read_with_taran 's review for:

Asura: Tale Of The Vanquished by Anand Neelakantan

2.0

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The book starts from a brilliant retelling of the Ramayana and ends up being an aimless piece of writing. What I liked about the book was that it challenges mythology. What if what we believe wasn't true? What if things were different? It tells Ramayana from Ravana's point of view and challenges whether Rama's ideals were actually ideal for a perfect society. Ut beautifully depicts how power changes a person and it gets to him. The book depicts our present day society as a consequence of various events missed. However at one point one feels lost and feels the book should have ended about 50 pages back. some chapters are unnecessary fillers. It somewhat wreaks of racism and in some places the north-south regionalism is also evident. The book fails to meet expectations it had set.