Upon a Burning Throne

By: Ashok K. Banker

Narrated by: Vikas Adam

Length: 24 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

Two princes, Shvate and Adri, are born in Hastinaga, capital of the vast Krushan empire - one blind, the other albino. Though one cannot see and the other cannot face sunlight, the Dowager Empress Jilana and Prince Regent Vrath assure their people and allies that all will be well. Any rumblings of dissent are summarily quashed, and none dare challenge the might of the Burnt empire.

But when Jarsun of Reygistan's daughter is spurned by the ruling family despite her legitimate claim to the throne, Jarsun - a powerful demonlord - embarks upon a relentless campaign to destroy the Burnt empire. And all who stand in his way.

©2019 Ashok K. Banker (P)2019 Recorded Books

Repetitive formal and ultimately boring

I really wanted to love this book because I am such a fan of Banker's short stories (also audio) from Lightspeed Magazine. But this was plodding. The narration was great - he really pulled off various voices. Not enough to save the book, though.

not the baby!

I don't have much to say about it. some of the subjects in the book I didn't really understand so I gave it a 4 star. aside from that, I liked it!

Not what I was looking for

The reader is fine for 1st person but as this book is in 3rd person it gets over the top pretty fast with no recourse of using characterization to explain away the excesses.

I also found the use of Deus Ex Machina to be a bit much and bit frequent, while still annoyingly inconsistent.

It's not bad, but it's not great. Ask yourself, are you in the mood for something kind of cheesy?

Diamond in the Rough!

The book is dense and a challenge to tackle, but well worth the investment! I couldn't stop listening and I didn't want the story to finish. Apparently, this is a planned seven book series and I can't wait to for the next one to come out.

Narrator is excellent and you never feel lost. Highly recommended

A disappointment

I read the Ramayan series by this author and enjoyed it so much that I may have set very high expectations for this book. The story line was a little scewed and had alot of parallels with Mahabharat and Ramayan and didn't seem original to me. The descriptive writing seemed very repetitive and lengthy...maybe moreso because I was hearing it rather than reading the book.

Book I always wanted but never imagined I’d get.

This hands down makes my list of all time favorite books. This is the book that I had always craved since I stared reading fantasy books in high school but never imagined would get written. I grew on hearing stories of the Mahabharata on the lap of my maternal grandfather as a child. As soon as I was old enough to read, I was given children’s versions of the book and since then I have devoured every English translation I could get my hand on. Maybe being so familiar with the story and having a deep love for the characters helped me to love this book so much. Though its foundation is the Mahabharata, the author changes up enough things to make it fit our modern times. I love that he makes the women have more powerful roles and gives them a voice. I love that my beloved Pandavas, called Krushan here are not all boys! 2 of the 5 are girls and the one that’s supposed to be the strongest of them all, Brum is a girl! There are many changes like this that made me absolutely fall in love with this book. Glad to know it’s only the first of 7 books planned. I can’t wait to read the rest to see where he takes this story. I definitely recommend this to people who have read and love the Mahabharata, but also this that love high fantasy that is different from most others out there.

A Good Vocabulary Does Not Good Writing Make

This could have been such a great book. So much about it was directly on point. The Indian mythological tradition is *beautifully* transcribed into modern fantasy. There's plenty of action, the imagery is vivid (sometimes disturbingly so), the story intrigues, the characters both male and female are complex and relatable, and Vikas Adam performs the material flawlessly!

But the writing. Dear lord, the writing. My English composition teacher would have had an absolute conniption over this author's overuse of passive verb tenses, and he spends way too much time restating the same idea or description in six different ways before continuing with the story. All in all, it dragged and lacked the punch even a slightly more direct writing style could have lent, and the book suffers for it.