Radha Viswanath
Ashtamahishi | Rupa
The ‘eight wives of Krishna’, as this book is subtitled, haven’t received due attention, says Viswanath, and launches into the life divine with gusto. The result is a fast-moving and absorbing novelistic narrative, wide-eyed before the Lord, and imbuing his queens (Rukmini, Jambavati, Kalindi, Mitravinda et al) with agency and intellect.
Vineet Bajpai
Kashi: Secret of the Black Temple | TreeShade Books
Another dizzying back-and-forth between antiquity (‘The marshes of Aryavarta, 1698 BCE’) and modern times (Banaras 2017), couched in frighteningly garish titles (‘Night of the Blue Fire’; ‘A Totalitarian Government’), would hopefully make readers swoon in fascinated dread. For the stuff is of ‘sinister brotherhoods’, barbarians and blood-stained ‘pralay’.
Shreyas Bhave
Storm From Taxila | Platinum Press
Book II of the Asoka Trilogy sees a subcontinental game of thrones unfold—with a similar third-person point-of-view chapter structure to boot. The emperor Bindusara lies dead, and his sons Asoka and Sushem are pitted against each other in a fratricidal contest for the Mauryan throne. Meanwhile, subplots concerned with religion and enterprise help bring the historical setting to life.
