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Kaurava (2013)

by Krishna Udayasankar(Favorite Author)

3.85 of 5 Votes: 2

languge

English

genre

Fantasy

publisher

Hachette India

series

The Aryavarta Chronicles

review 1: Mesmerising is the word I can use for such a book. Kaurava is a book like none other. It highlights a very different perspective from the other books which describe the great epic of Mahabharata.. Krishna udayasankar has done a brilliant job and brings forth a new view which is rather realistic and not an idea that we all must have read which astonishes us by telling us about the supernatural powers and unbelievable myths. However, the book is partly fiction and puts up some ideas to which we all may disagree to. For instance, the author rights that Draupadi was only the wife of Yudhishtir. All in all, I feel that kaurava is a very bold writing and wins my heart with its amazing use of languages and set ups.
review 2: I picked up this book as I held fond memori... morees of the first book. I enjoy alternate retelling of history and mythology, especially those that are grounded in reality. The first book seemed to tick the right boxes in this category and was an enjoyable read. I especially enjoyed the shades of grey the author painted most of her characters and, therefore, making it a battle being flawed but relate-able characters instead of of the stock good-vs-evil fight where we see the good always victorious. There is no "the good side" or "bad side" per s; which made the series all the more interesting as it left it to the reader to decide with whom their sympathies belong. The first book did suffer from a few flaws, namely:-1. excessive exposition;2. philosophical debates that led no where;3. illogical, off-character decision making.The second book takes all these negatives of the first and exacerbates them further. Furthermore, some characters that play a more central role are poorly constructed and, at times, suffer from illogical decision making/emotional responses. The premise too starts to collapse in the second book. The author's re-imagination of the events, in her attempt to ground them in realism, was weak at certain sections. This was accompanied by numerous off-character decision making/explanations for events being a more common occurrence in this book. Some of the events as consequence to these decisions are highly illogical and the suffering caused by them, a little forced.At times, the characters are made intentionally ignorant or stupid just to further the story. So much so that, at times, it feels that the only sort of character that would fail to notice certain happenings around them would be an innocent five year old. All in all, this is one book that I would probably not be re-reading ever again nor do I think I would be picking up the third book.Color me highly disappointed. less

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