Kritika H. Rao (The Legend of Meneka) expands on a fantasy universe based in traditional Hindu stories as she concludes the Divine Dancers duology with the adventure-rich, introspective fantasy novel The Rise of the Celestials.
Meneka, an apsara (celestial dancer) from the heavenly city of Amaravati, is now living among mortals with her lover, the sage Kaushika. "Living here with him in stillness has been a quiet rebellion, a slow warfare... deliberate in its nourishment," she reflects. However, their passionate relationship is tarnished for Meneka by external pressures. Shachi, the wife and sometimes adversary of Indra, Amaravati's ruler, has asked Meneka to win Kaushika to her side against Indra. Meneka is unsure of her place in Amaravati after recent events. Then Indra calls her home, only to send her forth again on a mission to the underworld. Meneka can refuse, but if she does, Indra will never allow her to return to the mortal world and Kaushika. Her travels route her through the most hellish corner of the immortal lands, then to the lush paradise of the underworld, where she becomes entangled in Indra and Shachi's power struggle. Their battle will decide the fate of Amaravati forever, and Meneka's choices could cost her Kaushika--or worse, herself.
Rao's unabashedly sexy epic centers the journeys and fellowship of women but portrays the feminine aspect of the divine as potent and aspirational regardless of one's gender. Readers of the duology's first volume will enjoy Meneka's powerful path to self-understanding and finding her place. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads