Scion of Ikshvaku

Scion of Ikshvaku
- Amish Tripathi

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Amish started off well, but it appears that he ran out of his well-known imagination midway through. And this made me dislike an otherwise interesting and imaginative story.

Some of the deviations from the story as we know it, were quite interesting, such as old existing enmity between Dashratha and Ravana, and portrayal of Manthara as a shrewd businesswoman. However, quite a few of them strained imagination, specifically the depiction of Rama as an unwanted, unloved son.

Incorporating the deplorable "Nirbhaya" incident in Delhi to support the idea of Ram's dedication to law above all else, was highly insensitive and vulgar. I thought he could have come up with some other, better reason for Manthara's hatred towards Ram. And I wonder if he confused Ramayana and Mahabharat – he ended up matching Draupadi's swayamvar onto that of Sita – where Ram shoots an arrow through a fish’s eye while looking at the reflection. If an author wants to present the facts (can they be called facts?) from an epic in a different manner, I’m all for it, but borrowing from another source (and an equally well-known one at that) is unpardonable.

Bad editing in first work(s) of an author can be excused (at least I can), especially if it is counter-balanced by an imaginative story or good content. And you expect an improve in subsequent works, both in readability and in content – hence I had a higher expectation from this series though I found the third book in the Shiva trilogy quite average. But this book failed so miserably on both accounts, that I cannot bring myself to read the book 2 (Sita) or any subsequent works of his.