Book review- The war of Lanka by Amish Tripathi (Ramachandra Series- Part 4)

 

The latest book in Ramachandra Series is titled “The war of Lanka”. The narrative that was set through previous books in the series for the three main characters of the series i.e. Ram, Sita, and Raavan finally crash into each other and explode in a slaying war plot.

Since it is the Amishverse, "The War of Lanka '' has its own set of unpredictability and new-set-of-angles. But one thing is for sure… this is no retelling of the original war. What continues to be original are the names of characters and places and the outcome… However, the mode of the war takes another avenue. It is a full-on-Bollywood-style drama with a Hollywood-style-war strategy. There are many occasions in the book which are a sheer pleasure to read and yet there are a few explanations that are duplicative (from the previous series) and others not-so-required elaboration.

The war aims to strive for two things- first to win over evil/bad people and second to finalize the next ‘Vishnu’ – the flag bearer of the dharma.

One thing to add, the author has created small sentences which give the reader easy navigation while reading - and the best part, I like how Amish doesn’t care a bit about what Grammar Nazis would say about the way he writes sentences without a proper form and uses punctuation marks as per his convenience. From his writings, it is evident that he cares for the reader’s ease rather than impressing the elites. His descriptions are so powerful that he makes you visualize the whole personas and scenes and find yourself in the same era.

For me, the low side of the book was- the depleted rage of Raavan. Had it been like the devilish one (pardon the language) the Amish’s tale of war would have been much better. Amish telling seemed confused about how to portray Raavan. It sometimes looks like Raavan has already given up even before the war has begun. Also, the war setup takes a long time which is understandable but the war seems to be in such a hurry, that it messes up the last pages of the book.

My verdict- well, if have read the previous three novels in the series, this book is a must as it reveals many surprises whose plots were already drawn.

Quotes-

“..three drivers of decision-making: Desire, Emotions and Intelligence. They arrange themselves in a hierarchy, with Desire at the bottom and Intelligence at the top. Desire and Emotions can be allowed to drive decisions at times. But Desire must never be allowed to override Emotions in decision-making. And Emotions must never overpower Intelligence. When we allow our behavior and decisions to be primarily driven by Intelligence, then we have the opportunity to live wisely.”

‘that grief and suffering can serve as engines that move life forward. Happiness is overrated. Hatred, of course, is destructive.’

‘Great does not mean good... Great only means the person makes a real impact on the world. Ordinary people do not impact the world, they are only impacted by it.


"They say that only the dead are allowed to reach heaven. But that is false. True heaven is not beyond us in this life. It is right here on earth. With the one you love.”