AJAYA BOOK 1 (also called 'Roll of the dice') is the first book in two part series by Anand Neelkantan. And it is phenomenal.
The book is based on Suyodhan's point of view of Mahabharat. So let's talk about it
1. CHARACTERS : The characters painted by Anand is just brilliant, each character is given certain flaw to them which makes them look more humane rather than gods and kings which I love. Anand makes sure that just because it's Suyodhan's Mahabharat doesn't mean that everyone else is just wrong, he gives certain redeemable quality to Krishna, Arjun, Yudhishthir, Bheema, Drona, Kripa and the list goes on
2. AUTHENCITY : Anand provides some brilliant arguments on why Suyodhana is right in his place and why he is great ruler based on folk tales and legends on how he drank from the hands of a lower caste even though him being a kshatriya. This shows how much he cared about human compassion. And Anand provides even more proofs and arguments regarding what happened in Mahabharat was not the fault of Kauravs(more specifically Suyodhana)
This was just the theoretical aspect of the book. Now let's about the technical aspect of the book
1. PACING : Pacing of this book lies on the middle ground as this book follows the structure of parallelism(where two stories run together and would meet at a certain junction of the story) and this makes it a very difficult genre to write as you need to make both stories evenly interesting. Anand does achieve this for most part of this book but at some chapters I just wasn't engrossed/interested in the story, nonetheless this small hurdle doesn't stop this book from being a real page-turner
2. STRUCTURE OF THE STORY : The way in which this book is written is just amazing, even though we know the story beforehand, Anand finds a way to make the story interesting all because of showing the same story through a different lens. And even though the events are the same you are compelled to think that, 'Oh, why didn't I think of it that way' and that's what makes this a brilliant book
3. SHOULD YOU READ IT : Well if you don't mind different views, this could be a really great book for you. But if you're the kind of person who just doesn't want Suyodhana to be right, you should probably give the book a second reading(as I did), because everything makes perfect sense once you understand the crux of the story in your first time reading, so you're left with emotional quotient of the story which makes all the pieces of the story fit together
INDIVISUAL SCORES :
1. Characters : 9/10
2. Authenticity : 8/10 (creative liberties were taken but I just found to be some liberties little far-fetched)
3. Pacing : 8.5/10(It was good but could have been better)
4. Structure : 9/10(Excellent but not perfect)
OVERALL SCORE : 8.7/10 (A solid book, considering how tough it is to turn a hundred year old antagonist to a protagonist)
Next blog would be on the review of book 2
Enjoy reading.
All image are taken from google images, I do not have any rights to these images
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