Sons of darkness

A new epic fantasy series à la A Song of Ice and Fire begins in this vivid, grim, action-packed tome that is well paced for being such a chunky book. Two empires have been at war for centuries--ever since the cunning Krishna first took over the Republic of Mathuran, angering the emperor of Magadh in the process. As the political maneuvers spin and dip, our characters form a web across a land on the precipice of chaos: from the succession dispute brewing in the Hastina Union between cousins, to a broken betrothal that sends one princess on a rampage. In the middle of it are our protagonists: gold-plated Karna, a young warrior with a need to prove his caste is not inherently inferior; young Nala, a student torn between scholarship and his forest warrior family; and Draupadi, a princess who is about to find out who she'll marry in a game of power and privilege. Mohanty's book is an exciting, convincing spin on the Indian epic the Mahabharata, but will be appealing for all lovers of epic or high fantasy. Its action-packed battles, endearing characters, and brutal twists are compelling, and readers will be impatient for its sequel after its cliff-hanger-heavy ending.

Mohanty debuts with a hefty grimdark fantasy re-telling of the Mahabharata, inspired in part by Game of Thrones. He wisely supplies a list of characters and a map at the front of the novel to help readers wrangle the vast cast of, in Mohanty's words, "real people faced with impossible choices," and the several small kingdoms making up his "Narnia of India." Made up of stories within stories, the tale fleshes out the history of a deadly 10-year war--thousands of years after the fact--and the ensuing fragile armistice between the once wealthy Republic of Mathura and the neighboring totalitarian Magadhan Empire. Now led by handsome former cowherd Krishna, who covertly works to abolish the ancient caste system, Mathura nears the end of its resources while the Empire threatens to resume hostilities, joined by strange allies from across various castes and even ancient Greece. In vivid prose, Mohanty combines ghastly tortures, sly political machinations, throbbing romance, and eerie religious and social rites into a demanding but rewarding epic and sets the stage for even more gasps in a coming sequel. This is an impressive feat. (Jan.)