Varaha's Vengeance by Arun Krishnan - Book Review

Series: The Battle of Vathapi #2 (Not a Standalone) 

Publication Date: 16th Feb 2024 

Genre: Indian Historical Fiction 

4.5 Stars 

One Liner: Sustains the thrills of book one 

07th Century Bharat

The three Pallava captains have completed the first stage of their missions, driven by King Narasimhavaraman’s vow. The Chalukya King Pulikeshi, with his brother’s help, launches a counterattack. 

The Chalukyas will stop at nothing to destroy the Pallava army. Things just got a lot worse for people and the soldiers. Can the Pallava army survive and fight back, or will the dynasty succumb to the Chalukya force? 

The story comes in the omnipresent third-person POV. 

My Thoughts: 

This book takes off where Nandi’s Charge ended (a few weeks later). It is not a standalone and should not be read out of order. 

NGL, I was excited and wary of reading this one. What if it wasn’t as good as the previous book? Fortunately, I could set my worries aside once the story began. 

The book has a steady pace and sustains the momentum throughout. At no point will you feel bored, not even when different batches of soldiers from different kingdoms sit and wait for action. There’s action even when there’s no action. 

As the title suggests, this one has the Chalukya kingdom out for revenge. Given its extensive army and near-unlimited supply of resources, you can guess how tense the situation would be. 

Apart from pure warcraft and statecraft, we also see betrayal, backstabbing, moral dilemmas, ethical debates, and much more. What does one do when the lines blur? 

Like book one, there’s a list of characters at the beginning neatly categorized according to their kingdoms and roles. Apart from the basic map, we also get two little illustrations detailing the tricky settings. Of course, the descriptions are clear enough to visualize the events, even without the illustrations. 

My favorite captains – Elango, Kanan, and Muthuvel are right in the middle of the action and danger. The ladies (love) do their bit (Indumati’s arc is terrific) and stand out strong. I’m not happy with the stereotypical portrayal of the queens (pampered dramatic women), but since they have very minor roles, I wasn’t too annoyed. 

We have some new characters like Thaamarai (she is a firebrand), Venkata, Anjeneya, Jabali, etc. Each of them asserts their presence with definite characterizations. Of course, we see incompetence, arrogance, and slimness in some. That makes the characters quite realistic. 

I really want to see the author’s murder board… oops, storyboard. Keeping so many tracks straight is not easy! It needs a dozen color-coded threads and a huge bunch of sticky notes. Still, once you get into the flow, nothing matters. You keep turning the pages to see what happens. 

The chapter titles are mild spoilers, which I don’t mind. Those are necessary to keep the details straight. 

We have more battle scenes in this one (book #3 might have a lot more). I like how they felt similar to the scenes from Mahabharata. I’ve been reading the Yudha (war) Parvas for the last few months, so the whole thing feels familiar and just as exciting. However, what I love the most are the scenes where captains follow the rules of yudha dharma and teach their soldiers the importance of abiding by these. 

One teeny thing that struck me as odd was the presence of tomatoes in the 7th-century Bharat. From what I know, tomatoes didn’t arrive on the land until after the 15th century, and even then, these weren’t a favorite. Many people from my grandparents’ generation don’t use tomatoes much, and some don’t eat them at all. Anyhoo, that’s a minor issue and has nothing to do with the major plot. 

The book ends on a serious cliffhanger. Gasp! I hope book #3 doesn’t take too much time. The title is mentioned, so hopefully, it won’t take a year. On that note, I hope the last book has an orange or brown cover. It would go well with the title. 

To summarize, Varaha's Vengeance is a fast-paced and worthy continuation of the previous book. It has action, humor, romance, drama, and a bit of everything to keep you hooked from the first page. 

Thank you, Blogchatter, author Arun Krishnan, and publisher HarperCollins India, for a copy of the book. This review is powered by the Blogchatter Book Review Program and contains my honest opinion about the book. 

You can buy the paperback of Varaha's Vengeance: Battle of Vatapi Book 2 on Amazon.