Reading: Ramayana 3392 AD II, Shamik Dasgupta, 2008
Okay, so this reading was a little weird for me. I was
supposed to be reading the first volume, but I ended up getting the second.
Apparently, the library has the volumes marked backwards. I made it halfway
before realizing it, so I’ll go ahead and do my first diary for that and start
at the beginning for the rest.
The book had quite a good synopsis of what had happened so
far, to the point that I wasn’t sure if that was just the way they were telling
the first part of the story. I felt a little lost in places, but not even
having read the first book, I could follow along. Of course, I have read the
Ramayana already, so that’s something.
Anyways, aside from the confusion, this is awesome. The
whole post-apocalyptic mythos is very creative, and they do a very good job of
weaving in traditional Indian mythology. There are some very strong metaphors,
and the story is more in line with the hero’s journey than the original in some
ways. It even has a land called “Nark” which holds Lanka and is basically a
metaphor for the dark side.
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| Dark Side Poster Source, Artist: Frenchtouch29 |
The art is amazing. It has some of my favorite renditions of
the non-human creatures in Indian epics. The style is very visceral and
turbulent. It feels like I’m watching an action movie when I read it. Which, I
think is very fitting for the Mad Max-esque tone of the narrative.
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| Monkey People Taken by me, from Ramayan 3392 |
If my storybook didn’t follow the traditional stories as
closely as it does, I think that this book would be a great resource of
inspiration for changes that I might want to make. They made the story as
different from the Ramayana as possible while still keeping it very much the
same where it counts.
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