An urban fantasy crossover with Indian mythology, Shadows Rising stands apart because of its protagonist Akran, a yaksha who has been cast out from the celestial court for reasons we are not informed right away. Akran is fictional and has no counterpart in the Mahabharata but other characters from the epic make their way into this crisply written novel by Rohan Monteiro. ‘Our world intersects with yours often enough, but you don’t see us. We live within the cracks of your universe,’ Akran informs the readers succinctly.
However, the world of humans and the world of Akran is about to intersect spectacularly and soon enough. When the novel begins, Akran is at a bar, but is approached by an absent-minded professor type who needs his help in finding his granddaughter who has been kidnapped. Akran reluctantly agrees to help because his reputation as a ‘finder of lost people and pets’ precedes him, to his utter dismay and disgust. Akran prefers to stay away from people and technology in no order whatsoever, but he lives in one of the busiest cities of India–Mumbai, and he inevitably gets sucked into what seems like a regular kidnapping.
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