Skip to main content

Book Review: Long Live the Sullied by Gaurav Sharma

Long Live the Sullied by Gaurav Sharma is as good and as promising as the first book ‘God of the Sullied’. These two books make up the complete ‘The Sullied Warrior Duology’. Those who have read the first book now can’t wait to pick up the second one. And those who have picked up ‘Long Live the Sullied’ by chance need to go back and read ‘God of the Sullied’, as both books are inseparable. In both the novels, characters are almost same – however their action and priorities differ from one time to another. Pundir is at the forefront of this novel, though the story never forgets Eklavya, he remains in the backdrop like banter.


Just like the first book, this one too has been narrated by a multiple voices. This time much focus has been given to Mahapurohit and Pundir and a few teachers of Gurukul, where Eklavya and Pundir studied together. After the basic tenure of three years, Eklavya returns his home and never returns to the mountain Gurukul. But Pundir returns thinking Eklavya would be there for company and everything. But what all happened to Eklavya when he goes back to his home and village after gaining combat skills and theology class for three years at Gurukul? Why didn’t he come back? Did he think three years education was enough or there was something else? All the answers lie in the first book.

The second part is about Eklavya’s return to his kingdom and Pundir stirring for some action. The novel kicks off with Acharya Virbhadra searching for his favourite student Eklavya. Little did he know that Eklavya had been a king of Rudraputra after leaving the gurukul? Will Acharya Virbhadra be able to meet Eklavya? That’s another mystery here.

Since both the books in the duology are closely tied up, the narration shifts from one time to another with the author using back stories and sweeps. In the first book, when Eklavya takes up the throne of Rudraputra, he nearly finished the Kali Yuga, and Sat Yuga was back on the track. After that he gave the throne to someone else and moved on a spiritual quest. But Mahamantri cum Mahapurohit hunched the return of Kali, thus, he sends people to search Eklavya before things could go out of control.

In both the books, hill bandits acted as antagonists, they looted and killed people. Their actions have always added thrill and adventure in the story but at the same time put Eklavya and Pundir in a strange dilemma. This time it’s Pundir who succumbed to their misery. Pundir’s one of the objectives in life was to fight the hill bandits as they most of the time plundered and killed his village folks. He went to Gurukul to learn excellent combat skills so that he could fight against those bandits, but fate had some different plans for him.

Find out what happens when Pundir plans to approach the king of Rudraputra whom he blames for the loss incurred by the hill bandits. Will Pundir be able to meet his best childhood friend Eklavya? The story is a bit fragmented, but the way it converges to a single point makes up for all the pitfalls. Written in simple and superb manner, this is one of the best sequels to any mythological fiction you would have ever read in life. The Sullied Warrior Duology becomes a mandatory read for mythological lovers…it’s rather a treat.

Next Read: God of the Sullied
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Poem Summary: Where The Mind Is Without Fear by Rabindranath Tagore

Poem by Rabindranath Tagore: Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls Where words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit Where the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. Short Summary: This poem is written by Rabindranath Tagore during pre-independence days, when India was a colony of the British. The underlying theme of the poem is absolute freedom; the poet wants the citizens of his country to be living in a free state. According to the poem, we see that the poet is expressing his views there should be a country, like where people live without any sort of fear and with pure dignity…they should
68 comments
Read more

Book Review: The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond

Among all Ruskin Bond books, The Blue Umbrella has, so far, gathered immense applaud from readers and critics alike.  This is a short novel, but the kind of moral lessons it teaches to us are simply overwhelming. This is a story of Binya, a poor little girl living with her mother and an elder brother, Bijju, in a small hilly village of Garhwal. One day while herding her two cows back home, she stumbles upon some city people enjoying the picnic in the valley. She is enthralled to see them well-groomed and rich. She craves to be one like them and among many other things of their, a blue frilly umbrella catches her attention. She begins craving for it. On the other hand, the city people get attracted by her innocent beauty and the pendant in her neck. The pendant consists of leopard’s claw – which is considered a mascot widely in the hills. Binya trades her pendant off with the blue umbrella. The blue umbrella is so much beautiful that soon it becomes a topic of conversation fo
64 comments
Read more

Poem Summary: Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Ozymandias is a short poem of fourteen lines written by Percy Bysshe Shelley. The concurrent theme of the poem is that nothing remains intact and same forever in this world. Even the brightest of metal, one day decays with passage of time. The throne name of Egyptian King Ramesses is Ozymandias. It was his dearest desire to preserve himself forever by building a huge statue that he thought would never tumble down. Stanza 1: I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; Summary: The poet narrates the poem through the eyes of a traveler who seems to have come back from a remote and far-away land, referring to Egypt. The traveler r
23 comments
Read more