Thank you so much for letting me review this title. Unfortunately this just was not the book for me and I only made it through about the first 80 pages. I don’t write reviews for books I don’t finish as I feel this would be unfair.

I was not familiar with the Mahabhrata prior to reading this and perhaps I would have enjoyed it less if I was (I will be checking it out!) However I was thrilled to read an Indian set epic fantasy of this scope and found it a fast paced, if slightly flawed read. I loved the world building and the sheer breadth of the story – no doubt taken from the source material. I was disappointed by the depiction of the female characters – there was a lot of sexism and it wasn’t to make a point, but seemed to have crept in for ‘accuracy’. In other words, the author would appear to have it as part of his world view and just didn’t notice he was doing it? Anyway, this was still a good read. I have high hopes for the rest of the series. Just please stop stifling the female characters.

Ok, this is a looonnngg book. At close to 700 pages, I need action and witty dialogue and intrigue in order to keep me turning the pages and getting to what's next. Unfortunately I often felt bogged down with unnecessary information. I've seen it billed as an Indian Game of Thrones, and as I am probably one of five people to have never seen or read GoT, this may be why I feel like the epic could have done with some major cutting down. Most YA fantasies seem to fall around the 300-400 page mark and I think that was what I was expecting going in. I will say that the subject matter was interesting and I am all for retellings, especially when it introduces me to a knew story.

This book was a perpetual fight to get through, a complete slog in dire need of trimming. There was so much information that felt extraneous.

It stuffed full of shallow POV, and I didn't care about any of them. There were random POV - like a circling vulture - that appeared for one chapter and added nothing to the story. I really struggled to work oout what the main story was - what are the goals and stakes and plot? Why should I want to root for these characters?

What I thought were the central POV then dropped out for a whole section to be replaced with a new character - Karni - who seemed to have no bearing on the main story. The big information reveal for her was just dumped with no emotional build up.

The big battle scene at about 25% through came with some of the most ridiculous military laws I've heard. Only chariots can attack chariots, only elephants can attack elephants and so on. When an opponent break this rule, they can't attack back - no, they can merely defend until the 'correct' forces come to their rescue. This is the military strategy of the supposedly undefeatable empire. How has empire survived and why had no one exploited it before?

Having read the Mahabharata for a class, I was particularly interested in this retelling (of course, I don't claim to be an expert on the Mahabharata by any means).

This book was just okay. I had a hard time getting into it and ultimately did not finish it (if I had realized how long it was going to be, I may not have requested it in the first place).

This is an epic length book. There are times when I felt exhausted of how many more pages were left in the book. It's a well written book, though. The characters and setting are very interesting. There are really strong women and Karni is my favorite. The book follows two brothers, one blind and one albino, who are both going to rule a kingdom. A man who is essentially a demon wants to crush them. It's also more about the world they inhabit and the greater powers the people live among.

It's a good, interesting book. If you read it pace yourself. This is book one in a series so there isn't much of an ending. It just ends.

Well this was another big tome that I had high hopes for this year.

Unfortunately it was just okay.

It felt like it dragged on a bit and with the hundreds of different kingdoms it was quite confusing at first. I didn't really connect with the princes and had high hopes for the girl contender of the throne to make her appearance, which she didn't.
I'd assume that this is going to happen in the next installment, but at this point I am not sure if I am going to continue with this series.
The battles were written great, but quite gory and brutal, hence the GOT reference?

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with an eARC.

When it comes to world building, Ashok K. Banker has done a great job in his new novel Upon A Burning Throne but overall the book was a miss for me. There was a huge cast of characters to wade through and even the list at the beginning of the book grew frustrating as I continuously flipped back and forth on my tablet. The chapters were short and switched narrator each time so it never felt like i could invest in one person's story or point of view which led me to become disengaged from them. The world was rich with description but felt lacking in anything actually happening (how long could we describe Adri's feelings about being in the jungle?). Long winded speeches by characters that wouldn't really happen in real life left me confused by the end about what point they were supposed to be making. Overall, for those who love to dive into the history of a fantasy novel and enjoy epics like the Odyssey with long winded speeches, this would be a good book but if couldn't hold my attention for more than a few minutes at a time and I skimmed most of the last half.

To start, the book has one of the best openings I’ve read. There’s so much intrigue on every page, with the royal family fighting for their children’s rights to rule. You have the epicness of the burning throne and its sheer, unchallenged power. You have three possible heirs, each presenting a different future for the empire. On every page, something new is revealed, causing gasps and shock among the audience. It’s a truly epic beginning that brilliantly attaches you to the book.


Unfortunately my interest began to wane quickly after this opening section. Everything slows down and feels drawn out to unnecessary extremes. The storytelling becomes difficult to engage with as you get further into the book and you don't spend a lot of time with each character. I had trouble with the quick snapshot approach. The excitement of the first part didn’t return for a long time and I couldn’t stick with it. This is definitely on the extremely epic end of fantasy and I just wasn’t a good fit for it.

It’s exciting to see a global look at genres that we think we know. This is an epic fantasy of a scope that a Western audience may have difficulty grasping. I feel like my very, very limited knowledge of the Mahabharata is just enough for me to know that I don’t know enough. Regardless, the book is a luscious combination of mythic forces, heros, villains, warriors, quests, and other elements that keep us moving through true many (many!) pages. A promising start to a new series.

A book based on the Mahabharata and Indian mythology, the culture and setting really shines. The world is unique and intriguing, and stands out as unique from other fantasy worlds.

The narrative style reads like an oral history and historical epic. The events feel grand and impactful, but I found the characters hard to feel attached to. With the exception of the two brothers, most of the characters did not fully grip me.

I think because of the narrative style, the book fell into a lot of tell, and not much show. For those that enjoy this style of storytelling, this con will not apply.

This book reminded me of the dandelion dynasty in its style and execution. Fans of that series will want to pick this book up, Anyone interested in a unique, Indian-based world will definitely want to pick this title up.

To be posted on my GoodReads page April 16, 2019:
How do you summarize almost 700 pages without thoroughly confusing people? Ok, so there’s a huge empire that is made up of many smaller kingdoms that pay liege to on ruling family, the only family that can sit on the ever-burning throne and survive. As our story begins there is not just one, not two, but three infants who are sat on the throne to see if they will one day rule. To everyone’s consternation all three survive the flames. But the two boys each have a defect, Adri is blind and Shvate is albino (which is a hardship in a tropical country). The third is a girl fathered by a man/demon, Jarsun, who has been banned by the family for his evil practices. The rest of the book watches the two boys grow and become men, start families of their own (thus deepening the question of inheritance) occasionally fending off attacks from the evil guy. There are many gods, demigods, and humans who all are trying to direct the future of who will rule the empire.

When the book set out I really thought it was going to focus on the three kids who sat on the throne and them squabbling over the throne, but the girl never ever reappears. Maybe she’s coming in the next book? I found it a bit frustrating that she was so pivotal in the intro and then disappeared for hundreds and hundreds of pages. At times, I felt like this book could stand to lose a hundred or so of those pages (the page #s of the publication actually have dropped by 80ish pages since I got the ARC so it seems someone else agreed). There were several rehashes of past events (which felt like something you’d write at the beginning of a new book in a series) that weren’t necessary in a single volume. That would have been my first guess of what got cut. The other would be to pare down some of the fight scenes. There’s one battle that takes up almost 100 pages all by itself. And some of the fight sequences are rather imaginatively gory and disturbing. (Banker should totally try his hand at horror if he hasn’t already. He’s obviously got what it takes to write some seriously disturbing stuff. I have a strong stomach and used to teach AP Bio and Human Anatomy, but some of the stuff he dreamed up made me feel squeamish. I can see imaginative horror fans really liking his stuff.) My last guess would have been to make the family drama in the last third of the book a bit more concise. There’s all this fighting and excitement in the first 2/3 and then the last 1/3 Jarsun decides to use family discord and seeds of mistrust to drive the family apart. It gets a little slow compared to the excitement of the earlier sections. I admire the grand scope and all of the characters that Banker can keep straight and write with their own characteristics and voices. The world also has interesting rules (or lack of rules) what with all the gods, demigods, and supernatural forces around. It is very imaginative. It has a definite Indian flavoring, which I liked, but also feels entirely its own in a way that’s hard to describe. Overall, I'd give this 2.5 stars personally (rounded up to 3 stars). I feel like I admire the writing and the imagination and the world building skills. I feel like I wanted a bit more to the plot, personally. And I think that’s my own fault with the expectations I built from the introduction. I was pretty miffed to not see the other burning throne sitting girl ever again. And you have to be pretty patient with the machinations of beings that aren’t entirely mortal and can plot in decades and centuries instead of months and years. It is a patient and lengthy ongoing battle and you’ve got to enter into this ready for that. Recommended for really epic fantasy fans who like an Indian flavoring to their fantasy, and those who like family sagas and ages-long battles between various forces.

Notes on content [Based on the ARC]: A small handful of minor swearwords. The first 2/3 of the book talk use almost clinical or scriptural language to refer to sexual matters talked about. The last ~1/3 has one descriptive sex scene, another fade to black sex scene, and more frank discussions about sexual matters (as the sex lives of princes and the production of heirs are discussed by others in court). There is LOT of violence. There are numerous battles, and each of them gets many pages of descriptive details of the violence. Brutal deaths and horrific descriptions of deaths and fantasy violence that’s disturbing are frequent. (As mentioned above, many of these cross into horror fantasy.) Several of the battles are many, many pages long. There are characters who smoke a narcotic, and other characters who drink to the point of drunkenness (this results in some severe repercussions, though).

<i>I received an ARC of this title from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</i>

Pls resend as my kindle address has changed and I can’t download it on the new one bakshiartika@kindle.com
My email is bakshiartika@gmail.com

A welcome addition to the ranks of epic fantasy sagas, Ashok Banker's Upon a Burning Throne draws from The Mahabharata to create its setting, plot, and characters. Banker does a fine job introducing his (presumably Western) readers to the cultures and customs he is working with, and after the initial info-drop that many fantasy novels begin with, the story blazes forth, covering the tragedies and triumphs of a single generation that lay the foundation for a looming dynasty-shattering war. Banker provides carefully crafted backstories for characters, and his text is explicit in its inclusion of various skin colors, sexualities, and class differences, both of which are often glossed over or ignored in other adaptations. While his villains occasionally cross the line into "cartoonishly evil", and the dialogue for his child characters seems a little awkward and unrealistic, overall this was a good start to a new fantasy series and I am looking forward to the next installment.

I really enjoyed this fantasy epic. It nicely followed fantasy tropes while based within a realm heavily influenced by India's religions and cultures. I would recommend this for anyone who is a fan of epic fantasies that include strong male and female characters.
I am looking forward to the next installment... I know I have a bit of a wait...