Vengeance of Ravana

I thought it was the last book in the series. But lo and behold, there is teh 7th one and one more to come.
Ashok Banker's Ramayana series is highly recommended for those looking at a thrilling rendering of the all familiar story of Ramayana. A perspective of good wins over evil is often the backdrop of most renderings but this one takes a different angle- one in which good co exists with the bad. An angle which is relevant to modern times which is not black or white but grey. The premise is that evil never dies, it is reborn or rather always there as long as the good is there.
The 7th book talks of the time after the Lanka war. Ram returns to Ayodhya and takes over his rightful place as the King.
Peace is imminent as Ramrajya is back, but is it so in reality?
A huge army is at the gates of Ayodhya
Kala Nemi - evil incarnate is back
Valmiki is back to warn Rama about impending doom.
Meanwhile, the Gods want Rama to come back to his heavenly abode and Rama feels his work on earth is not yet accomplished.

The stories traverse time-space- matter dimensions and the concept of parallel universe is explored here.

The 6th book left one matter unresolved- what was the legacy of Ravana that was being left behind.
Read the 7th book to learn that.
This particular aspect is explored in the Thai rendering of Ramayana- a different dimension to the link between Ravana and Sita- the abandoned baby- the cause of the downfall of Ravana.

To me, this is the first of its kind- this aspect fo Ramayana has not been explored in any of the versions that I have read or seen on TV. And it suits this series perfectly because this series has taken the entire concept of Ramayana to a different plane.

My only grouse- too verbose, too much description and a little confusing.

And yes, I love this ravana- lean, mean and less clumsy with the pyramidal rack of heads as against the linear one which has a more unbalanced feel.