kajree gautom

sons of darkness took me on a whirlwind trip narrating the stories of forgotten kings and queens, strong and naive, and the gods and heroes that ruled the times. krishna, satyabhama, mati and karna took the centre stage for me, despite an ensemble of characters being weaved throughout the book. each character was given its own touch by the author, building on what we are already aware of. krishna's is a character i can't wait to read more of. i loved how twisted he is in the book and how he worked overall. while i adored krishna's portrayal, i was entrapped by the subtlety of power embodied by satyabhama. she grows on me later in the book. mati took time to grow on me too but oh she did, as did karna and shakuni. the story starts slow yet takes up the pace quite easily, in a seamless flow of narration. fans of the history/mythology that the book takes from will have a great time noting the familiarities as i did. the author took immense care in curating the world and it's inhabitants - and it shows in the exquisitely detailed writing. i loved the little easter eggs spread across, i loved the cunning and unlikable characters and i adored the ode to mythology. despite the peachy writing and flow of narration, i will not lie that it took me quite some time to actually get into the plot. perhaps it is simply because i'm not much of a fantasy reader, but the ensemble cast made it slightly difficult to keep track of while on paper. however, the swayamvar part is perhaps my favourite out of the book because of the sheer excitement that emanates and the chaos the follows thereafter. even though there's no lack of action throughout the book, this part truly takes the cake. it was also from this part that i was fully immersed into the book. and then it took just a few more chapters and parts to end. sons of darkness, all over, is a clever retelling which is dynamic and heavy. i won't necessarily call it dark or compare it to the infamous game of thrones yet, but the author has a vision and a direction and i'm intrigued to see where he takes the story next.