I'm glad I did.

If I had read Asura first, I may never have dared to pick up Ajaya. The simple fact of the matter is that being the authors first book and self published (my copy) - it needs quite a bit of editing. Reading a badly edited book, is frustrating for me because as a one time editor and one time lecturer, I find I then begin to focus on spotting the errors, rather than letting the story wash over me.

Coming to the story itself, it is very interesting and its a completely new perspective. I sent the Hindi translation to Brajesh's dad and he was quite disturbed as to how an author could say that Rama was flawed - maybe I shouldn't have sent him this book, because it does shake the core of your beliefs and could be quite upsetting if you take your beliefs seriously.

However, just because he questions Rama's actions, he doesn't conversely put Ravana on a pedestal either. Anand's Ravana too is flawed and egoistical and naive and suffers from human frailties.

Bhadra is an extremely interesting character. He keeps appearing (almost Forrest Gump like) at the most opportune (or inopportune moments) and he too is instrumental in moving the narrative further. To me Bhadra is a bigger hero in this book, than Ravana himself.

At times Asura gets extremely philosophical and drags a bit. There were many times, that I considered dropping the book, but the perspective kept me hooked.

Asura has a lot to offer, but it also needs a good editor to trim, prune and polish the story just a little bit to keep the reader completely engrossed.

Rating : 2.75 / 5

Kim's Review : Ajaya - Epic of the Kaurava Clan - Roll of the Dice

 

"Ajaya" is Anand Neelakantan's second book, but the first one that I read (I had bought Ravana as soon as it came out, but its still lying unread in my bookshelf.)

A chance visit to a small village in South India, that was celebrating the feast of Suyodhana (popularly known as Duryodhana) planted the seed of this thought in his mind and we the readers are truly blessed for having the opportunity to read what he conceptualised.

In this tale, Suyodhana is the righteous one and the Pandavas are the illegitimate children of the younger brothers wife who are conspiring to take control of the kingdom. The same stories that all of us have learnt about the Mahabharata from childhood, are turned on their head as propaganda by the victors of the war - the Pandavas.

Parashurama and his belief in the strict observance of class rules, forms a backdrop to the setting of this version of the Ramayana. Dhaumya is his mouthpiece/spy in Hastinapura who then allies with Kunti and her sons to spout his beliefs.

Duryodhana is the enlightened, sensitive one who truly wants to do his best to uplift his subjects from their misery.

The whole tale is retold from a more practical and believable point of view and this alone makes it worth reading multiple times (to catch the many nuances)

Rating : 4.5 / 5

Also read Brajesh's Review of this book.

Brajesh's Review : Ajaya - Epic of the Kaurava Clan - Roll of the Dice

 

Krishna the evil plotter v/s Balram the noble ruler.
Yudhishtir the greedy brother v/s the loyalist.
Kunti the sinister queen v/s Gandhari the exploited one.
Ekalavya the man of merit v/s Arjun the favoured student.
Karna the victim of caste v/s Drona the pedantic teacher.
Bheem the moronic lout v/s Suyodhana the noble, loving, kind crown prince who changes all social norms to ensure well-being and equality.

This book presents the story from the point of view of the defeated. It almost feels like you are watching the story through a 2 way mirror where everything is upside down, or downside up . Anyone who has any interest in the greatest story ever told must read this version of Mahabharat.

This book, by Anand Neelakantan questions every notion we have held and presents a narrative which is equally compelling and honest. Makes one wonder about our mythological narratives which we hold so dear and that's the strength of this book.

Hats off to Anand for taking on such a deep rooted story and presenting an equally beautiful contra-view. My favourite character is the marginalised, untouchable beggar named Jara and his blind dog "Dharma"

Rating : 4.5 / 5

Kim's Review : Karna's Wife - The Outcast's Queen

"Karna's Wife - The Outcast's Queen" is Kavita Kane's first novel. Kavita is a journalist by profession, but she has chosen an extremely gripping topic for her debut novel.

Karna is often considered the most unfortunate and tragic character in the Mahabharata. Trapped in circumstances, not of his making, brought up by a charioteer, but with a higher calling, forced by fate and a friendship to fight against his brothers on the side of evil, tricked by Indra, Krishna and his birth mother into giving up his rights and celestial gifts. Cursed by Parashurama, a brahmin in deer form that he killed by mistake, Bhudevi - Mother Earth herself and his birth. With all these disadvantages weighing against him, he still fought the 18 day war at Kurukshetra and died a tragic death, stripped even of his righteousness by Krishna. Yet not much is known about his life, his line of reasoning and his perspective throughout this scenario.

This is what Kavita Kane, strives to enlighten us about in this book. While the title and the lead character in "The Outcasts Queen" is Princess Uruvi of Pukeya who chose to marry Karna in a Swayamvara, the tale Kavita tells is as much about Karna as it is about Uruvi. As far as I know, the Mahabharata mentions Vrushali, but not Uruvi. Shivaji Savant's epic work on Karna - "Mrityunjaya" also talks of Vrushali, but not Uruvi. Later Tamil literature talks of a wife called Ponnauruvi and this perhaps is the inspiration for Kavita's heroine.

"The Outcasts Queen" starts when Princess Uruvi, the only daughter of the King of Pukeya sets eyes on a God-like Karna when he enters the archery tournament in Hastinapur, but who is quickly rebuked and insulted about his low caste birth, until Duryodhana comes to his rescue (for his own selfish reasons) and crowns him King of Anga.

She falls in love with him on sight and at her Swayamvara while she is tipped to marry Arjuna, she actually chooses Karna in a dramatic opposite to the scenario a few years earlier at Draupadi's swayamvara.

From pampered and doted Princess, Uruvi now has to live her life as the second wife to an Outcast King, who is not even accepted as a Kshatriya. Aside from the humiliation she faces from the world, she also has to deal with resentment from Karna's first wife, suspicion from his brother Shona and awe and distance from Karna's adopted parents who really do not know what to make of her.

The only thing that sustains her is her love for Karna (and his for her) and implicit trust in his goodness, that is completely shattered with Draupadi's disrobing.

The story continues along the well known thread of the sequence in the Mahabharath, but this time from Uruvi and Karna's perspective, until Karna's death and the Pandavas & Lord Krishna taking Uruvi and Karna's son Vrishaketu under their wing.

*Spoiler Alert*
There were a lot of revelations for me in this book and I'm not sure whether these are actually facts from the original Mahabharata or gleaned from later interpretations or completely a figment of imagination on the part of the author.
1. Karna was married to Vrushali (from the charioteer caste) and had 7 sons with her, one of whom was killed at the melee at Draupadi's swayamvara.
2. Gandhari was tricked into marrying Dhritarashtra by Bhishma Pitamaha and this was what caused Shakuni's resentment, which he nurtured as hate among Gandhari's sons.
3. Gandhari tried to kill Duryodhana in her womb, when she realised that Kunti would have a son before her, making him the next in line to the throne. (although Dhritarashtra was older than Pandu, his blindness gave Pandu precedence to the throne. To prevent this erupting into a conflict, Bhishma Pitamaha was trying to get the eldest Kuru grandson to be Dhritarashtra's son)
4. Bhishma's refusal to be Commander in Chief for the Kauravas if Karna stepped on the battleground is often held to be  because he held Karna in contempt. But Kavita attributes it to Bhishmas realisation that Karna is a son of Kunti and he wants to prevent the brothers from killing each other.
5. The concepts of niyoga and pratiloma among others.
6. The introduction of Bhanumati as a character. As the wife of Duryodhana, she also presents a sligtly deeper insight in Duryodhana's character.
7. The allusion that Draupadi was actually in love with Karna and could not choose him at her Swayamvara because of external and familial complications.
*Spoiler Alert Ends*

What I liked about this book is the perspective it presents is quite new. We rarely get to hear Karna's side of the story.
A lot of information was new to me, but as I mentioned before, I'm not sure of its authenticity in terms of whether these facts are true to the original Mahabharath, if they came from later adaptations or if they are a figment of the authors imagination.
I completely agree with the authors (through Uruvi) viewpoint that Kunti was a manipulative b*&^%, as all the facts in the Mahabharath point that way.

The only thing that did not work for me in this book, was that the writing sometimes felt a bit stilted and the relating of of events so they tied in neatly with the chapter heading, left the sequencing a bit jerky to me.

Is it worth a read ? Well with recommendations by mythologists Ashwin Sanghi and Amish Tripathi on the front cover, could I disagree? The only name missing is Devdutt Pattanaik! :)

Rating : 4 / 5

Brajesh's Review : Sita's Ramayana

Ordinary text with Extraordinary Art, is the best way to describe this graphic novel - Sita's Ramayana. The Patua Graphics are the only reason you should pick up this book. This Bengali folk art-form has been beautifully and artistically adopted for the graphic novel genre, but the text falls short on providing any surprises.

Maybe Samhita's "Missing Queen" had raised my expectations. The story begins at Vanvaas and ends at Sita's departure into Earth's belly. It is told from Sita's perspective but the only interesting perspective for me, was the passage describing the plight of war widows.

The 2.5 is all for the beautiful drawings in the book.

Rating : 2.5 / 5

Also Read : Kim's Review of Sita's Ramayana

Kim's Review : Sita's Ramayana

After reading the Missing Queen, I knew I had to go back and read Samhita Arni's first book - Sita's Ramayana, which had been lying unread on my book shelf for almost 2 years. (with my love of books, my book buying speed overtakes my book reading speed by about 40%)

If you expect another piece of brilliant speculative fiction like her 2nd book, then Sita's Ramayana is not for you. It is much more traditional in the sense that it retells the events as is accepted by most famous retellings, but it tells the story from Sita's perspective and hence the label of Speculative Fiction.

Sita's feelings and thoughts imbue this book and that is what made it feel so familiar to me. The same thoughts and questions that plague me when I read the "Ramcharitmanas" or other more popular versions are vocalised by Sita in this book by Samhita Arni & Moyna Chitrakar.

The futility of war and the loss of life worry Sita, The predicament faced by Tara (wife of Sugriva, remarried to his brother Vali and then handed back to Sugriva by Rama) upsets Sita, as it would any other woman who values her independence. This is the beauty of Sita's Ramayana. Samhita Arni has given Sita a voice and a voice that echoes with womanly sentiment, emotions, fears and reasoning.

Moyna Chitrakar is a Patua Artist from Bengal who has adapted the Patua scroll paintings style to a graphic novel with wonderful illustrations like these.

Moyna's paintings came first and Samhita Arni then added the text to the story by building on Chandrabati's Ramayana (a 16th century female re-teller of the epic from Bengal) which tells the tale of a brooding and sorrowful Sita who is abducted, rescued, doubted, tested, temporarily accepted, re-doubted and banished by her husband.

Its a beautiful book, that anybody interested in different versions of the epic would appreciate. But most women would resonate strongly with the Sita in this version which begins with the appearance of Surpanakha in the forest and ends with Sita returning to her earth mother.

Rating : 4/ 5

Also Read : Kim's Review of The Missing Queen






Note: The 2nd picture is an image that appeared in the DNA's Review of Sita's Ramayana

Kim's Review : The Missing Queen

The Missing Queen is Samhita Arni's second title after Sita's Ramayana. In The Missing Queen, she completely twists the situation to address the common contentious issues in the Ramayana.

The Missing Queen takes the premise of the Ramayan and has a journalist heroine who is searching for Sita, a decade after Ram renounced her. But this tale is not set in the Ayodhya of yore. Television, phone lines, secret service headed by the "washerman", all exist in this Ayodhya.

The tale is divided into 4 distinct parts, where the journalist interacts with Ram & Kaikeyi in Ayodhya, Surpanakha in Lanka, Urmila in Mithila and finally Sita herself.

While the book is an excellent work of speculative mythological fiction, it also raises multiple current issues. The rapid expansion and modernisation of cities, winners rewriting history, exploitation of the people that lose the war, the status of women in society amongst others.

 I don't want to give away more of the story in terms of story line, but I do recommend the book heavily, especially if you like Mythological or Speculative fiction.


Rating : 4.2 / 5

Brajesh's Review : The Missing Queen

"The Missing Queen" calls itself a "speculative thriller". I would prefix "mythological" to make it complete.

Samhita Arni's book is set 10 years post Sita's banishment by Rama. The twist comes with the time landscape. This book is set in a period which feels like 1990s but with a little imagination could very well be any decade post Independence.

This is my first "mythological speculative fiction" and I must say that I am already a fan of the genre.

Samhita obviously has a great command over epic retelling, as her earlier titles indicate. In "The Missing Queen" she raises a host of questions, relevant for modern society against the Ramanyana backdrop. This is her real success, as I always felt Ramayana was a little too moral and too correct a narrative to be made relevant for Kaliyug in comparison to the Mahabharata.

This book shattered that belief for me and gave me an exciting peek into the possibilities Ramayana also has in store. If you belong to the section that gets offended by "Ramanujam's - 300 Ramayanas" kind of essays then this one isn't for you.

I totally loved it.

Rating : 4 / 5

Kim's Review : Oath of the Vayuputras

The Final installment of Amish Tripathi's Shiva trilogy.

For me, this books focus was overly skewed towards Geography and war strategy.The story seemed to take second place to these themes and the tying up of all lose ends. I guess the problem was that I was hoping for another Secret of the Nagas where the story telling moved forward at a brisk pace and was completely engrossing.

While all the lose ends were effectively closed, I kept wanting more. There was nothing missing in Oath of the Vayuputras, but it just doesn't live up to Secret of the Nagas.  I guess this is the problem with trilogies and series, not every author can be a George Martin or Tolkien whose each book keeps surpassing the previous one.

The best part about Amish's stories is how he adapts legends and twists the stories to make them more plausible. The best example of that is in this book, in the episode on how Sati dies.


Part 3 is not as enrapturing as part 2, but its definitely worth reading, because whatever said and done he is a good storyteller. So its a good thing that Amish has already signed up his next book deal, even though he isn't sure what he is going to be writing about.

On a side note :
It seems the translations are equally good. Brajesh's parents are currently reading the series in Hindi and are eagerly awaiting the translation of Oath of the Vayuputras.

Rating : 3.5 / 5

Also Read:

Kim's Reviews :-
The Immortals of Meluha
Secret of the Nagas

Brajesh's Reviews:-
The Immortals of Meluha
Secret of the Nagas
Oath of the Vayuputras

Brajesh's Review : Oath of the Vayuputras

This one gets the lowest rating in the trilogy.

The language jarred a lot especially stuff like Shiva saying "holy crap" and Ganesh & Kartikeya mouthing "son of a b^#%+". I am assuming the background of war and conflict led to these.

Beyond that, Amish neatly ties-up most loose ends in the last book. He also leaves sufficient open ends like Egyptian, Persian Mythology and introduction to Mahabharata as possible plots for his 5 Crore book deal.

Clearly a commentary on use/abuse of nuclear technology and gene cloning in the mythological context is a great and relevant debate for our times. Not giving much away in my review, if you have read the first 2 you will have to add this and if you haven't read the first two, get them now :)

Rating : 3.5 / 5

Also Read:

Kim's Reviews :-
The Immortals of Meluha
Secret of the Nagas

Brajesh's Reviews:-
The Immortals of Meluha
Secret of the Nagas

Kim's Review : Breaking the Bow

"Breaking the Bow" is a brilliant series of 24 short stories - each one, a work of speculative fiction inspired by the Ramayana and curated by Anil Menon and Vandana Singh for Zubaan.

Anil Menon in his introduction to the book has written a wonderful note on "What is speculative fiction (spec-fic) ?" Speculative Fiction includes science fiction, fantasy, magic realism, slipstream, surrealism, neo-modernist, post modern literature and many other sub-genres. What makes a story speculative? A simple answer, not entirely accurate, is that a speculative story is a non-realist story. In a realist story, the story's context is this actual, common sense world. In a non-realist story, there are no guarantees. Navi Mumbai could be a video game, the belly of a whale or the renamed capital of Sweden.


"The tradition of the Ramayana is to depart from the tradition" and this forms the background for each of these spec-fic stories.

Some of the stories are written by well established names like Abha Dawesar, Priya Sarukkai Chabria, Manjula Padmanabhan and Tabish Khair, but there are many authors who have been published for the first time and the authors are from across the globe.

Quite a few of the stories in this book, center around the story of Surpanakha or that of the Golden deer leading to Sita's abduction.  To me personally, the Surpanakha episode, Rama renouncing Sita and Rama defeating Vali by deception have been the 3 main incidents that I find difficult to reconcile with the rest of the Rama's behaviour in the Ramayan. So I wasn't surprised with the number of stories concerning Surpanakha

Kuzhali Manickavel's - The Ramayana as an American Reality Television Show (Internet activity following the Mutilation of Surpanakha) is hilarious in its insight. Capturing the absurdity of reality shows, the language used in online chat rooms, the trolls, the commenters on youtube videos. This story is as much a social commentary on modern online behaviour, as it is about this episode in the Ramayana.

Neelanjana Banerjee's - Exile is a piece of science fiction. Sapna who plays the role of Surpanakha in a neo-modern game world is a single woman trying to put her game face on and deal with life the best way she can with what she is given.

Aishwata Subramanian's - Making is based on the premise that Raavan (Vishravan) asked for 10 years for a city of his own and using his skills and knowledge and that of Surpanakha's he fabricated a beautiful city. Everything is created with their skills, the city, the deer, and the automaton built to look like Surpanakha.

Abha Dawesar's - The Good King is a brilliant read, focussing on Ravanas technical expertise and knowledge gained through boons which allows him to travel across time and exist in simultaneous universes. I really loved the ending of this story.

Julie Rosenthal's - Mango Grove was the most offbeat story in this book for me. This is a new story as opposed to most of the others in the book, that are re-interpreted / re-imagined stories.

K Srilata's - Game of Asylum Seekers is a Sita story, being played in a game world akin to the "Hunger Games" with the last line being the most poignant and telling.

Lavanya Karthik's - Day of the Deer is a very different twist on a very familiar tale.

Tabish Khair's - Weak Heart is about the burden Rama faced of being a God on Earth. And the final question that he asks, sums up Rama's dilemma in its entirety.

Indrapramit Das's - Sita's Descent is science fiction of a completely different kind than the others in this book. His Sita is a man-made artificial nebula.

Abirami Velliangiri's - Great Disobedience is one of my favourites in this book. Based on Rama & Lakshmana's foray into the forest to help Sage Vishwamitra its a tale of manipulators and puppet masters and how legends are born.

Pervin Saket's - Test of Fire is a short sci-fi piece with Sita as the Hero.

Manjula Padmanabhan's -  Other Woman is a brilliant tale and another of my favourites. Centered on Mandodari who comes to earth to talk to a TV journalist - Ms Basra Dott - and give her side of the story.

Lavie Tidhar's - This, Other World is a sci-fi retelling of Rama & Lakshmana's hunt for Ravana.

Priya Sarukkai Chabria's - Fragments from the Book of Beauty is a beautiful collection of conversations between Pushpaka & Ravana, Hanuman & Vayu, and Mandodari & Sita.

Molshree Ambastha's - Kalyug Amended is a a familiar tale set in modern times. The Ramayan if it were to happen today, so to speak.

Sucharita Dutta-Asane's - Sita to Vaidehi - Another Journey is the tale of Vaidehi - a modern day idealist/activist inspired by Sita.

In Sharanya Manivannan's - Petrichor - Sita tells Hanuman a tale of how she comes to be where she is .

Mary Anne Mohanraj's - The Princess in the Forest is another modern day retelling of the dilemma faced by Samiksha/Sita and an insight into why Sita went to Valmiki's ashram after being rejected by Rama.

Deepak Unnikrishnan's - Sarama is a retelling of the Ramayan through the eyes of one of Sita's demon protectors in Lanka.

Swapna Kishore's - Regressions is another of my favourites. A sci-fi tale tale of how different factions are trying to adjust the tale of the Ramayan to suit their own purposes. Was Rama truly God or the boorish son of a local chieftain

Tori Truslow's - Machanu visits the Underworld is a tale of Hanuman's son Machanu. This was the least engrossing tale for me, in the book. It could be because I am not familiar with most of the characters she has used in her story.

Vandana Singh's - Oblivion is a sci-fi tale with Hirasor being the Ravan-like oppressor.

Pratap Reddy's - Vaidehi and Her Earth Mother wanders around leaving you unprepared for the crux of the ending.

Shweta Narayan's - Falling into the Earth is also a modern day retelling of a modern Sita's dilemma.

I quite loved the collection overall, even though I am not a huge science fiction fan, I do love speculative fiction. Its a beautiful collection to carry when traveling, because the beauty of short stories is that you can stop at the end of each one.

Pick it up if alternate Ramayans appeal to you. Do not pick it up if you are easily offended :)

Rating: 4 / 5

Brajesh's Review: Draupadi Ki Aatmakatha

Manu Sharma's Mahabharata centric autobiographies of various characters have always been my favorites. His 7-Part Krishna story is what I am gathering courage to read, since awhile. Draupadi's story is the shortest book in the series, as it was intended to be a textbook for schools.

The beauty of this book is the neutrality with which he starts to look at Yagnaseni, and very soon you realize how heavily her character has been laced with envy, passion and revenge in popular myth. But in Manu's story, Draupadi is the one who upholds "Dharma" at every moment and in every crisis. In fact she is the one who upholds Dharma even more than Yudhishtir. Yes it is not the conventional good at all cost Dharma, but a more real, more rational, more doable and practical Dharma. We all know Panchali is one of the most complex characters in Mahabharata and this version is another beautiful rendition in Hindi of this beautiful character.

Rating : 4 / 5

For more takes on Draupadi, do take a look at : Palace of Illusions, Yudhishtir & Draupadi and Yajnaseni.

Brajesh's Review: Tutankhamun - The Last Secret

I loved Christian Jacq's Ramses series so much, that I was quite excited when I got my hands on this book. I guess my big expectations from the book is what let me down.

However on a stand-alone basis, this is an interesting approach to tell the story of Egypt's freedom movement. The backdrop of the story has characters like Nasser, King Faroque, Suez Canal, CIA and Egyptian Intelligence services. The other story is around the myth of John Howard and Tutankhamun's legend. The myths, magic and mystery kept me engaged, but the end really let me down :( .

As I said, this book probably let me down on expectations and so did the ending. I still remain a big fan of Christian Jacq and I'm sure I will delve into his books at regular intervals given my interest in Egyptian History & Mythology

Rating: 3 / 5




     

Kim's Review: The Second Empress - A Novel of Napoleons Court

The Second Empress is Michelle Moran's latest offerring. Her second in the Europe series after Madame Tussaud and her 5th novel, 3 of which Nefertiti, The Heretic Queen and Cleopatra's Daughter are set in Egypt. Having read 4 out of her 5 books, I can definitely say that her books set in Europe are more realistic than her historical fictions set in Egypt and are eminently more pleasurable to read.

Personally, with my exposure to Egypt and its history, I feel Michelle tries to impose a European sensibility even in her Egyptian novels and that doesn't sit right for me, but may work well for her European readers.

Her next 2 books are set in India and the next novel is based on Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi.

I found the Second Empress as pleasurable as Madame Tussaud. The book is well researched and well written.

I have just a passing knowledge of European History and I just knew the bare bones about Napoleon except for his raiding of Egypt. The facts I knew about him, could be summed up as
1. short stature
2. conquered large parts of Europe and North Africa
3. loved his wife Josephine
4. was exiled to Elba (this because of the palindrome "able was I, I saw Elba")

Before I read this book, I did not even know that he had married a second time, after divorcing Josephine (who had a son & daughter from a previous marriage).

The Second Empress centers around Maria Lucia - Archduchess of Austria who is forced to marry Napoleon and transform herself into the French Empress Marie Louise to save Austria from being re-attacked by France after the already humiliating Treaty of Schonbrunn.

Napoleon was much older than her, he was hated in Austria for the humiliation he heaped on her father the Duke and the Austrian people, his first wife Josephine was loved by the French masses who considered her to be Napoleons good luck charm, his divorce from Josephine was not recognised by the church, her aunt Marie Antoinette had been beheaded just a few years before by the French public, she was already in love with Count Adam Neipperg, she was being groomed to be regent when her father died as her brother sufferred from some kind of mental illness and she had been brought up to hate France. Inspite of all this, Marie Louise finds herself forced into marriage with Napoleon.

The other voice in this book is that of Pauline Bonaparte - Napoleons sister. As ambitious as him, if not more so. By the time the book starts Pauline has already buried one husband, taken numerous lovers and is married again to an Italian noble. She however only dreams of ruling Egypt as her brothers wife.

The final voice in the tale is that of Paul Moreau, Pauline's Haitian chamberlain who is in love with her. He provides a commoners/slaves point of view to the tale.

Napoleons family is as headstrong as him and constantly give him grief from their behaviour. Jospehine's daughter is forced to attend to Marie Louise and Pauline constantly tries to convince her brother to return to Egypt to rule with her.

The book covers Napoleons days of glory, his defeat and exile to Elba, his second bid for power and Marie Louise's subsequent independence from him.

The history in itself is fascinating and Michelle has woven an even more riveting tale through the facts with emotions and a humanising of the historical characters. While it is slightly in the Historical chicklit genre, there is a lot of history and facts that are revealed through the tale. Most women would enjoy this book, but I'm not so sure if men would. Honestly, Madame Tussaud is the only one of Michelles books that I would recommed to my husband, knowing the kind of books he prefers to read, but I'd unhesitatingly recommend The Second Empress to all my female friends.

Rating : 3.5 / 5

Kim's Review : GameWorld Trilogy - Simoqin Prophecies, Manticore's Secret, Unwaba Revelations

Samit Basu wrote Simoqin Prophecies when he was just 22 and published it when he was 23. Manticore's Secret and Unwaba Revelations followed 3 & 5 years later. He also writes comics.

I first heard of Basu at this years's JLF. It prompted me to buy the first of the trilogy. However with our move following almost immediately after our return from Jaipur, I wasn't getting time for much reading. Since I was heading on a road trip to Rajkot, I carried the Simoqin Prophecies with me and by the time I finished the first few chapters, I pushed in my dongle, logged onto flipkart and ordered the next 2 books in the series and they were waiting for me at home by the time I returned 3 days later.

I read all 3 books at a stretch over 4-5 days (since I still have plumbers, electricians and painters doing the rounds of the apartment, if I didn't have these botherations, I wouldn't have looked up until I finished all 3)

The good thing about each book is that, the end of the book does bring some amount of closure and does not leave the reader on tenterhooks. This would have been a really good thing for those who read the books when they first came out and had to wait for a year or so between books.

Samit Basu seems to have taken Shakespeare's "All the world is a stage and all the men & women merely players" completely to heart with this trilogy. All the characters live on a "game world" and are being played around with by the Gods.

The inspirations and spoofs come fast and strong. Nothing is spared, from the Ramayan and Mahabharath to King Kong, Alice in Wonderland to Arabian Nights. Inspirations come from world history, Greek & Indian mythology, fairy tales, Harry Potter, superhero comics, dragon tales and pop culture amongst others.

Be prepared to meet a host of different species from crow air forces, to stork couriers, to Vaanar senas. Vamans who live below the earth (for the most part) to pashans who hatch from eggs but are made of various kinds of stones. Magical, mythical creatures. Some unfamiliar and some familiar like asurs and rakshasas, but are they really as "bad" as they are made out to be?

The Simoqin Prophecies start 200 years after the death of the rakshas Danh-Gem and the departure of the ravians from this world. The Prophecy foretells the return of Danh-Gem 200 years after his death and the arrival of a hero who will slay him. The details of how the hero will arrive are also mentioned in the prophecy and powerful people get involved in engineering a hero to fit the prophecy. Are heroes really heroes or are their tales of heroism just airbrushed stories? Who is a true hero? Can heroes be created in a school meant for heroes?

The ending was quite a surprise, I was expecting something else entirely.

I started book 2 - Manticore's Secret almost immediately. In this book a lot more insight is given into the Gods who are playing this "game world". So do the God's control our destinies? Or do we even have a destiny other than to be a pawn in a God's game? What is right & what is wrong? Who is right and who is wrong? Each person / species thinks in a particular way for a particular reason. Do noble intentions justify ignoble actions?

Part 3 - Unwaba Revelations - does have some surprises, but I personally was quite happy with the ending. It was neat enough for me and did not leave me with a huge number of unanswered questions.

I don't want to give away too much of the story in this review, because these are really books you SHOULD read for yourself.

For me, the GameWorld Trilogy has been as mind bogglingly wonderful as the Lord of the Rings with loads of humour too. These books are what the teens on my gift list in the near future shall be receiving for awhile.

Rating : 4.5 / 5

Kim's Review: The World Beyond

"The World Beyond" is author Sangeeta Bhargava's debut novel, but not her debut book. That honor goes to "Letters to My Baby", a book on pregnancy and baby care. Her 3rd book - "After The Storm" is also a novel of Historical Fiction but set in 1941.

The World beyond is set in the run up to the First War of Indian Independence in 1857. Nawab Wajid Ali Shah of Lucknow is ruler of Awadh and Prince Salim is his adopted son. Lucknow has just past its peak as a center of culture, music, dance, food, art and learning.

Rachel is the English daughter of Colonel Felix Bristow who looks down his nose upon all Indians (as most of the other English do) and Mrs. Margaret Bristow (who just cannot wait to go back to England permanently).Rachel however is an Indophile wanting to learn Indian music and in this pursuit she chances upon Prince Salim.

Prince Salim cannot be made heir because of the British law prohibiting adopted children from inheriting the throne, so he has no pretensions to the crown, but that does not make him any less of a Prince.

The backdrop of a glorious Lucknow makes the events that follow so much more horrendous. The history is well researched, but in the end the city and its history is a backdrop to the improbable love story.

I quite enjoyed the historical bits of the novel. As I said before, they are well researched. I have visited Lucknow a couple of times and now am slightly more aware of bits of history associated with the ruins I've chanced upon.

There are glimpses of perspectives  on the 1857 war from the English, an Indophile, the Nawab, his wife, his adopted son, Ahmed (Salim's cousin who is not in as comfortable a position as Salim), women in the zenana, Salim's daima (wet nurse), her daughter Chutki who loses her husband in the war, and Nayansukh (daima's son who was initially with the Nawabs army, but became part of the English army when the Nawab was "coerced" into dissolving his own army.

Sangeeta's blog actually has a few entries from Chutki's perspective and also Nayansukh's perspective that make for some interesting reading and I wish she had more of them. However, I guess she got busy with the new book and new characters took over her time.

I'm not much of a "Romance" reader, so I really can't comment on the love story. However the frequent "Pray, tell me"s and "Ya Ali's" in the dialogue irritated me after the first few repetitions (but this is a personal peeve)

"The World Beyond" is way better than the Kama Kahani series in its historical authenticity, but its not as engrossing as Indu Sundaresan.

Its a good book for a first time novelist and I will definitely pick up "After the Storm" too. I hope to see Sangeeta improve with each book she writes, because she seems quite prolific.

Rating: 3 / 5