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rince of Ayodhya is the first volume of an ambitious new fantasy series by Ashok K. Banker, an Indian journalist and writer who aims at no less than a retelling of the great Sanskrit epic, the Ramayana.
Rama, son of the powerful Arya ruler Dasaratha, is afflicted by horrific visions in which he sees his father's capital city of Ayodhya assaulted by an army of inhuman races; his dream is both a threat and a prophecy. In the meantime, unknown to Rama, Dasaratha is dying and must soon choose an heir, while Manthara, a servant of Dasaratha's second queen, Kaikeyi, secretly serves Ayodhya's enemies and plots to gain power for her mistress. Dasaratha's kingdom, so long at peace, is now threatened by the Asura races that serve Ravana, the Dark Lord of Lanka.
Even as Dasaratha is reconciled with his long-neglected wife, Kausalya, and plans to name Rama as his successor, rakashas and other nonhuman enemies of the Arya are infiltrating his city and planning its destruction; among the rakashas is Supanakha, a cousin of the Dark Lord who has become obsessed with Rama after he inadvertently saves her life. Only the ancient and legendary seer-mage Vishwamitra may be able to save the Arya civilization, but to do so he must take young Rama away from his city and on a long and perilous quest, leaving Ayodhya in the hands of a weakened king whose enemies are steadily growing stronger.
A timeless story translated for today
In his retelling of the Ramayana, Ashok K. Banker is following in a long tradition, since this story has been retold in a multitude of versions for over 2,000 years throughout the Indian subcontinent, in other Asian countries, and in Western translations and reinterpretations; it is one of the most popular narratives in the world. The basic story is an archetypal winner, with its tale of a handsome and virtuous prince, deprived of his kingdom, struggling to overcome adversity and powerful enemies.
Here, this classic tale is embedded in a wealth of authentic and exotic detail. Banker has inserted his own original touches; familiar elements of fantasy—powerful wizards, an evil stepmother, shapechangers, demons and spells—are all present, but with hints that what is being shown might also be the clash of two highly advanced ancient civilizations, in keeping with Arthur C. Clarke's dictum that any sufficiently advanced technology will seem like magic. That Banker uses the titles of well-known science fiction works in his section titles only adds to this impression.
Banker sounds a few discordant notes. To hear Rama and others use such colloquial expressions as "okay" when they're speaking informally can be jarring, and there are occasional lines of dialogue in which a speaker mentions things his listener would presumably already know. Sometimes the author overloads passages with more detail than is necessary while telling the reader more than he actually shows; the elaborate parade of Dasaratha and his court during the Holi procession, as seen by two young temple prostitutes, is one example of such a scene. Some readers may be put off by the wealth of unfamiliar words and phrases derived from Sanskrit and other Indian languages, but they shouldn't be; Banker provides a useful glossary, and most of the expressions he uses can be grasped, or at least guessed at, in context.
Where Prince of Ayodhya succeeds is in its drama and its air of authenticity, the sign of a writer who has inhabited his fictional world as much as he has imagined it. The cast of characters is large but never confusing; Banker knows how to control the many threads in his complex story and artfully increases the suspense by knowing exactly when to cut away from a particular scene before returning to it in a later chapter. He also has a gift for highly charged dramatic confrontations and for depicting characters who are considerably more complex than those in generic fantasies; the patient and devoted Queen Kausalya, the conflicted demon Supanakha, Rama's devoted brother Lakshman, and the aging warrior Bejoo are only a few of those who are brought to life in the pages of this novel.
Readers who are familiar with the Ramayana in one of its many previous incarnations will be entertained by the new twists and turns Banker brings to the story, while those coming to this classic story for the first time should find an excellent gateway to the further exploration of a rich and fascinating culture. By offering his Ramayana to a new generation of readers who are more accustomed to Western fantasy epics and video games, and making this great tale accessible to such readers, Banker has performed a great service.
The first volume of any new series has to satisfy readers while leaving them hungry for more, and Prince of Ayodhya succeeds on both counts. Fans of fantasy should look forward to future volumes of what promises to be an entertaining and illuminating fantasy epic. — Pam
Also in this issue: Dune: The Machine Crusade, by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson
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