“The world should burn . . . burn like a star!”
The balance of the world is askew.The winds speak of a terror from the south. Ravana, the Lord of Lanka, is on the march. Seers whisper that he has awakened Starsong, a mythical astra of the gods. And that he thirsts for this weapon that will make him invincible. But there is one thing that he hasn’t considered. Up high in the glistening tower of the city of Ulka is a boy, held captive.
Today is the day Varkan, the young prince of Ashmaka, will taste freedom. Today is the day he will lay claim to his destiny as the wielder of Starsong. And along the way, perhaps he will change the destiny of the world itself.
Meet the characters from Aditya Mukherjee and Arnav Mukherjee’s new book, Astra: The Quest for Starsong
Varkan’s father passed away mysteriously, taken by a ‘madness’. Then his mother seemed to succumb to the same madness and was imprisoned as his uncle took over the kingdom. He was kept locked up in one of the towers in the palace. However, he never gives up. He plots again and again to escape, and finally does. When he finds the responsibility of the Astra on him, he embraces it since it is a mission given to him by his mother, and he feels the secret of his father’s demise lies with the Astra
Tara can’t help provoke people to get a reaction from them. She’s also very intelligent and deeply cares about nature, animals and her grandfather, even though she troubles him. Though she and her grandfather travel as gypsies, they are secretly the Regent and Princess of Gandhara, Ashmaka’s old ally.
All Princes of Ashmaka get an elephant, and Varkan got gifted Daboo when they were both children. However, as Daboo grew up he didn’t grow much physically, and he’s the smallest elephant in Ashmaka. That doesn’t stop him from being very brave, very loyal and always up for an adventure. (If anything he tends to overcompensate…)
Read Astra: The Quest for Starsong to find out what happens!
