The Secret of God’s Son by Usha Narayanan

I received The Secret of God’s Son by Usha Narayanan as a review copy from the publisher. Thank you, Rubina Ramesh of the Book Club for the same. This book is a sequel to Pradyumna son of Krishna.

The blurb:

The seas will devour the glorious city of Dwaraka. People will forget your name and your Gita!

May the world perish!

May the world perish!’

With this cruel curse on Krishna, Queen Gandhari plunges mankind into the unspeakable evil of the Kali Yuga.

It is up to Pradyumna to try and reverse the dire prediction. He must journey into terrifying realms, confront Yama and Shiva, and to vanquish the Kali demon. And to do so, he must shed all that holds a mortal back–his arrogance, his fears, his baser instincts– and lead his people out of the swirling vortex of greed, disease and misery.
Unbeknownst to him, and there is one powerful weapon still, one that could bring victory within his grasp — the secret surrounding his origin. Will he uncover it in time to fight off the cataclysm?

In the answer to this question lies the destiny of all humanity!

The Story:

The story starts with the end of the Battle of Kurukshetra, when Bheema and Vikarna are standing in front of each other and Bheema telling Vikarna to side with the Pandavas and Vikarna refusing and the slaying of Vikarna at the hands of Bheema. The mankind has plunged into darkness by the curse of queen Gandhari. Pradyumna goes to Gandhari and tells her to take back her curse.

Pradyumna asks Krishna to bring back Vikarna so that he can take him to his mother so that she can take back his curse. Krishna, as Vishnu tells him to take Shiva’s blessings. In Kailasa, the blue lotus and Shiva find him to be arrogant but he tells them that he is there out of his love for humanity. He brings back Vikarna and wants to ask Gandhari to take back her curse, but does not know when to do it.

Krishna tells him to go on a pilgrimage, he meets various Gods, fights various demons and tries to save his clan and the Gita. All through he has the support of his wife Maya and his sons, friends and family.

Will he succeed? Will he overcome Kali?

Read on as Pradymna, the son of the God, fights against a curse….

My take:

The cover of the book is beautiful and once I started reading the book, I got transported back to the days of the Mahabharata. The writing and descriptions are such that it was very easy for me to picturise the entire scene and the set up. Most of the scenes are set in the battlefield, with vivid descriptions. One example, “Their maces descended like lightening and clanged like thunder in a contest of will and skill”.

I read the interaction between Shiva and Pradyumna five times, it was so well written. While reading the interaction between Pradyumna and Yama, I was waiting with baited breath, as to who would win. The peace time conversations between various members of Krishna’s family show the love that they have for each other. The way the family tries to protect Vajra, Pradyumna’s nephew has been described well. Maya’s support to her husband and his family has been beautifully documented.

The language is simple and the book is well paced. The extensive research done is reflected in the way the story flows and it was very difficult for me to separate the fact from the fiction. Hats off to the author for thinking on a different plane because for most of us, the Kurukshetra war ended at the battlefield.

The characters have been created in such a way that when I was reading about them, the seemed lifelike to me and the pictures of Amar Chitra Kathas that we read as kids came to life. The scene when Pradyumna and members of the Pandava and the Kaurava families see their dead ones has been written with so much of feeling, that it brought tears to my eyes.

What was surprising that even though the author has written the story in such a way that even though the story moves from one setting to another and even from one time zone to another, the writing is such that I did not lose track of the book.

Highly recommended.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of the book from the publisher in return for my honest review. I have NOT received any monetary compensation for the same.