The story: When Ash Mistry went to visit family in India, he never dreamed that the demons and ghosts of ancient Indian mythology could possibly be real. He never dreamed that he could have a personal connection to the great Indian warrior Rama--or that the connection would extend to the most evil creature of all time: the demon king, Ravana. But just because you don't know something doesn't mean it can't hurt you…June Cleaver's ratings: Language PG; Nudity G; Sexual content PG; Violence PG-13; Magic and the occult PG-13; substance abuse PG; GLBT content G; adult themes (kidnapping, demonic possession) PG-13; overall rating PG-13.Liz's comments: Hand this one to the boy who's boo-hooing about having finished all of Rick Riordan's books. This one has the advantage of being shorter than the "Heroes of Olympus" and "Kane Chronicles" series, in addition to being just as action-packed and exciting. Plus, it introduces a new mythology for those who pretty much have the Greek and Roman gods down pat. A warning, though: if you're opposed to stories about black magic and demons, don't pick this one up.Annotation: Ash Mistry and his sister Lucky (Ashoka and Lakshmi are their actual Indian names) are visiting Uncle Vik and Aunt Anita in Varanasi, India. His uncle, a scholar, is invited to a party at the Savage Fortrees, home of Lord Alexander Savage, where Vik is offered a large sum of money to translate a document from the ancient Hardpan. Ash, having seen a number of incredibly creepy things while sneaking around behind the scenes at the party, urges his uncle to decline--but Vik can't pass that amount of money up, and he goes to work for Savage. What has Ash seen? He sees and recognizes that Savage has demons, known as rakshasas, working for him. And he knows it can't be right for Savage to be willing to pay his uncle $2million just to translate a document. Savage has Vik working near Varanasi, in a place where the family goes for an evening picnic. When the kids go to have a look around, Ash accidentally falls down into an excavation pit, and while Lucky runs for help, he grabs a pick and tries to use it to climb up the side. Surprisingly, it doesn't hold him--in fact, the wall caves in, and the first thing he sees by flashlight is a statue of Rama, the blue-skinned warrior, holding an arrow aastra with a golden arrowhead. When Ash grabs the arrowhead, a sliver comes off into his thumb and funnels such a surge of magic into him that he blacks out.He has a vision in which he sees himself as the warrior Rama, getting ready to fight Ravana. He also sees the utter desolation of a landscape ruled by the demon king, and knows he must stop him. He can either choose to use a Vishnu-aastra, or a Kal-aastra as his weapon; but Rama knows there is a price to be paid for securing the aid of one of these two gods. Eventually, he chooses the Vishnu aastra, and overcomes Ravana with the silver-tipped arrow. The price is that he has to devote the rest of his life to the service of Vishnu, which ends in ways that aren't all that great for Rama himself (for example, he has to kill his own wife later on). At the end of this vision, Ash wakes up. (He doesn't immediately make the connection between the sliver of the aastra stuck in his thumb and the vision.)Ash is finally rescued, and after a confrontation between his uncle and Savage, the $2million check gets torn up and Vik drives away with his family--only to have the rakshasas follow them and push their car off the road and over a cliff. Savage has three notable rakshasas--a crocodile named Mayar, a hyena named Jackie, and a huge vulture named Jat, who are his henchmen throughout the story. Mayar and Jackie are the ones who have come after them this time, and although Ash and Lucky manage to scramble to safety, but their relatives are killed. It appears that the kids are at the mercy of the demons until miraculously, an old man (a sadhu, or wise man) they'd met earlier in town arrives in the nick of time to rescue them. This old man, Rishi, takes them to a safe place in town while he plans on what to do next.Strangely, they are left at this place, the Lalgur, for several weeks. It's here that Ash not only makes the acquaintance of a pretty girl named Parvati, who also happens to be a cobra rakshasa (and who was present when Rama killed Ravana four thousand years ago), but is also schooled in how to defend himself. He's warned that it's dangerous to leave the Lalgur, but after a couple of weeks, he knows his parents will be wild with worry about them, so he manages to get hold of a phone and makes an appointment to meet his father down by the stairs near the river.It's no surprise that his father doesn't show up--instead, he and Lucky are captured by Lord Savage's raksashas and taken to the Savage Fortress. Ash is forced to hand over the gold aastra, which Savage plans to use to open the doors to the tomb where Ravana's gold-plated body was imprisoned four thousand years ago. (Since Rama didn't use the Kali-aastra to kill Ravana, it's possible for his spirit to be reincarnated if it can reach the gold-plated body…hence the reason is as so tightly shut up and buried in a city that was then voluntarily abandoned to the desert sands, but which Savage has now dug up.) Parvati helps get Ash out of the dungeon where he's been thrown; Rishi also shows up to help them make an escape, but he is killed in the attempt. Ash, his anger and despair tuned together, finds that he is able to see points of light on Mayar that makes the rakshasa vulnerable to his attack. He and Parvati are forced to abandon Lucky in order to get away themselves; they jump in Rishi's boat, waiting at the river, and try to come up with another plan to rescue Ash's sister.Realizing that since Savage now has the Kali-aastra in hand (which he needs to open Ravana's iron-bound tomb) Ash and Parvati manage to make their way to the Rajasthan desert, where the archaeological dig to uncover the tomb has been going on. They get there just in time to see Savage unlock it (the tomb is made of iron, a new invention in those days, but a substance which has always had the power to interfere with magic) and watch Ravana appear. However, Ash--using his new-found ability to see the vulnerability in a person as points of light that he can then attack, an ancient form of martial arts--creates a distraction until Parvati manages to make her way to the top of the huge demon king and uses her cobra venom, which is lethal to both humans and demons, to kill him. Savage's evil kingdom begins to fall immediately, and the kids are barely able to make it back to find their ride before a huge sandstorm settles in and obliterates everything.Back in Varanasi, Ash and Lucky are reunited with their father, but Ash knows that somehow, he now belongs in India and can't go back to London with their father. He also knows that Parvati and he will meet again. Fast paced action and good writing. A bit gory near the end, but not awful. My one complaint is the hyper irritating transformation of the main character from chubby to skinny, and the way that's portrayed as him losing his weakness and growing into a fierce hero. Cause fat kids can't be heroes or anything. He even says something like "I guess I just had to diet and exercise" to lose weight. Ugh. I just... chubby or fat kids don't need to hear that more than they already do. I don't know why he couldn't just get stronger, and not have to discuss how "easy" it is to lose weight when "you put your mind to it." For some kids, no, it's not easy. And they shouldn't have to feel ashamed of that, but this message that weight is really simple to control pops up all the time. It's a small part of the overall book, which is partly why it bugged me so much. It would have been VERY easy to leave out completely, and the story wouldn't have been altered.Anyway. I think kids will enjoy it, I was just annoyed.
What do You think about The Savage Fortress (2013)?
Indian mythology, teen adventure. Very bloody/gruesome at times. Still, good story, good reader.
—kitkatster
an excellent look at Indian mythology brought to the western world and yet, made relevant.
—alex_3107
