The book is exactly what it is named.. A forest of stories.. Shooting up from various places like various branches of a tree in a forest. The branches start from one tree, merge onto other branches and before you know you are happily lost Inn the forest. Stop worrying about which branch leads to where and enjoy the forest you are immersed in.. It's a far cry from banker's earlier books. It does not follow a linear path but twists and turns through lots of starts and ends. However it prepares you for the next mahabharata book nevertheless. However unlike ramayana which was authors adaptation of ramayana, mahabharat follows the epic story by the book. The stories are told as they are told in the epic 'granth' and thus becomes a bit unbelievable compared to ramayana which had, lets say, a more human touch. Nevertheless waiting eagwrly for next book. Amazing, mind captivating and spurs the mind centuries back.Its a great read, but my reccommendation would be to wait for the complete series to be out, because its going to be a long wait.A tip to the reader: Its full of heirarchies and family trees, so don't get too overwhelmed by it, it will make sense in the end :DAshok Banker is one of the very few Indian Authors who has stayed true to the translation without losing focus on the whole picture. epics like Mahabharata or Ramayana that is changed and keeps changing with each retelling requires a lot of effort and filtering to decide which is the real story and which is just the biased inclination of the story teller. Banker didnt put his perspective, so that gives the reader the joy of coming up with their own perspectives and reaching their own conclusions. A story teller's aim is to ignite the listener's mind and in that view Banker has accomplished it!
What do You think about The Forest Of Stories (2000)?
Clean language. Not much stalling styled writing as seen in his Ramayana series.
—oliviahobman
