Usha Narayanan is back with another less popular mythological hero that the world, obviously, needs to know more of. Usha writes about lesser known mythological characters and I think that in itself becomes her USP. Her first two books were about Pradyumna, Lord Krishna’s son.

(Trivia: The thing that binds both these characters, Kartikeya and Pradyumna, is that both were separated from their parents at birth.)

The amount of research that Usha has has done for this story is overwhelming. It also includes some episodes that we know of but didn’t know how they came about to be. My most favorite among that lot is how the peacock came to be Kartikeya’s consort.

The story is well-written, in terms of the language, and I liked that more than Usha’s previous books.

In terms of its pace, I thought that while the rest of the story is paced well and takes only enough time to build Kartikeya’s story, the end seemed too long to me. Agreed that it was a huge battle being fought, but I thought some parts of it could be toned down a little too ensure that reader interest is not lost.

The many brilliantly written twists in the end do make up for some of it though.

If mythology and mythological fiction interest you, this is definitely a book you must read once.