Gods, Kings & Slaves: The siege of Madurai by R.Venketesh

"Gods, Kings & Slaves: The siege of Madurai" by R.Venketesh - Turks in Madurai!

This book is published by Hachette India Local in 2013 and has 464 pages. 

Veera is a bastard child of Pandyan king Kulasekharan of Madurai. Sunder is the legitimate son. The competition for throne is intense. Ram, a Hindu boy, is castrated by Rana of Gujarat for fleeing with his concubine. Ram is sold to a trader who converts him to Islam. He rises in stature due to his intelligence and shrewdness and is sold to Allauddin Khilji. He becomes his trusted aid and then general, Malik Kafur. He embarks on an expedition to southern kingdoms to loot the gold. The crown jewel of southern wealth is Madurai.

What will Malik Kafur achieve? What will Veera achieve? Will his son succeed him? Will he defend Madurai and Meenaxi temple? Will the two face off?

On one side a young man called Ram transitions from being son of trader to lover of a girl in Rana's harem to becoming an eunuch to being a slave to rising in stature to joining Allauddin Khilji's harem to becoming his trusted aid to becoming general of his army. On the other side Veera transitions from being bastard son of King of Madurai to becoming a warrior of repute to loving a chola princess to becoming a great military leader to be anointed as Crown Prince to becoming a King to be branded as coward. One would expect that at some point the two personalities have to face each other. It appears that the moment is approaching but it never does. 

The story spans over half a century. It traverses the career graph of Malik and Veera. However, the main Characters transform inexplicably. Character of Veera undergoes a sudden transformation. From being a fearless warrior and good king he becomes a lazy and coward for no apparent reason and Vikrama steels the limelight. Malik too undergoes transformation. He starts talking to idol of Meenaxi, becomes paranoid. His trusted men also undergo sudden transformation and turn on him. In short, although author has built the characters,  he is not able to transform them gradually over time and ends up transforming them clumsily. 

It's a long story. A lot of things happen. Author covers vast territory and time period. However, there is no siege of Madurai as the title suggests. Madurai falls readily. The book is set in 14th century when most of India was ruled by Allauddin Khilji. I think it's one of the very free books written about Malik Kafur, the eunuch general of Allauddin Khilji. I was reading this book for last few months.

Author has given political map of India and another one for Allauddin Khilji's campaigns to the south to help readers understand. 

R. Venketesh writes in Tamil and English. This is his first English novel. 

Why did I read this book? Remained on my wish list for long.     

What I didn't like? The way character transformation is handled. 

What did I like? A fiction about events not chronicled, in detail, in history. 

Read if you have free time.