Varaha's Vengeance by Arun Krishnan - Book Review

Series: The Battle of Vathapi #2 (Not aStandalone) 

Publication Date: 16th Feb 2024 

Genre: Indian Historical Fiction 

4.5 Stars 

One Liner: Sustains the thrills of book one 

07th Century Bharat

The three Pallava captains have completed the firststage of their missions, driven by King Narasimhavaraman’s vow. The ChalukyaKing Pulikeshi, with his brother’s help, launches a counterattack. 

The Chalukyas will stop at nothing to destroy thePallava army. Things just got a lot worse for people and the soldiers. Can thePallava army survive and fight back, or will the dynasty succumb to theChalukya force? 

The story comes in the omnipresent third-person POV. 

My Thoughts: 

This book takes off where Nandi’s Charge ended (afew weeks later). It is not a standalone and should not be read out oforder. 

NGL, I was excited and wary of reading this one.What if it wasn’t as good as the previous book? Fortunately, I could set myworries aside once the story began. 

The book has a steady pace and sustains the momentumthroughout. At no point will you feel bored, not even when different batches ofsoldiers from different kingdoms sit and wait for action. There’s action evenwhen there’s no action. 

As the title suggests, this one has the Chalukyakingdom out for revenge. Given its extensive army and near-unlimited supply ofresources, you can guess how tense the situation would be. 

Apart from pure warcraft and statecraft, we also seebetrayal, backstabbing, moral dilemmas, ethical debates, and much more. Whatdoes one do when the lines blur? 

Like book one, there’s a list ofcharacters at the beginning neatly categorized according to their kingdoms androles. Apart from the basic map, we also get two little illustrations detailingthe tricky settings. Of course, the descriptions are clear enough to visualizethe events, even without the illustrations. 

My favorite captains – Elango, Kanan, and Muthuvelare right in the middle of the action and danger. The ladies (love) do theirbit (Indumati’s arc is terrific) and stand out strong. I’m not happy with thestereotypical portrayal of the queens (pampered dramatic women), but since theyhave very minor roles, I wasn’t too annoyed. 

We have some new characters like Thaamarai (she is afirebrand), Venkata, Anjeneya, Jabali, etc. Each of them asserts their presencewith definite characterizations. Of course, we see incompetence, arrogance, andslimness in some. That makes the characters quite realistic. 

I really want to see the author’s murder board…oops, storyboard. Keeping so many tracks straight is not easy! It needs a dozencolor-coded threads and a huge bunch of sticky notes. Still, once you get intothe flow, nothing matters. You keep turning the pages to see whathappens. 

The chapter titles are mild spoilers, which I don’tmind. Those are necessary to keep the details straight. 

We have more battle scenes in this one (book #3might have a lot more). I like how they felt similar to the scenes fromMahabharata. I’ve been reading the Yudha (war) Parvas for the last few months,so the whole thing feels familiar and just as exciting. However, what I lovethe most are the scenes where captains follow the rules of yudha dharma andteach their soldiers the importance of abiding by these. 

One teeny thing that struck me as odd was thepresence of tomatoes in the 7th-century Bharat. From what I know, tomatoesdidn’t arrive on the land until after the 15th century, and even then, theseweren’t a favorite. Many people from my grandparents’ generation don’t usetomatoes much, and some don’t eat them at all. Anyhoo, that’s a minor issue andhas nothing to do with the major plot. 

The book ends on a serious cliffhanger. Gasp! I hopebook #3 doesn’t take too much time. The title is mentioned, so hopefully, itwon’t take a year. On that note, I hope the last book has an orange or browncover. It would go well with the title. 

To summarize, Varaha's Vengeance is a fast-paced andworthy continuation of the previous book. It has action, humor, romance, drama,and a bit of everything to keep you hooked from the first page. 

Thank you, Blogchatter, author Arun Krishnan, andpublisher HarperCollins India, for a copy of the book. This review is poweredby theBlogchatter Book Review Program and contains my honest opinion aboutthe book. 

You can buy the paperback of Varaha'sVengeance: Battle of Vatapi Book 2 on Amazon.