Upon a burning throne by Ashok Banker

"Upon a burning throne" by Ashok Banker - Ancient retelling of the epic!

This book was published by Simon & Schuster India in 2019 and has 352 pages. This is Book 1 of The burnt empire saga.

Author has used names of characters that are similar to the Mahabharata. Thus the reader comes to know while reading Dramatis Personae that it is a retelling of Mahabharata. If author had used different names, readers would have noticed the similarities in the story while reading the book. 

However it's not a ditto story. Author uses the Mahabharata story and characters but adds his own twists and turns as well as characters abs less his imagination flourish. He has also given thought to the construction of characters and has given attention to details. Author even manages to bring in zombies. Ashok does iall this deftly. Thus he makes it re-imagining rather than retelling.

Mahabharata, any time any where, in any form, by anyone is always interesting. Here an accomplished author like Ashok choses to retell the epic in his unique way, targeted for American audience. 

Some of his twists are interesting. Bhim (Brum) and Nakul (Kula) are females. Jarasandh (Jarsun) has a very prominent role. He is also estranged brother of Sha'ant (Shantanu). Vyas (Vessa) plays a very active role.

It was fun reading it. This is first book of the series and author does not specify how many will there be in the series. So readers have to wait for the subsequent books. 

Wait for books of some series like Ramchandra series of Amish, Vikramadity veergatha series of Shatrujeet Nath and Kaal trilogy of Sangeeta Bahadur was long, years. This book will be the same. 

Why did I read this book? Author. New series. 

What did I like? Author's touches   

What I didn't like? Length, at times.

Read, if you want to read the series.