This is the third book out of a series of six, and it starts to suffer from “middle book of the trilogy” syndrome. It is almost needless to say that it would be a very bad idea to try to pick this book up without reading the first two, which I recommend.

With Rama having defeated a demon army 10 million strong and sent the demon lord into catatonia, we now turn back to the family politics of Ayodhya, which by any measure is a little less dramatic. The second wife (reminiscent of the evil step-mother in non-polygamous European fairy tales) calls in old favors and insists that Rama be exiled for fourteen years and that her son ascend the throne. Even though absolutely everyone, including the king, his entire family, all the politicians involved, some uninvolved rulers, and even the second queen herself within a few hours ALL agree that this is incredibly stupid, Rama must follow his dharma (duty) and goes into dangerous exile. The only people he allows to join him are his wife Sita and his devoted brother/sidekick Lakshman.

This volume moves a little slower than the previous ones, and stops right when the action gets going. There’s a lot of talking, and one almost wishes to smack the perfect rajkumar (prince) Rama upside the head. Some of my favorite characters from the previous volume seem to have disappeared without a trace, which was disappointing. And the glossary was a little less attuned to the text, so in some cases words from the text fail to show up there at all. Compared to the almost perfect glossary in volume 2, I found this quite surprising.

This is a weaker volume than the previous ones, but the action seems sure to pick up again in book four. And despite all its flaws, it is still undeniably interesting and educating in showing us more of Hindu Indian culture and history. It will be awhile before I will be able to pick up the next volume, but I’m certainly looking forward to it. ( )