Dharmayoddha Kalki by Kevin Missal Book Review

 Dharmayoddha Kalki : Avatar of Vishnu

(Kalki Trilogy #1)

By Kevin Missal 

Published Year: 2017

Page Count: 440 pages

Medium Used: Paperback 

Genre: Epic Fantasy, Mythology, Hindu Mythology, Indian Authors, Fantasy, Good vs Evil, 2026-read.

Rating : 5/5 😎 😎 😎 😎 😎 

Highly entertaining. I am damn sure that someone who doesn't have background knowledge of Hindu myths won't be able to make heads or tails of this book. But I am glad that we have some gifted writers like Kevin Missal among us who want to dabble in God stuff, so to speak. Kevin's writing and command over English language felt superior to Amish Tripathi - another Indian taking inspiration from Indian myths to concoct captivating stories. It is impossible to evade comparisons between the two authors I feel. I loved the court intrigues, the politics and even the bloodshed which felt liberating and endearing in this book, for some damn reason I don't know!

 This book deals in the shaping out of dharm, represented by Kalki, and adharm, represented by Kali. Kalki was born with greatness written for him. He had always been a good and kind hearted lad. But coming to Kali, he was once a good man. He wanted peace between tribals(Rakshas, Yakshas, Nagas, Asuras) and the humans (manavs). He fostered peace deals between the two groups after absolutely annihilating the mavas ruler, King Vedanta. But due to some sickness of body and spirit, Kali is made to swallow juice of soma stones. His sister, Durukti, takes a heartless and bold step, venturing into the land of Shambala to procure this soma rasa for her brother. This causes great blood shed and leads to death of majority of the town people. Among the trickle of survivors are Kalki, his friends and brothers. At the end, outraged by the brutal death of his one true love, Lakshmi, Kalki goes after the troops and gets imprisoned. Kripacharya is the lead of the Kalki group who talks of Kalki's great destiny and his need to get trained so that he can fulfill the demands of this avatar. So Kripa and the other group plot to rescue Kalki from clutches of a certain death. I was captivated by the novel way they go about to enable it. 

While this is all happening, we also see that there are betrayals among the tribals lead by Kali. And friends of Kalki get caught, some are killed, some tortured. Kali changes his nature to pure evil post drinking the soma rasa. He starts scaring the folks around him with his ruthlessness, greed and power lust. I think the characters are very well developed. I liked to see how time and circumstances have changed the folks - Kalki becomes a more matured fella, Kali becomes more deplorable and inexorable. I appreciate the beautiful writing and the command over language the author possessed at his young age - I think this book is written when he is in his late teens!!