Smorgasbord Fantasia

Kaurava is the middle book of the Aryavarta Chronicles trilogy by Krishna Udayasankar . Her debut, Govinda exploded onto the Indian fiction scene sometime last year ending up as a national bestseller – I was extremely impressed by the depth and quality of this debut – having called it a gem from our rich mytho-history polished and lit up in perhaps different colors from what we are used to, but dazzling and radiant as always.  Krishna had opened the floodgates with Govinda. And now Mahabharata, the sweeping ambitious epic of all times, has become a central focus of a lot many authors. There are a lot many books out there that deal with different subjects of Mahabharata and this gargantuan epic still has room for more. But the Aryavarta Chronicles truly dazzles. It is not so much as a retelling but a soaring triumph of unfettered imagination built on pain-staking research and penned in a confident poetic prose that delights and transports you to far-away conflicted land...

As you would have noticed, my blog is still evolving. Keeping in with the stages of evolution for a book blog, now I venture into the newer arenas with an author interview! Yes!! Pretty damn big for me to host a bestselling author up on the blog and then proceed to peel the layers to get down to the "real" person behind that smiling face on the book jacket. Wait up while I pat myself a few good times on the back ( on an interview well done and also to make myself believe that this actually happened :D ) Since you're chomping at the bit, let me hold back no further. Today we have the super talented Krishna Udayasankar who's made quite a splash in the Indian literary scene with her debut novel, Govinda , Book one of the Aryavarta Chronicles. While I quite enjoyed book one, don't take my word for it. The Hindu speaks highly of the "epic revisited" in that despite the burden of detail, the pace of this novel never lapses into a lull.  Anyway...