Ram Chandra Series 1 - Scion of Ikshvaku - Book review

It was raining heavily in Chennai about a week back. No power, no internet, no bath (water had to be preserved for nature's calls and emergencies ;) ), moderate eating (to avoid emergency situations)... and hence I had to spend the time somehow. I had not been feeling like reading any book ever since I completed a boring book by Nikita Singh, don't remember the book name right now. It must have been six months now since I read any book fully. This unprecedented vacation forced me to restart my reading habit again. Nothing unread in my shelf tempted me as much as the "Scion of Ikshvaku". It's cover looked too good, created a good first impression. After reading the book, I felt that anything less than this cover design would mean a disrespect to the book. I got an urge to write something about my experience reading this book. I have difference of opinion with myself in calling it a review rather than calling it a recommendation.

We know what Amish is capable of, he has been able to convert a mythical scene into an agreeable contemporary realistic scene.

Mythical to realism:
Note: Potential spoilers below!

(At least I felt :) ) His writings, time and again keep telling that history or mythology may be a little exaggerated and biased making it hard to believe and mythical. If blindly believed, it will lead to rigidness (i.e. incapability to accept alternate views of their beliefs) and blind hero worship. Amish has kind-of hinted on how the mythological characters are to be understood and how they can be safely mapped to any normal human.

• Ram is still the hero, but not obviously the most intelligent, the most valorous, capable of everything by birth, staunch follower of his parents and guru, etc. Instead, he's just a man of principles. 
• Sita is the heroine, yet not like the one said in other version of Ramayanams, a weak, dependent, walking like a swan, brought up in a palace, etc kind of lady. 
• Kosala is not a prosperous, filthy rich territory. 
• Dasaradha is not an unconquerable emperor whose only worry was childlessness. 
• Mithila is even weaker.
• Astras are not boons given by any godly power, they are indeed result of science experiments by rishis.
• Asuras are not necessarily demonic, they just differ from the common perspective.

Well informed about the contemporary theories of female Hindu south Indian gods:
There's a character called Roshini, who was compared with Kanyakumari amman in the novel. She was gang raped in the novel. This exhibits a strange connection to a south Indian village custom which I came to know in the recent past, of creating Goddesses out of raped girls. It was as if a honor to the bravery they supposedly exhibited when resisting an attack from perverted men. This shows that he has been very updated with all trending topics in mythology, beliefs and religion.

To me, it's a must read.

I don't see any negatives.
 

Important highlights: 

• Philosophy - Atman, paramatman, brahman, feminism, masculine
• Text emphasis, references to upanishads are too good.
• Formulation of Siva as destroyer and Vishnu as protector and both "Shiva" and "Vishnu" as positions / roles in contrast to the conventional belief of both of them as personas is welcome.
• The message that masculinity and feminism forms of governance succeeds each other consecutively is something worth thinking about - a new point of view which never occurred to me before.
• Politics interwoven throughout.