Aditya Iyengar

I bought Palace of Assassins thinking that it was a standalone novel, but it is not so. Though not advertised so, it seems that it is the first one in a series. I’m generally apprehensive of buying the first book of a series due to the uncertainty of the subsequent books ever seeing the light of the day.
This fantasy-myth-fiction starts just a few days after the great war of Kurukshetra with Ashwatthama waking up in a desert with the twin curses of leprosy and immortality. The story then follows him in his quest for a cure and for the unfulfilled revenge of killing the Pandavas through a series of adventures and misadventures.
The writing is alright, without much wastage of words, and the story moves along quite well. The problem I had with the novel is that the hero is not portrayed as one; he is just an ordinary man coming to terms with his immortality and rethinking his earlier convictions. There are several people far more powerful than him in this story and Ashwatthama is left with nothing much heroic to do.
In short, this book feels like just the build-up to future adventures, which I hope get published, and published soon, before the readers lose interest in the franchise.… (plus d'informations)

“Palace of Assassins” By Aditya Iyengar introduces us to Ashwatthama lying famished, fading in a desert. He discovers to his much chagrined memories and a conversation with a voice inside his head, that he is cursed with being a leper and immortality.

Ashwatthama then recollects the events before this curse, where the Kurukshetra war has just ended and the Pandavas are rejoicing & Ashwatthama has lost both his guru and father Dronacharya and his friend Duryodhana. To revenge their deaths, Ashwatthama plans a heroic yet dangerous venture of killing of all the Pandavas. Unfortunately to his horror, while executing this plan, he kills 5 young Pandavas in their sleep. Krishna, then in all his anger & wrath curses Ashwatthama with immortality , leprosy & a person whom everyone will hate & Despise. Lord Krishna then embeds a red color gem stone on his forehead. And here is where the story begins.

Ashwatthama staggers in the desert, until he is found by a woman named Kasturi. She nurses him back to health and a hope that life will be ok even after all the disfigurations of being a leper. One fine day, when Kasturi&Ashwatthama goes to market , Kasturi to sell the hand woven baskets she sells for a living and Ashwathhama on the pretext to find a Vaidya to heal his leprosy, while his true mission is to find a way to slain all the Pandavas.

In the Caravan, he befriends Senapati, who is the survivor of the Kurukshektra war. He convinces Ashwathhama to join his motley crew of warriors to avenge the death of their families in the war & for Ashwatthama to gain Syamantaka a stone which has the power to end one’s immortality or prolong someone’s life.

The adventure here begins with Senapati , his crew &Ashwathhama. Together here they make plans to take over Syamantaka stone & kill all the Pandavas. The psychological ordeal which Ashwathhama goes through is described aptly & one can almost feel the turmoil going on his mind.

Their adventure begins by fighting off a powerful magician "tatvakarman" named "Maraan". He is protector and possessor of a stone "Kalkamani". This stone possesses the power of turning its holder into wraith to create havoc and destruction of greatest degree. More adventures follow, before the final veil of the Revenge unfolds before the reader.

Senapati, Ashwathhama&Senapati’s team of warriors finally battle out all the obstacles and reach Indraprastha – the city where Pandavas live & here is the where the final chapter of the story unfolds & perhaps begin too.

The relationship between Dronacharya& Ashwatthama is of a dual nature, father & Son and Teacher & Student. It is reflected throughout the whole book.

Subtle romance between Kasturi& Ashwatthama is penned beautifully by the author. Aditya Iyengar ends the book at a point, where this book can have an interesting sequel or perhaps book on a anotherCheeranjeevi.

Aditya Iyengar sketches out the book beautifully. No character or incident feels far fetched. The writing is to the point & it makes an interesting and gripping read. Aditya Iyengar has definitely done his work on setting up an authenticate architecture for Ashwatthama’s tale.

The book is for everyone. I could extract different meanings out of it, the battle between good and bad, greed and power, to forget and forgive, work on our repents. But at the end of it, it’s a heart touching story about a man misunderstood.… (plus d'informations)