Book Review: Palace of Assassins by Aditya Iyengar

Name of the book: Palace of Assassins

Name of the author: Aditya Iyengar
Length of the book: 223 pages
Rating: 3.5 out of 5

After his debut novel titled ’The Thirteenth Day’, Aditya Iyengar digs deeper into the Kurukshetra War with his next book – ‘Palace of Assassins’. It acts as a follow up to his first novel, though one can take up reading it as a standalone book.

Soon after the battle of Kurukshetra comes to a catastrophic end, the novel opens with the story of Ashwatthama. Being the lone survivor from the Kaurava camp, Ashwatthama now begins his journey filled with revenge, on a path towards redemption.

The character of Ashwatthama- the protagonist in the story, beautifully ties up two different worlds, and the events that follow as the story folds out. Initially what might feel as a biopic of Ashwatthama, slowly turns into a much larger revolution. The addition of multiple characters further strengthen the narrative, ensuring that at no point does the mythological fiction get too technical for the ordinary reader. Meticulous descriptions of the terminologies play out through different characters by themselves. Each new chapter takes the reader one step closer to the journey, bridging the gap between fiction and reality.

The action segments and fight sequences of the narrative, give the reader more than one chance to experience an adrenaline rush. One might expect a real tough blow towards the end after all the conflict, where the author falls a little short from packing a nice n’ strong punch. One reason behind it could be the story of the rise of Ashwatthama building-up to what comes in the next novel. As the end approaches we realize that the author has on-purpose left room for further development, to this grand tale from the world of mythological fiction.

All those interested in Indian mythology or mythology in general, must take up Aditya’s novel. The book makes up for a spectacular summer read, and gets a 3.5 out of 5 rating. Much thanks to the guys at Flipkart and Vivek Tejuja for sending this copy of the book.