Book Review - Saraswati's Intelligence - The Kishkindha Chronicles 1

We bookworms are unpredictable, at the time we wanted to read a certain book so much that we spent too much time & money after a book. And some of those books didn't get a chance to get read by us for the next few months or years. One such book was "Saraswati's Intelligence". I had this book for almost 3-4 years, the book belongs to one of my favorite genres of Indian Mythological / Historical fiction. But somehow it reached a place called shelved. Once it reached there I didn't see it till last summer. With guilt feeling, I promised the book that it will be finished by winters. Luckily when I got my Kindle Unlimited membership, it was one of the books that got my interest. As I was having hardcopy but not able to give proper justice, I decided to finish it on Kindle. And now I regret why I have not read it earlier.

You may have read many versions of Ramayana, in some, you will find Ram as a hero where in some you will find Ravana as a hero. You may have read books dedicated to Hanumana, Sugriva or even Vali. But Saraswati has brought a completely new perspective. The story started with Kishkindha (shown as the whole Bharat Varsha) kingdom, which was dominated by Animals, mainly Monkeys, Elephants, etc. They have their languages and can communicate with other animals. Remember there is no sign of men when the story started. Hanuman is our protagonist, who belonged to one of the strongest monkey clan in Kishkindha. His father Kesari was king & Riksharaja (mother of Vali & Sugriva) was queen. All these clans were strictly following Param Dharma, which was broken when Sugreeva met an accident. Laws were so strict that even the son of Queen or King couldn't be barred from it. They went to a Rishi (again a Monkey race) called Vishwamitra, who took them towards north from where Vishwamitra found some troubling signs. He took the help of Elephant clan and reached the point which could have been the root cause of these signs. What they found was so violent & ruthless that they had to break their years of the vow of nonviolence. Read the book to know more.

Talking about the pace, the book started at a slow pace. Later on, it shifted to a medium pace. The pace increased during the war. Later on, it was adjusted back to medium. The book started with cryptic ways, an accident of Sugreeva & usage of "Aparachara" was confusing initially. Later on, it got cleared. I advise you to have patience and keep faith in the story, it will reveal you confusing portions. It happened to me. But I am so awestruck by the imagination of the author that I kept turning pages after pages. The book is full of wonderful life-changing, motivation quotations, conversation & examples. The way animal and their harmony are showed it make us think about what we are doing on the earth in the name of living.

I would say all mythological book lovers must read this book at least once. I don't want to give away the biggest secret but read it and know who is the biggest threat to nature in ancient times & even in the current era.

Rating wise

1. Cover - 5/5
2. Concept - 5/5
3. Characters - 4/5
4. Content - 4/5
5. Overall - 4/5

Book links - Goodreads, Amazon & Flipkart