Kartikeya: The Destroyer's Son

This is the second book by the author, Anuja Chandramouli, that I have read. She usually writes about historical characters and mythology and I, for one, love this genre. Kartikeya: The Destroyer’s Son , is all about the warrior son of Shiva and Parvati and the tale of how and why he came into existence.The Devas up in heavens are anxious, specifically Indra. The Asura brothers – Soora, Simha and Tarak have taken over his throne. Karthikeya is, thus, born out of the pressing demands of the Devas as it was deemed that only the son of Shiva and Parvati can restore order and Indra’s throne by destroying the three asuras. The story takes us forward along with Karthikeya’s life and his challenges and also how his brother, Ganesha, joins his family.The book is a straight forward one, as is the case with all the author’s books, in my opinion. The writing is impressive, especially the author’s language. The narrative keeps the readers engaged successfully throughout and I particularly liked the fact that there is no beating around the bush.The author gives a different take on the popular story where Karhikeya and Ganesha fight over a fruit and as a result, Karthikeya flies off to Pazhani (a major shrine in Tamil Nadu). The book also has adapted Karthikeya as the elder brother which is contradicting to the prevalent south Indian belief, where Ganesha is the elder brother.Nevertheless, the book adequately describes the relationship between Karthikeya and his parents and also his deeds as a warrior. I really loved the cover, which is a painting of the well known south Indian painter, Raja Ravi Verma. Gorgeous!Overall, I would end my review by saying that if you don’t know enough of Karthikeya, then this is the book for you. And even if you do, you just might end up learning something new.*** This book was sent to me by the author in exchange for an honest review. ***

Note: Detailed book review is available on our webiste, here is the summarized one.Lord Shiva's is probably the only family which is worshiped in its entirety! A lot has been written about Mahadev, the God of Gods, and many incarnations of his beloved better half Sati (Gauri, Kali, Parvati, Uma...), Ganesha and his wives, but Kartikeya is comparatively less talked about, especially in northern India. Since Kartikeya left mount Kailash, it is said that he is settled in the South part of India and there he is worshiped, and more famous as Murugan.Recently, when one of our editors got a chance to read "Kartikeya: The Destroyer's Son" by Anuja Chandramouli, we were curious about how much of Kartikeya's life was explored in the book. As the subject itself is challenging in terms of research and collecting information. Of course, the book is neither to be made as a research paper nor a historical document, so the author was expected to fill the colors of imagination and fantasy, which she does, but, it definitely required reading of some of the Indian scriptures without a doubt.The Plot:As per our review policy, we try to avoid as many spoilers as much possible, you may found some of them in this bird's eye view of the book plot.This book starts where Kamadeva: The God of Desire finished with the annihilation of Kamadeva by Shiva and finally his marriage to Parvati. Now the three worlds are waiting with bated breath for the birth of the natural son of Shiva who will fight the evil trio of Soora, Simha, and Taraka and free the worlds and devas from their tyranny.A series of fortunate and unfortunate events took place in the due course, and Kartikeya now decides to move to South India and the story ends on his finding a new love, a new wife in Valli.Views and Reviews:The trick with making a mythological book work is the presentation of the old, well known story in context with the new, the current world. And Anjuja Chanramouli does this very well. While the story of Kartikeya is not new, the sequence in which his life is played out is. This is no war-mongering, power hungry Senapati of devas, but a philosophical, lovable and loving youth who cuts out what’s rotten, so new life can be born from old.I quite enjoyed the way Anuja Chandramouli builds up the mental and psychological states of Soora, Simha, Taraka, and Ajamukhi, finally leading to their natural ends.Some of the unmissable quotes from the book includes:"The important thing to remember is that though the journey you are to undertake must be your own, you are not alone. All things in existence are connected to all else and the threads that bind us together may be gossamer—soft and delicate, but they are strong enough to withstand being torn apart despite being pulled in all directions by the best efforts of every single thing they hold together."Also, it is worth to note that Anuja is good at describing things. Often you find a very detailed exploration of a scene. While it will give detailed inside to the incident to the reader, it also make curious readers to jump a couple of pages without worrying to miss anything.Summary:Overall a good book if you decide to explore comparatively less explored story from Indian mythology. The author is good at scene creations, though sometimes you may find them stretching.Rating:We would give it around 7 stars out of 10 (that is 3.5 out of 5, I needed to round them off here).

Kartikeya is a fantastic tale of our beloved god murugan right from his conception till his family life begins. While plenty of facts about him might have been revealed already in Amar Chitra Katha novels/comics, trust me this one goes beyond that and how. As always Anuja is neutral when it comes to the mega devas/asuras war which went on for ages. Her distaste for indra is at its peak here in this novel i daresay. Kartikeya's conception, his relation with his parents, his muses, his mount and his sibling have been fleshed out in a witty way while staying mostly true to facts. Her stories have a philosophical outlook which is not imposing but pretty enlightening. I feel the book is too short, needed to know more about kartikeya in his prime. But hey a good book always has to leave us wanting more right?

2* for my English, I felt without having a masters in English I should not have bought this bookThis book could have been written in more simple wordsI am also on the way to finish kundalini awakening and ancient science of mantra by om swami this book makes use of simple words most of the timeIf any one can prefer some books on kartikeya please

A tad bit slow in between but otherwise an engaging story. The part where Lord Kartikeya is depicted as the God of War is somewhat obscure and could have been developed better.

Oh wow. A must read. Amazing job Anuja. Hope you keep writing books and bring a smile to the face of every reader. A must read

Had to keep a dictionary while reading which actually did not make me connect with the story...