Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Nicely Ended..., July 11, 2006
well begun is half the work done.. and A.Banker has done a good job of the other half, finishing the series in well rounded manner with pithy comments on current world affairs, snuck in the middle..
A little too much violence, but then is the book about THE WAR.. the ultimate battle between Ram & Ravana, Good & Evil. He's set up the stage for the Luv-Kush story and the seeds of doubt in Ram's heart, looking forward to hearing that tale - perhaps Mr. Banker can take up the "tale of the twins" next! Also he's done a marvellous job of bringing the various shades of Ravana to life. Wish the book dealt more with the characters, Sita comes to mind, there are such tantalising glimpes into the personalities but nothing more.. other than a LOT of gore and the battles. Perhpas he was thinking about it as a movie (pity the actor who does Ravana though, hell of a challenge that one!)
Still all in all a good book.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Gripping through all four thousand+ pages..., September 30, 2006
This is book 6 in the six-part series Ramayana written by Ashok Banker. It's phenomenal.
The only Hindu mythology I knew was from reading Amar Chitra Katha comics. But this is like reading Lord of the Rings mixed with Harry Potter. It's easy reading and has just the right mix of action and description. It's definitely a more 'adult' retelling of the epic both for its gore and bloodshed, as well as for the way in which Ravana, the antagonist, is given a chance to explain himself (though maybe not quite enough).
Ashok Banker very deliberately portrays Rama as a righteous falliable mortal, rather than as a demi god - which I feel appeals much more to todays generation.
I gave it four stars only because, by the sixth book, Mr Banker's style had become a little too predictable. That said, changing his style too much may not have resulted in a cohesive series so I may be penalizing him unfairly.
I've now started telling my mum stories from the Ramayana! :)
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
in one word--AWESOME!, June 22, 2006
Just read the sixth book of Ramayana....To put it one word, AWESOME!!!!
earlier i thought that each book was awesome, but the fact that each succeeding book is MUCH better than the previous one... I had found Bridge of Rama brilliant, but compared to King of Ayodhya, its nothing... King of Ayodhya is that good!!!!
i've read various abridged versions of the Ramayana, and recently bought the English translations of Valmiki Ramayana and the Kamba Ramayana that are recommended in the introductions to Banker's Ramayana (Indian editions), but those books tend to glorify things, unlike Ashok's books where the events are said ,"as it might have been"
And this approach is exquisite- we can feel the emotions of the characters, as if we were them. This is what makes the Banker Ramayana series so much better than the traditional retellings [no offense intended to those greats who created them, but i dont think the current generation is interested in the cumbersome poetry].
And this continues in Kin g of Ayodhya. War is not glorified- it is depicted in its entirety. It is the only means to get Sita back, and so Rama has to do it. The pain, the sadness, the rage, the jubiliation of victory, the horror of dying- everything seems so right, when we read them.
I loved the passage in the 12th chapter in which Rama thinks whether genocide of a rakshasa race [eventhough its created by Ravana's sorcery] is morally justifiable. To me, that passage is a fitting summary of the Banker Ramayana series- its a story, yet it teaches us how to live as righteous people like Rama.
No matter how many times i've told people about this series [hence, now my friends dont talk to me much nowadays, for fear that i'll launch into another pravachan about the greatness of this Ramayana, but thats another story ], i simply cannot stop saying this:
I believe that just as the Valmiki Ramayana is accepted as THE Sanskrit version, just as the Kamba Ramayana is revered by Tamil speaking people, just as North Indians worship Tulsidas Ramacharitramanasa, all English speaking Indians will fall in love with this series... Its only a matter of time. Nobody can ignore the labour of love that constitutes Ashok Banker's Ramayana series- its so brilliant!!!!
after reading King of Ayodhya, i cant think how he will be writing the Mahabharata. I have read somewhere he said that his Mahabharata would be much much better than his Ramayana. If thats so, then the Mahabharata would have to be better than the best [King of Ayodhya]... Frankly speaking, I've trouble imagining a book better than this!
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