Tuesday 18 August 2015

Scion of Ikshvaku - Amish Tripathi

The title itself was bit like a tongue twister, I heard the name more than once in the trailer they released before the book.



Author Amish Tripathi has found a formula like CB to write his books. For CB its friendship and love, Amish has chosen to rewrite the mythological stories. After his successful Shiva Trilogy, he is back to retell the most famous epic of our country Ramayanam. After Shiva he had chosen Ram this time. And, this one is like a prequel to Shiva Trilogy.

This book was nowhere near his first book of Shiva Trilogy, Immortals of Meluha, IMO. Shiva trilogy was brilliant he brought all the famous characters like Parvathi, Ganesh, Murugan, etc we know into the story beautifully with his own imagination. And, his first book of Shiva trilogy was page turner and took me to that era instantly. Scion of Ikshvaku didn't give me the same feel, this maybe because we are too familiar with the characters even though I haven't read Ramayanam before. But, some of the characters, like Lakshman's wife Urmila, was interesting to know since I didn't know much about her before.

In this book Ravanan was already a villain for Ram's father Dhasrath, he defeated him in a battle on a day where Ram was born. Ram had a tough time growing up since everyone hated him for his father's first defeat in his lifetime. I really liked Bharath character, I always felt like he's going to turn against Ram any moment, but he didn't. Amish didn't change much in his character or in Lakshman's.

The initial portions were very slow and it started to interest me only after the introduction of Sita's character. Once again Sita was a powerful female character just like Sati in Shiva trilogy.  Sita's introduction scene followed by Sita's Swayamvar where Ram wins obviously and a fight in which he defeats Ravanan's soldiers using a biological weapon were exciting parts to me. He exiles himself voluntarily for using this weapon against the law.

There was a reference to Delhi rape incident where Ram's own law was unable to punish the juvenile even though the victim was like his sister. Which didn't add anything to the story.

Ravanan was said to be a demon king in this as well. I don't think he's a demon, he is just a man with extraordinary talents than a normal human being. This book ends with introduction of our favorite character Hanuman and Ravanan kidnapping Sita.

I think there will be two more books in this series, I just hope he makes it more interesting. Also, I am interested in knowing what happens to Ram and Sita after Ram defeating Ravanan, will there be "Agni Paritchai" and also more about Urmila.


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