An Underrated Gem: The Celestial Triology

Description

Book: A Spark Of White Fire (The Celestial Triology #1)

Author: Sangu Mandanna

Genre: Young adult fiction, Science fiction, Fantasy Fiction, Epic Fiction

Number of pages: 320

Published by: Sky Pony

Published on: 11 September 2018

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5

Blurb

In a universe of capricious gods, dark moons, and kingdoms built on the backs of spaceships, a cursed queen sends her infant daughter away, a jealous uncle steals the throne of Kali from his nephew, and an exiled prince vows to take his crown back.

Raised alone and far away from her home on Kali, Esmae longs to return to her family. When the King of Wychstar offers to gift the unbeatable, sentient warship Titania to a warrior that can win his competition, she sees her way home: she’ll enter the competition, reveal her true identity to the world, and help her famous brother win back the crown of Kali.

It’s a great plan. Until it falls apart.

Inspired by the Mahabharata and other ancient Indian stories, A Spark of White Fire is a lush, sweeping space opera about family, curses, and the endless battle between jealousy and love.

Premise:

A Spark Of White Fire follows Esmae, a servant in Wychstar whose real identity is unknown to the world that is she is the crown Princess of Kali. Now, Esmae is ready to reveal her identity and win Titania, the indestructible warship for her brother Alexi and fight against the usurper king Elvar, who stole their throne.

The story is inspired by the Indian epic, Mahabharata which is my favourite epic ever. I absolutely love Mahabharata and have read various retellings and versions of it and I'll keep doing that. So, when I knew about this book, I was sure that I'll be reading it, despite the fact that I don't enjoy sci-fi and space much. I went in with not much expectations and I fell in love with it. It took me a day to finish the book 1 of the triology.

The book feels like a mixture of past and the future, where one side there are gods and goddesses who are immortal; boons and curses, prophecies, use of celestial weapons, mythical creatures and everything like an old tale and the other side the story is based on Kali and other kingdoms based in space and on spaceships, advanced technologies, warships, etc, like what we expect of the future. I never expected the story to be like this. The story and the space building was much more than my expectations and I'm so happy I got to read this amazing book.

The best part of the book for me was the comparison of characters and incidents to the Mahabharata. There are several characters with the exact resemblance like Elvar-Dhritarashtra, Guinne-Gandhari, Selwyn-Shakuni, etc. But there are many characters who doesn't clearly represent a character from Mahabharata. So, the book is inspired by Mahabharata but not everything is same. It doesn't fail to add it's own charm and premise. The author did an amazing job in connecting Indian mythology with sci-fi. The book was everything I never knew I needed.

The book had me in tears at the end with a very tragic death 😢

The romance trope of the book was something that most people didn't like but I liked it since it was well done and it didn't overshadow the real plot. Also, slow burn romance is something I really enjoy. And it is an enemy-to-lover trope🤗

While, the plot is the strength of the book, the characters add a different value to it.

Characters:

The book features numerous characters, so I'll be discussing only some of them here with the most significant roles: Esmae -MC, Rama- MC's best friend, Max- MC's adopted cousin, goddess Amba, Titania, MC's twin brother Alex and MC's younger brother Bear.

Esmae:

The lost and unknown princess, who was abandoned at birth due to a curse, Esmae is the main character of the triology. She is strong and lovable. She longs for her family and want to do everything possible in order to give Kali's throne to its rightful heir.

She hates her uncle who stole her brother's throne and the thief prince, Max and plans to live with them to learn of all the secrets useful for her brother. But as she spends more time in Kali with her uncle's family, she learns that not everything is right or wrong and that everyone have suffered wrongness.

She is not a warmonger and as she gets accustomed to her life and learns of the hidden truths, she realises to stand for peace. The character of Esmae is strong but gullible. She loves her family and that can prove to be a curse for her. The character of Esmae was okay in the first book and she definitely needed growth which we'll surely get in the remaining two books.

Max:

The thief prince. My initial thoughts about him were that he is THE villian since I thought he resembles Duryodhana, but ah! I was wrong and I'm so happy about it .

Max is the adopted child of the King and Queen of Kali. He is smart, calm, witty and charming and most of all he is not what the work thinks of him. He believes in peace but can't go against his father so he tries whatever he can to avoid the war. The first person to believe in Esmae and also he reads books and makes toys🥺✨

Rama:

The lazy baby who loved Esmae with everything he had. He was the brother she never knew she had. Rama was my favourite character from the book 1. I absolutely adored him. The love between him and Esmae was just so pure. The courageous boy who hid behind his charm is what I would like everyone to know him as.

Amba:

The goddess who is the one of the oldest immortal. I was mostly confused about her in the first book. She is the one who knows Esmae's truth and doesn't want her to reveal it. She loves Esmae even if she doesn't show it.

Alex:

Esmae's twin brother. The golden child of the universe. He wants the crown back and is ready to do almost everything for it. I definitely thought him to be the main character but guess I was wrong. Again this was because I thought of him as a resemblance of Pandava. He is very driven and is unsure about Esmae joining the equation.

Bear:

Esmae's younger brother. The name definitely suits him as he feels like a grumpy bear through the book. He is grumpy but lovable. The one who is torn between his own siblings.

Titania:

One of the major character of the triology is Titania. Titania is a warship who is indestructible. She is a thoughtful character with a sense of humour. She is more human that many others in the book. Titania and Esmae friendship was very natural and beautiful. Titania is definitely one of the best characters of the triology.

Overall, I absolutely loved the book and it is such an underrated read that I want everyone to read it. I can't recommend it enough. Just go and read it!!!