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This book is a historical romance about the disputed succession to the Gupta throne. Jonathan Fast has obviously done a lot of research for this book. Indeed, in his afterword, he says he consulted nearly sixty books, preeminent among them being A.L.Basham's 'The wonder that was India'. Ah! No wonder many of the detailed descriptions of rituals and ceremonies seemed so familiar to me; they are lifted straight from Basham's work.
Fast's plot is simple but his language is ornate, with a lot of Sanskrit words thrown in, that a non- Indian reader would have trouble deciphering. The book could use a Glossary for these Sanskrit words. The age-old story of sibling rivalry for the father's property has been spiced up and mixed with a lot of gratuitous sex and violence to make this potboiler of a novel. The details of the sadistic acts commited by the villain and his cronies are as disturbing as they are unnecessary to the story as a whole. Similarly, all the characters in the novel are depicted as indulging in sexual activity, and that too in a loose manner, most of the time. In fact, this reviewer wondered how they ever got anything done if they spent most of their time in bed with their multiple lovers. The bottom-line is that all this extra 'spice' could have been avoided without compromising the quality of the novel. Fast has taken considerable liberty with the historical accounts of the period and come up with somewhat stereotypical characters. The fairy-tale device of presenting the villain as being physically ugly might be acceptable for children's books, but is it necessary in a novel obviously meant for adults?
While doing his research, I think Fast took certain facts and comments about India to be absolutely true all the time, when, in reality, they probably applied only in some circumstances during some times. For instance, he depicts all the women characters as not wearing any upper garment at all. This is inferred from sculptures, coins and other historical artifacts from the period being discussed. It is likely that the sculptures represent upper class people who did not do any manual labor. From a practical point of view, I rather think that people who engaged in physical work (as most of the population at that time had to) would have covered themselves fully just to avoid getting dirty or wet or bitten by mosquitoes. They probably also pared down their jewelry and other accessories to a minimum for the sake of convenience.
Lastly, one wonders why Fast chose to make the hero the product of an Indian father and a European, blonde, blue-eyed mother? At that time, when class distinctions were more rigid than they are today, it is unlikely that such a person of mixed blood, with pale brown hair, could have become a king with popular support. One perhaps tastes a twinge of racism in Fast's scheme of things where the part-Caucasian hero turns out to be the good and heroic fairy tale prince after ousting his fully Indian brother.
One last thing: there are several factual and spelling errors through the book, for example, Varaha Mihira is consistently misspelt as 'Vahara Mihira' and Kama is referred to as a goddess instead of a God.
Overall, a commendable effort after a lot of hard work by the writer, but a product that could have been so much better in so many ways.

An interesting book which transports you to the ancient indian culture and history. Full of intrigue,sex,voilence this book delivers a punch and more.....
An epic story which really gives the reader an idea of what India was really like.A book which i got from a vendor, and which i read on pure instinct. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to all book lovers who dont mind knowing a bit of indian history,culture and rich heritage.A page turner no doubt!!!

I read this book 20 years ago and loved it , just read it again and enjoyed it even more now that I am more mature.You won,t be disappointed.

I was interested in a finding a historical fiction novel on the Gupta of India. Because they were around the same time as the Imperial Romans and Han Chinese they are becoming a fascination of mine. It helps if you have a Sanskrit dictionary for a few terms. The novel does my many discreet references to the Kama Sutra when referring to sex. Still other than the good prince being blond (his mother was a Goth) and the evil prince having dark hair (his mother was Gupta), the novel is a good read for any one in their last year of high school and beyond.