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Your book will be despatched by courier within 24 hours. Please allow between 3 – 5 working days for the courier to deliver and ensure that someone is there during working hours to receive and sign for the book. If it is returned, you will be liable to pay an extra charge of Rs 50 for each time the book is re-sent to you.
IMPORTANT: Pre-orders will be shipped when the books are printed as per the announced date. Sons of Sita is delayed and is now scheduled for delivery in April.
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ICICI Bank
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AKB Books
AKB BOOKS PAYMENT CONFIRMATION FORM
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SONS OF SITA: Book 8 of The Ramayana Series – Excerpt#5
FOUR
When Luv came sprinting around the outcrop, two pairs of eyes instantly snapped around to stare at him. The two men on the second wagon looked startled to see him. I know that look. They think I’m Kush and can’t figure out how he could have run off in that direction and then appeared again from this direction. He was used to that response. He yelled at them as he sprinted past: “Stay where you are!” They looked too startled to try anything anyway.
Barely had he run past the wagon when he heard the sound of pounding hooves from ahead, around the next spur of rock. A few broken boulders lay on the path, their insides gleaming rusty red where they had broken open after falling in a minor landslide during the last monsoon. Others had been pushed over deliberately to block the path, for this was a popular ambush point on the raj-marg. The sound of hooves and rattling of wagon wheels was very loud by then and he knew better than to run around a blind turn. Instead he swerved and leaped up onto the largest broken boulder. He could smell the iron in the air here, so rich was the vein in the lohit stone. These hills were rife with minerals, good pure ore for making steel.
He stood in the relaxed archer position that Bearface had taught them, waiting.
Don’t call your guru that name, Maatr’s voice said in his mind’s ear, He is Gurudev to you, remember!
Yes, Maa.
The position that Bearface had taught them, the lazy cobra, their guru had called it, was now second nature. He waits, seemingly indolent, swaying lazily, but the instant threat appears, he strikes with lightning-speed.
Luv didn’t know if he moved at lightning-speed, but the instant the wagon came into sight, he let fly. The first arrow hit its mark and the second was flying even before the wagon had rolled fully into view. A man shouted out with pain and tumbled off the wagon, with two arrows sprouting, one from each shoulder – the first had clearly been Kush’s work. The driver screamed like a wounded horse and clutched at the arrow quivering in the meat of his thigh – the head must have struck the thighbone, hence the vibration and the extreme pain. Then the wagon rolled past and the next came into view, and still no sight of Kush.
Damnit, Luv thought, feeling the heat rise in his face, cheeks burning. Where are you?
The men on this wagon were better prepared and better shots. Three well aimed arrows came blurring at Luv and he had to somersault sideways to dodge both. Landing on his bare feet on the rubble of the lohitstone, he felt warmth on his waist where one had nicked the skin just enough to draw a bead or two. He loosed off two quick ones before the men could shoot the second volley, and both hit their marks. Both men dropped their own bows, one grunting, the other choosing the strong silent response.
Then the rest of the grama came into view, riding fast, faster than any grama ought to have been especially on this twisting treacherous neck of the raj-marg, and everything began to move very quickly, so quickly that Luv felt his senses slowing to a crawl as they always did in a fight, the world popping into brilliant crystalline clarity and colour: the veins on every leaf visible, every knothole on the wooden slats of a wagon’s side in view, hearing every grinding creak in a wheel, smelling the raw red odors of freshly spilled human blood mixed in with the pungent smell of horse sweat, man-sweat and the rusty tang of the lohitstone.
The flaps of the following wagons opened and revealed armed men. Burly, hirsute, armoured men in the familiar purple and black of Ayodhya’s inner guard. PFs, or some new extension of the PF regiment – for PFs were meant to guard the inner city, not ride with trading gramas as hired escorts. Whatever they were, whomever they were, there were a lot of them, too many for Luv to simply disarm. He would have to fight them seriously to survive, kill some quite likely. And even then it would be touch and go.
The good warrior knows when to retreat, said his guru’s gruff voice in his ear. The code of the kshatriya means nothing if there is no kshatriya left to fight!
Agreeing with Bearface – sorry, Gurudev – was his mother’s voice in his other ear. Run, Luv, run! You can’t fight them all!
Ji, Maatr, jaisi aagya, he said in his mind as he began the heavy task of fitting arrows to bow and aiming not to maim or disarm but to disable, possibly kill. I would love to run. But not without my brother.
“Damnit Kush, where the hell are you?” he said aloud as he began shooting.
Kush emerged from the wagon to see his twin brother standing on a pile of lohistone landslide, the edges of the outcrop at his back, loosing arrows with concentrated ease. He appeared to be single-handedly battling what looked like at least five quads of armed PFs, even though PFs never ventured armed and uniformed outside the Ayodhya city limits. Clearly this grama was a notable exception to the usual rules.
Which makes sense, considering the cargo they’re carrying, he thought as he sprinted away from Luv and to the other side of the raj-marg, unnoticed by either his brother or the men busy trying to kill him. In three deft leaps and grabs he had climbed a tree and was standing on a near-horizontal branch twice as thick as his own thigh. It would have bent and drooped under a grown man’s weight but it took his own lithe form easily, and he steadied his left shoulder against the trunk, took aim at his first target and loosed. The man took the arrow in the meaty muscle joining shoulder to neck, and it popped out through his collarbone with a small explosion of blood. The man yelped like a pup and dropped the javelin he had been about to fling at Luv.
Without turning to look directly at Kush, Luv cried out with joy. “Kush!” Then added in a disgruntled tone even as he continued loosing and dodging: “Took your time, didn’t you!”
“Had to make a short visit to the royal treasury,” Kush called back, grinning. He continued loosing, and saw his third target drop, roaring with frustration and fury as he tried to clutch at the arrow sprouting from his shoulderblade. Hit the bone, hurts like blazes. That voice was old Nakhudi’s, who always seemed to know how to inflict maximum pain on the enemy without actually killing them. Only male enemies, as she liked to remind them, grinning to reveal her astonishingly white gleaming teeth in her buffalo-dark face.
The fight continued for another few moments, the PFs on and around the halted wagons trying with admirable skill to face an attack on two diagonally opposed fronts with diminishing success. Their leader, an efficient and intelligent-seeming fellow, tried to rally his men to use the wagons as shielding, while attempting to send a pair of quads around to outflank Kush – Luv was bolstered by the outcrop which would have taken hours to cut over and around – but the brothers had them at the deadliest cross-angle two bowmen could take, and the broken stones shielded Luv while the tree and foliage shielded Kush, and while many arrows and javelins were aimed at them, none came closer than a single wayward arrow that thunked into the tree branch between Kush’s big toe and its neighbour.
Then, as fierce fights usually did, this one dissipated like a puddle evaporating under a mid-day sun, and suddenly the captain of the PFs was waving his arms in surrender.
Kush grinned and dropped down from his perch, making his way cautiously towards the halted wagons. He had his eye on some men at the back who might, if still feisty enough, try to fling a javelin or two as he approached. But every one of them and all the others as well had at least one arrow in their arm, leg or back, and one massively built chap who had refused to settle down with just two or even three arrows had four bristling from his extremities, lying on his back and cursing the sky roundly with a raised fist, turning the air blue with his choice of profanities. Kush grinned even wider, making a note of several for future reference. Living in an ashram community as they did, good curses were hard to come by!
Luv had leaped up to the tall broken lohitstone boulder, keeping his weapon trained on the PFs as his brother approached. Kush winked at him as he came and saw Luv shake his head in mock-disgust – complaining about the moments when Kush had disappeared from sight earlier. The PFs quietened as he reached them, holding down their moaning and grunting and cursing as they saw the ‘men’ who had bested them up close for the first time.
Ten years have passed since Rama did the unthinkable and banished Sita. Now, she spends her days in quiet tapasya in the remote forest ashram of Maharishi Valmiki, even as her sons Luv and Kush grow ever more proficient at the arts of war. To the sorrow of many, they seem unlikely to ever cross paths with their estranged father. Yet destiny works in unexpected ways. Rama’s growing ambitions and his war-mongering advisors motivate him to launch the Ashwamedha yojana. The mightiest Ayodhyan army ever assembled follows the sacred stallion in a campaign of conquest that seems unstoppable…until a pair of improbable obstacles arise. Defying the military might of Ayodhya and the emperorship of Rama himself, two young striplings capture the Ashwamedha horse and challenge the great army. To Rama’s chagrin the challengers turn out to be none other than his own estranged offspring: the sons of Sita! Don’t miss the epic conclusion to the internationally acclaimed and bestselling Ramayana Series!
SONS OF SITA: Book 8 of The Ramayana Series
300 Pages/Limited Signed Trade Paperback Edition/Rs 400
Click here to pre-order Sons of Sita within India. SOLD OUT: Pre-orders closed.
Overseas orders currently unavailable.
The Penguin Books mass market edition is expected to be in bookstores in early 2011.
SONS OF SITA: Book 8 of The Ramayana Series – Except#1
arvaci subhaghe bhava site vandamahe tva |
yatha nah subhaghasasi yatha nah suphalasasi ||
Auspicious Sita, come thou near: we venerate and worship thee |
That thou mayst bless and prosper us and bring us fruits abundantly ||
Rig-Veda, Mandala 4, Sukta 57, rca 6
PRARAMBHA
Sita…
Sweet whisper in her ear, myrtle breath upon her cheek. She started awake with a lurch and a gasp. In the hut’s impenetrable darkness, her hands sought out by instinct the looming mound of her belly. Her palms gently massaged the sweat-slicked pot, soothing both herself as well as her sleeping sons. Slowly, by degrees, the nightmarish visions of ten-headed rakshasas, moon-swords and three-eyed devas faded away reluctantly, retreated hissing and snapping to the far corners of the humble hut. She was too middle-heavy to sit up easily; instead, she leaned upon one elbow, head throbbing, throat hoarse from shouting forgotten prayers to uncaring gods. The darbha grass pallet was dampened by her own exudations. She listened idly, hearing only the absence of human sounds. The ashram was asleep around her. The night was peaceful, the forest quiet – or as quiet as a forest could be at night. The very music of the woods told her that all was well, no menace lurked in the dark recesses of the surrounding wilderness, no rakshasas approached stealthily, no mortal or un-mortal foes threatened. Within the center of her being, the twin lives growing steadily – greedily, it seemed somedays – seemed barely to have stirred. She trusted their instincts more than her own now; for they seemed to sense better than she when true danger loomed. One kicked, the other kicked back instinctively, and she felt them both settling back into deep repose. The rhythmic cricketing of insects, droning of cicadas, and hooting of owls lulled her back to sleep. Darkness embraced her like a lover returned from a long war. She fell into sleep and nothingness caught her and began to tug her insistently down towards oblivion…
Sitey.
Her eyes opened, staring up into darkness. That name. Nobody called her by that name, in that tone. Her name Sita modified to the third-person plural, the tense used for royalty or formal addresses. Simultaneously affectionate as well as excessively formal. A name only a lover would use. Nay, not even a lover. Only a husband.
Janaki.
She swallowed, willing her heart to slow, feeling a fresh bead of sweat coagulating upon her brow – she had always had a tendency to sweat a great deal from the crown of her scalp – and it took great restraint to stifle the urge she felt to speak out. Quiet and serene as the ashram was, its occupants were light sleepers, accustomed to living in woods populated by the fiercest predators. Rousing them would take little more than a raised voice, a tone of alarm, or even a strange sound that did not belong: Maharishi Valmiki would be up and at the ready in a trice, broadstaff in hand, a mantra on his lips. Then the devas help any intruder, human or otherwise. So she kept her voice stilled and emotions under control. There were also the twins to consider. At this advanced stage of her confinement, waking them would make sleep impossible the rest of the night, for they would be kicking and ready for action no less quicker than the maharishi. The very fact that they still slept so soundly told her that whatever presence swirled around her this night, it was not a force of evil that intended harm to her. Just as the Maharishi was sensitive to sound, the twins were sensitive to all else.
And that name and that tone. Janaki. Daughter of Janak. Again, an appellation used by one who cared about her.
Rama, she mouthed silently, her heart turning at the use of his name. Is that you?
Maithili.
This one was less intimate, more generic. Woman of Mithila. Yet coming as it did after the other familiar terms of endearment, it was more touching, not less, for its formal generality. She shuddered and covered her face with the crook of her arm, feeling hot tears spill carelessly down her cheeks. The appellation, uttered in the most affectionate of tones, caused her mind to resonate with a deep ringing that issued outwards in concentric waves, seeming to reach to the very ends of creation.
Vaidehi.
Woman of the Videha nation. This last was so generic, so formal, yet spoken in a tone so familiar, intimate, caressing, sincere, that it broke the last reserves of her endurance. The dam burst and she turned her head and cried into the straw, cut ends digging uncomfortably into her neck and arms and cheek; not caring. She heard her own sobs in the stillness and thought with a sense of wonder: Who is that woman weeping so bitterly? Poor thing. She must have suffered some great loss.
My love, forgive me. I did what I had to for our sakes. For the sake of our sons. For the sake of our future.
No! She cried silently in her mind’s echoing chamber. You did it for dharma. As you do everything. That’s all you really care about. Nothing else matters so long as you fulfill your dharma. It’s the way it’s always been with you!
A moment of silence, as if he did not debate her accusation. Then, gently, soothingly:
Yes. But you serve dharma too. In your own way. Surely you see that?
She raised her face at last and screamed into the darkness with the true voice of her heart, audible only to phantoms and miasmas: I don’t want to serve dharma. I don’t want dharma. I just want you.
She waited. But this time no reply came. Only the silent darkness pressing upon her from all sides like an invisible cage shrinking by degrees every passing moment. She felt a sudden rush of remorse then. Regret at having spoken so harshly to her beloved – or to his phantom presence, or memory, or whatever it was that had come to her in the deep watches of the night.
Rama? She asked anxiously. Are you there?
But only the darkness remained. The darkness and the silence.
She lay awake the remaining hours to dawn, till the ashram stirred and the brahmacharyas rose and the daily round of chores and duties began anew. Within the swollen mound of her belly, the twins slept as peacefully as cubs in a den.
He never came to her again, that night, or any other night.
Ten years have passed since Rama did the unthinkable and banished Sita. Now, she spends her days in quiet tapasya in the remote forest ashram of Maharishi Valmiki, even as her sons Luv and Kush grow ever more proficient at the arts of war. To the sorrow of many, they seem unlikely to ever cross paths with their estranged father. Yet destiny works in unexpected ways. Rama’s growing ambitions and his war-mongering advisors motivate him to launch the Ashwamedha yojana. The mightiest Ayodhyan army ever assembled follows the sacred stallion in a campaign of conquest that seems unstoppable…until a pair of improbable obstacles arise. Defying the military might of Ayodhya and the emperorship of Rama himself, two young striplings capture the Ashwamedha horse and challenge the great army. To Rama’s chagrin the challengers turn out to be none other than his own estranged offspring: the sons of Sita! Don’t miss the epic conclusion to the internationally acclaimed and bestselling Ramayana Series!
SONS OF SITA: Book 8 of The Ramayana Series
300 Pages/Limited Signed Trade Paperback Edition/Rs 400
Click here to pre-order Sons of Sita within India. SOLD OUT: Pre-orders closed.
Overseas orders currently unavailable.
The Penguin Books mass market edition is expected to be in bookstores in early 2011.
Gods of War is in bookstores – I’m not! :-)
So, it’s finally here. Almost a month and a half after it’s official publication date: 15th August as listed on the Penguin India website, Gods of War is finally in all Indian bookstores. In fact, I received word on Monday, but waited till Thursday to confirm it. And I’m hearing from people everywhere that they’re buying copies, for themselves as well as for friends or relatives. So it’s already selling!
Now here’s the downside: There are no readings, signings, launch events, or any kind of promotional activities planned for the book. I was in touch with Penguin India from end-July, the first time in my career that I’ve even remembered the release date of a book before it happened! Venues were booked, events were planned, and I was taking an active part in the planning. But due to the constant delays, venue bookings were cancelled and finally, now, with elections looming and Penguin having a dozen other book launches already lined up in October, and Diwali around the corner, it looks like there will not be any promotional events or activities for Gods of War.
I’ve done what I could to make up for it: By offering signed copies at MRP weeks ahead of the book being available in bookstores. Those are sold out now and it’s time for me to return to my writing. I’m sure Penguin never meant for things to work out this way, but here we are. In the end, it’s all for the best: I had no events or PR for my past 3 books, not counting the Ramayana hardcovers which also came out unheralded, and those of you who have been tracking my career know that the media rarely bothers with me, or I with the media.
So this it. Moving on now… to the next book. And the others after that! 
Picture of window display, Crossword Kemp’s Corner, courtesy Dr Ranjit Mankeshwar – thanks, @qtfan ! )
NOT A RUPEE LESS, NOT A RUPEE MORE! (with apologies to Lord Archer): Buy a Signed Copy of GODS OF WAR at the printed price – delivery free within India!
UPDATE: SIGNED COPIES of GoW will only be available here till Wednesday 30th September. Stock almost over.
Those are pics of a few of the signed copies received by the early birds, those who took advantage of my offer right away.
The orders are still pouring in by the dozens daily. Barely managing to keep up with them!
In a few days, once the present batch of copies are sold out, I’m going to have to discontinue this offer – because it’s too popular! If I continue at this rate, I’ll be a professional autographer and bookseller, not an author.
But until then, I’m keeping the offer open. And if you can find a better offer anywhere, then take it. Because it’s not possible to top this:
The printed MRP (Maximum Retail Price) of Gods of War is Rs 300/-. That’s what it would cost you to buy a copy of the book in any bookstore. For that amount, in a bookstore, all you’d get is the book. By ordering directly from me, you get a signed copy, personally inscribed to yourself or to anyone else you wish, for the exact same sum of Rs 300/-. Delivery is free to any location within India! There are no other charges.
What are you waiting for? Email me at akb DOT readerswrite AT gmail DOT com and book your order now: Mention your full postal address+tel.no. in the email and I’ll reply with details of how to make your payment. You could be holding a signed copy of the first edition of Gods of War within a couple of days!
WANT SIGNED COPIES OF MY OTHER BOOKS? READ ON
If you look at that last picture on the left, the one right at the bottom, you’ll have to squint hard to spot the copy of Gods of War. It’s there all right, lying on its side on top of a sideways copy of Vertigo, which itself is on top of the entire paperback set of my Ramayana Series. For a limited time, I’m also offering copies of Vertigo, all three hardcover volumes of the Ramayana Series, and the paperback copy of Prince of Ayodhya (the other five paperbacks are currently undergoing a reprint and are out of stock with me). All for the printed MRP, delivery free anywhere in India! And of course, your copies will be signed by me personally, and inscribed to yourself or anyone you please.
So if you’ve been wanting to gift someone a signed copy of Prince of Ayodhya, or the entire set of Ramayana Series hardcovers autographed by me, or purchase a copy of Vertigo, apart from Gods of War, then now’s the time to order them. Email me at akb DOT readerswrite AT gmail DOT com with your full postal address+tel.no. and I’ll provide you with details of how to make the payment. And you can have the books in hand in a day or two!
PS: I’m unable to deliver any of these books at cost price outside India. For deliveries abroad, I’m afraid you’re going to have to use the AKB Books Bookstore where only the international edition of Gods of War is currently available. But if you wait a few months, the rest of my books will also be listed there. Meanwhile, you can always order the Indian editions and have them delivered to a friend or relative in India, to be collected later! This may be your only chance to get signed copies after all.
GoW still MiA
I know, I know. The revised and updated publication date of 15th September (originally 15th August) has come and gone, with no sign of Gods of War in a single bookstore across India.
I’ve been receiving emails, tweets, direct messages, emails, comments and status updates, wall notes, and even a few smses and phone calls from readers wondering what’s up.
I have no idea.
This time, I know the book is printed – I’ve sent out close to a hundred copies myself so far, with as many more orders in the pipeline. (Last month the delay was because the book wasn’t printed on time, I was told.) I’ve also been reassured by Penguin that the book would be published on 15th September and would be available in all bookstores.
Now, I find that not only is it not available anywhere, people asking for it at bookstores are meeting blank expressions as sales staff claim they have no knowledge of such a book and have no idea when it will arrive.
Sigh.
I have no comment to offer and nothing to say about it. I’m just reporting the facts as they are.
Meanwhile, you all know you can continue to order signed copies directly from me at the printed MRP (shipping free to anywhere in India) right here or visit the bookstore to order a copy of the AKB Books international edition for overseas delivery.
Want a signed copy of Gods of War? Order now!
By popular request, I’m offering copies of Gods of War, signed and personalized. Please note that these are Penguin India editions, and will ship only within India. (For delivery outside India, you need to order the AKB Books edition – which only comes unsigned, since it’s a Print on Demand edition which ships directly from the printing press in Goa, whereas I’m here in Mumbai.) To place your order, please email akb DOT readerswrite AT gmail DOT com, mentioning your full postal address with pincode and telephone number (for the courier) and the name and/or inscription you wish me to write in the book. Payment instructions will be intimated by email. Happy, na?
FREE signed copies of GoW to be won – on the Facebook Ashok Banker Fan Page!
CONTEST CLOSED Sunday 13th Sept as all 50 copies had been won!
Have finally set up a Facebook fan page at the request of so many readers who are unable to add me via my personal profile page. (Personal profile pages have a friends limit of 5,000 which limit I hit barely months after joining FB. Fan pages have no limit.)
To encourage readers to sign up and help reward the many who keep in touch with me via online media, I’m offering several FREE SIGNED COPIES of Gods of War. All you have to do is sign up as a fan and answer a simple question.
And don’t get disheartened if you don’t hit paydirt the first (or even the 5th or 8th time round.) You’ll get plenty more chances to win!
After all, I want to give you these books!
Start by clicking on the box in the right-hand sidebar…
The (b)eagle has landed…on my desk!
Well, the wait is finally over. Gods of War is finally off the presses – and in my hands. Those pics aren’t very good, they’re taken on my iPhone in poor light. But they’re proof that the book is printed and that’s a beautiful sight to my anxious eyes!
The second pic shows a bunch of new books I’ve got recently. The lowest three were ordered from Amazon and are books I just couldn’t wait to buy in paperback in India or aren’t available here at all. The top three include two books from the new publisher of my forthcoming non-fiction book Random House India, and right on top is the same copy of Gods of War!
I have to say it was well worth the wait for GoW. The book is beautifully designed and produced. The cover looks amazing. The title is embossed which you can’t see here and the overall effect is fantastic. The last-minute changes and reprint of the cover – which were also the reason for the delay – now seem worth the extra time taken. The interior layout and typography are excellent too.
All in all, this is a beautifully edited, designed, produced and published book that I’m very proud to have authored. I’ll leave it to you to judge the contents for yourself, but will say here and now: I consider it my best published work so far.
Mou ii kai? –Madadayo!
Updated 1st Sept: Scroll to end of post if you’ve read it already.
“Mou ii kai,” is Japanese for “Ready or not, I’m coming”.
The proper response is “Madadayo!” which means “Not yet!”
It’s what children shout to one another while playing hide and seek in Japan.
It seemed appropriate since after all, two of the five protagonists of Gods of War, Akechi and Yoshi, are Japanese and the book is partly set in Japan.
Gods of War Penguin India edition
As far as I can tell, it’s still delayed.
The revamp of this website (www.ashokbanker.com) was due to be launched when Gods of War was published and in stores, hence the launch date of 31st August.
Since the book is delayed and now can’t possibly be in all bookstores before the middle of September, perhaps even later than that, I’ve had to postpone the relaunch of the website as well.
The same goes for the upcoming bookstore – while my AKB Books edition of Gods of War is proofed and ready to print and offer for sale (it’s a PoD edition so each copy gets printed when ordered), I can’t offer that for sale on the bookstore till the Penguin edition is in Indian bookstores. Ditto.
All I can say is wait a little longer. Those of you who’ve waited for my next book probably know by now that publishing is often plagued by such delays.
All I can do, as an author, is what you as a reader are forced to do: Wait patiently.
Meanwhile, if you like you can go run and hide…
And when I yell “Mou ii kai?”
You yell back “Madadayo!”
Until it’s time.
UPDATE (1 SEPT 2009): Just got this from my editor at Penguin: “Production says the books are in transit from the press so you’ll be getting an advance copy any day now and they’ll also be sending out copies from the warehouse to the market very shortly.” Whew! Finally!
That means that the books should start popping up in bookstores across India anytime from 7th September onwards. And the official launches are likely to start from mid-September onwards. Will update as and when I have more info.
Gods of War – Another update
Got this email from Penguin Books India today about the status of the Indian edition of Gods of War and the book appearing then disappearing from their website:
“I spoke to our Production department and they have informed me that it has got a little delayed (some technical issue due to the weather, I believe) — but will be out by the end of this month and you’ll get advance copies around the 28th. About the website—it’s under reconstruction and there’s a lot of stuff missing because the content is still in the process of being uploaded.”
And this one from their online marketing department:
“Due to some technical reasons, all the books from our homepage and many from our website vanished temporarily for a few hours today. The problem has now been sorted and the books restored. Please click on the link below to see the book page for Gods of War (which is also amongst the 8 books promoted on our homepage):
http://www.penguinbooksindia.com/Bookdetail.aspx?bookId=3638
We will also be promoting Gods of War with a banner on our homepage. I will inform you as soon as the banner is up.
Well, at least we now have some idea of what’s up. And when the book will be out.
I guess you should now expect it to start appearing in some stores in the first week of September and definitely be available at all bookstores across India by end September.
Meanwhile, the AKB Books International edition is still in proofing at the printers – and will be printed and ready for sale via the new upcoming website (right here) by end-August too.
Gods of War – an update
Hi!
A very happy and peaceful 62nd Independence Day to us all!
Today is the official publication date of the Indian edition of Gods of War. No, there was no deliberate planning or significance to the date – even I didn’t even realize it was slotted for precisely 15th August until a couple of weeks ago!
Unfortunately, for reasons unknown to me, the Penguin Books India edition (shown above) is not yet off the presses – even I haven’t got my copies yet – and therefore is not in bookstores. I don’t believe the H1N1 problem is the cause since the copies were expected off the press weeks ago. Honestly, I haven’t a clue. It’s the first time in my 21-book career that a book hasn’t been printed by the publication date, let alone appeared in bookstores!
I’m sure there must be a very good reason for the delay and that Penguin India will inform me of it in due course. Meanwhile, all I can do is request you to wait and keep checking this blog for updates on when copies are off the presses. The day I receive my author copies, you can probably expect to see the book in stores about two to four weeks later. Which means, as of now, Gods of War isn’t likely to hit Indian bookstores till early-to-mid September and that’s if the book’s been printed, which doesn’t seem to be the case. It could be later. How much later? No clue. And as I mentioned, I have no word from Penguin so your guess is as good as mine.
Meanwhile, this edition featured here is the AKB Books International edition published by me. It will go to press next week and be available on the upcoming AKB Bookstore by this month-end or early September latest. This edition is meant for shipping to readers around the world and can be purchased only online through this website/blog.
Check back from week to week and I hope to have news of GoW’s delayed but much-awaited release soon.
As always, thanks for your support and patience. As you know, there’s much more to books than just writing them! Often, that’s only the beginning of the long journey that ends finally with us buying a book and holding it in our hands, ready to crack open and read. All an author can do is write them as best as he/she can.
Available only from me directly. 
Available only from me directly. 
Available only from me directly. 