What do you think?
Rate this book
Breaking the Bow: Speculative Fiction Inspired by the Ramayana
Along time ago, a young prince, the heir to a great South-Asian kingdom, wielded Siva’s mighty bow and won the heart of a brave princess. The story of what happened next to the married couple—the Ramayana—told and re-told countless times over the centuries, begins where most stories end. The twenty-five stories in Breaking the Bow take a similar courageous leap into the unknown. Inspired by the Ramayana and its cultural importance, the anthology dares to imagine new worlds. Stories by some of the best writers in contemporary South-Asian fiction, including Abha Dawesar, Rana Dasgupta, Priya Sarukkai Chabria, Tabish Khair, Kuzhali Manickavel, Mary Anne Mohanraj and Manjula Padmanabhan. Stories from India, Sri Lanka and Thailand, but also Holland, Israel, the United Kingdom and the United States.
347 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 1, 2012
About the author
Anil Menon
44 books30 followersAnil Menon is a leading Indian writer of speculative fiction, as well as a computer scientist with a Ph.D. from Syracuse University, who has authored research papers and edited books on Evolutionary Algorithms; his research addressed the mathematical foundations of replicator systems, majorization, and reconstruction of probabilistic databases, in collaboration with Professors Kishan Mehrotra, Chilukuri Mohan, and Sanjay Ranka. After working for several years as a computer scientist, he has directed his creative energies towards fiction. His short stories and reviews have appeared in the anthology series Exotic Gothic, Strange Horizons, Interzone, Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, Chiaroscuro, Sybil's Garage, Apex Digest and other magazines. In 2009, Zubaan Books, India's leading feminist press, published his debut young adult novel The Beast With Nine Billion Feet. It was shortlisted for the 2010 Vodafone Crossword Book Award and 2010 Parallax prize. In 2009, in conjunction with Vandana Singh and Suchitra Mathur, he helped organize India's first in-residence, three-week speculative fiction workshop at IIT-Kanpur.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anil_Menon
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anil_Menon
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
July 11, 2015
My pick of stories: "The Ramayana as an American Reality Television Show" by Kuzhali Manickavel for it's accurate portrayal of the online culture. "Sita's Descent" by Indrapramit Das for the breathtaking images it conjures. "Sarama" by Deepak Unnikrishnan for how it made my shudder at certain points. "Falling Into the Earth" by Shweta Narayan for it's intriguing modern interpretation. And "Princess in The Forest" by Mary Anne Mohanraj for one of the most hard hitting last lines.
There were many other stories which I enjoyed reading but overall they didn't make an impact. Some stories felt forced and boring. But it is a commendable effort and hope more such efforts come up.
I was a little disappointed by the focus of most of the stories on handful of Ramayana characters and on few episodes of the epic. "Machanu Visits the Underworld" takes up a little known episode and little discussed characters and works with them but it didn't work for me. One story mentions Ahalya. But there is no Shabari. No Vibhishan, Sugreev, Bali, Nishadraj, Bharat, Kaushalya, Manthara. No Meghnad, Kumbhakaran. And despite all the reinterpretations, there is no Wicked Sita! :)
Ye dil maange more!
There were many other stories which I enjoyed reading but overall they didn't make an impact. Some stories felt forced and boring. But it is a commendable effort and hope more such efforts come up.
I was a little disappointed by the focus of most of the stories on handful of Ramayana characters and on few episodes of the epic. "Machanu Visits the Underworld" takes up a little known episode and little discussed characters and works with them but it didn't work for me. One story mentions Ahalya. But there is no Shabari. No Vibhishan, Sugreev, Bali, Nishadraj, Bharat, Kaushalya, Manthara. No Meghnad, Kumbhakaran. And despite all the reinterpretations, there is no Wicked Sita! :)
Ye dil maange more!
October 16, 2013
A collection of short stories (speculative fiction) inspired by the Ramayana: all original, most of them odd, some of them spectacular. There are elements of sci-fi, fantasy, robots, magic, surrealism in the stories. A unique experiment, left me feeling it could have done better. To the credit of the authors and the editors is the courageous attempt at trying something radically different. Doff the hat for that.
The story that I really liked was Test of Fire by Pervin Saket. Consider this paragraph: '... What doomed Manus was the need to seek approval from even the lowest rung. The desire to be respected by those whom he could never have respected back. The act of giving up every scruple he had, every principle he upheld, only to be adored by one more person. The Ideal Man didn't value his own opinions, only those that others had of him.'
Hard hitting. Incisive. Just for that one paragraph, it is worth reading the entire book.
I'd give the book a 2.5 out of 5. The story by Pervin Saket, I'd give 5 on 5.
The story that I really liked was Test of Fire by Pervin Saket. Consider this paragraph: '... What doomed Manus was the need to seek approval from even the lowest rung. The desire to be respected by those whom he could never have respected back. The act of giving up every scruple he had, every principle he upheld, only to be adored by one more person. The Ideal Man didn't value his own opinions, only those that others had of him.'
Hard hitting. Incisive. Just for that one paragraph, it is worth reading the entire book.
I'd give the book a 2.5 out of 5. The story by Pervin Saket, I'd give 5 on 5.
December 24, 2019
I really like that this exists.
March 8, 2021
More than the sum of its parts - loved the ways the stories were effectively in dialogue with each other, as well as with the tradition.
May 30, 2021
I picked it up because I'm a huge fan of retellings of myth and speculative fiction, so this seemed like the perfect book. However, the collection of short stories was of non-uniform quality. There were some really great ones, like "Vaidehi and Her Earth Mother", "Oblivion: A Journey" and "Kalyug Amended". However, the others weren't that captivating for me. It's a nice read, but not remarkable.
October 26, 2016
I enjoyed this collection of SF stories inspired by the Ramayan. I'm familiar with the rough outline of the story from my childhood, but I don't have the deep immersion that I would have had if I'd grown up in India (in the way that I've absorbed the Christian stories just by living my life in Britain, without ever being Christian). This meant that the book was read with Wikipedia always at the ready, to look up names, places and events that Indians would just know. Still, like I say, I'm familiar with the basic story and it was fascinating to see the various different interpretations put on it in this collection.
Most of the stories were fairly sympathetic to the villain of the traditional story, Raavan and they also tended to pick up on the tail end of the story - the bit that many people tend to forget, where after Raam has won Sita back, he doubts her chastity and rejects her. The book contains stories from across the SF spectrum, from hard SF, through traditional fantasy to the fence-sitting of magical realism. My favourite story was one of the more sci-fi interpretations, Sita's Descent by Indrapramit Das, about an giant intelligent nanite cloud named Sita, who takes the stories that she's based on a little too literally. Other standouts for me include The Ramayana as an American Reality Television Show (with social media fallout after an episode of the show); the somewhat disturbing, dark piece Weak Heart; and the modern day story Kalyug Amended, with its absolute killer final line.
This is a great collection to dip in and out of and makes me think in different ways about the stories of my childhood. I'd be happy to read many of these stories again (I say that about a lot of books, but there's always the next shiny thing to read, so I never get time. Still, this book will stay on my shelves in the hope that one day I do have the time).
Most of the stories were fairly sympathetic to the villain of the traditional story, Raavan and they also tended to pick up on the tail end of the story - the bit that many people tend to forget, where after Raam has won Sita back, he doubts her chastity and rejects her. The book contains stories from across the SF spectrum, from hard SF, through traditional fantasy to the fence-sitting of magical realism. My favourite story was one of the more sci-fi interpretations, Sita's Descent by Indrapramit Das, about an giant intelligent nanite cloud named Sita, who takes the stories that she's based on a little too literally. Other standouts for me include The Ramayana as an American Reality Television Show (with social media fallout after an episode of the show); the somewhat disturbing, dark piece Weak Heart; and the modern day story Kalyug Amended, with its absolute killer final line.
This is a great collection to dip in and out of and makes me think in different ways about the stories of my childhood. I'd be happy to read many of these stories again (I say that about a lot of books, but there's always the next shiny thing to read, so I never get time. Still, this book will stay on my shelves in the hope that one day I do have the time).
June 30, 2015
Breaking the bow Edited by Anil Menon and Vandana singh my next #TSBCChallenge - a collection of short stories that revolve around the mythological characters from 'The Ramayana'. It was a great experience reading it as it has imagination, modernity ,innovation and out of the box thinking.
The moment i start reading within few pages i was in great laugh to read an American Reality Show responses on Suprankha's incident of cutting of her nose and breasts by Lakshmana was the hot topic on Internet and debatable too. Not only this it gives access to Internet to these mythological characters.
Few stories are exceptionally good and well written that took me to a different world but few bored me - to be honest. In this era of experimentation I guess it's a brave act of these two editors to compile good version of Epic but still stories circle around one or two main events that dishearten me. I'll only recommend the book if u'r patient enough to complete it to the last word. My rating : 3 out of 5 Thank u #TSBC :)
The moment i start reading within few pages i was in great laugh to read an American Reality Show responses on Suprankha's incident of cutting of her nose and breasts by Lakshmana was the hot topic on Internet and debatable too. Not only this it gives access to Internet to these mythological characters.
Few stories are exceptionally good and well written that took me to a different world but few bored me - to be honest. In this era of experimentation I guess it's a brave act of these two editors to compile good version of Epic but still stories circle around one or two main events that dishearten me. I'll only recommend the book if u'r patient enough to complete it to the last word. My rating : 3 out of 5 Thank u #TSBC :)
January 11, 2015
Many of stories bored me - scifi-ing up the Ramayana (or Hindu mythology) is difficult and can leave a bad taste in the mouth if not done well. I skipped many of these stories altogether
Many others were readable, but repetitive - mostly Ravana/Sita's perspective. Where is Hanuman/Vibhishan/Lakshman/Kaikeyi's story? I feel a lot more could have been done.
Don't read this book if you want to stick to the classical, good-vs-bad Ramayana story. Much of this may seem disrespectful/blasphemous if you cannot digest the questioning of religion.
Many others were readable, but repetitive - mostly Ravana/Sita's perspective. Where is Hanuman/Vibhishan/Lakshman/Kaikeyi's story? I feel a lot more could have been done.
Don't read this book if you want to stick to the classical, good-vs-bad Ramayana story. Much of this may seem disrespectful/blasphemous if you cannot digest the questioning of religion.
Want to Read
July 22, 2015I remember thinking I wanted to read this when I first heard talk of the project. Then at Readercon, I attended a panel representations of gods in SFF, and Anil talked about the history of reinterpretation of the Ramayana, and it renewed my interest. He also mentioned retellings from past centuries, including (if I'm remembering right The Sound of a [or the?] Kiss, a retelling from Sita's point of view from I think he said the 1600s? (Or sixteenth century? Anyway: long ago)--I'd like to take a look at that, too.
February 27, 2016
This was a very interesting read for someone with a background on the general events of the Ramayana. I do feel if I had a more thorough knowledge of the Ramayana I may have gotten more out of some of the stories in this anthology, felt lost with a few of them, but I really enjoyed them nonetheless. Compelling stories of time travel, sci-fi, futuristic tech, and more were the most interesting, followed by modern-day heartfelt interpretations of the classic relationships between Rama, Sita, Lakshmana, Ravana, and others.
August 15, 2014
With many creative short stories inspired (in varying degrees) by the Ramayana, this is well worth reading. Not all the stories are equally readable, even though they are all innovative, and justify fully the 'speculative' tag. Some of them did not appeal to me because the effort behind he writing was all too evident - these seemed to have been written more as 'creative writing', less stories with heart. Still, the stories that do work make it fully worth your while.
August 13, 2016
My favourite story in this collection is the social media, reality TV version. But it was interesting to read the diverse variations across genres.
April 21, 2013
Quite uneven..some splendid material underutilised
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews