I’m not familiar with the Mahabharata outside of a few famous names that I recognized, but I loved this retelling of Ganga and Bhishma’s stories. I had little to compare this to except maybe Norse myths, and I appreciated how flawed, hypocritical, and human the gods and demigods in this story were, as full of pettiness and bickering as any of the Norse stories. 

Unlike the Norse myths, there was a strong focus in examining morality and the paradoxical nature of doing the right thing, coached in a more feminist interpretation of an epic that, if I’m reading things correctly under the surface, was anything but in the original. I really appreciated all the different layers that were being examined, and this has made me more interested in reading the Mahabharata one day. 

I thought this book was written really well and I had an easy time reading it; besides dealing with some of the names, which is largely my own issue except when someone has like 4 different names, looking at you Bhishma. The viewpoints and timeframes do jump around quite a bit, but in the way epic myths tend to do, so I wasn’t too bothered by it. The overall story arc does manage to begin and end in a satisfying way. Overall a book I’d definitely recommend.