The Pandava Quintet series

 All you need to know about

THE PANDAVA QUINTET (THE ARU SHAH SERIES)

Author : Roshani Chokshi

Aru Shah is a sassy and quirky twelve year old living in Atlanta, Georgia who also happens to be as salty as the Dead Sea. She is also shockingly good at lying, which was what lead to her unleashing a trapped supervillain and almost causing the end of time. 

Yup, that went from 'normal' to 'definitely not normal' a little too fast. Let me back up a little.

Aru's mom, Krithika Shah, owns a museum. The Museum of Ancient Indian Art and Culture. As a student of Augustus Day (AKA 'School for the Snobbiest'), to fit in, Aru often stretches the truth to impress her fellow classmates. But living in a museum is un-cool by Middle school standards, and definitely doesn't help Aru to become one with the aristocratic crowd.

And it certainly doesn't help that her mother was always away on Museum work and was almost never home. Which was another contributing factor to Aru's extensive imagination that she ends up conveying to others verbally (tweaking the truth very creatively, in other words. Lying, in more brief words.)

But it looked like all her tales would go down the drain when during her Autumn break, some of her classmates arrived at the museum and saw that Aru wasn't on her vacation to France as she had informed the others during math class (which was technically true, if not for the fact that her mom had to rush again for work).

It also didn't help that Aru had boasted about owning an elephant, which ended up to be the statue of an elephant outside the museum which Aru named as "Greg".

In a moment of panic, when her classmates were about to expose her lies, Aru told her classmates that she owned a cursed lamp, inside the museum.

Now, the lamp was most definitely not a lie, but her mother had always warned her to not light the lamp under any circumstances. Supposedly, lighting the lamp could free the Sleeper, a demon who could summon Lord Shiva, the God of Destruction, who would bring about the end of time. All her life, Aru had been in awe of the lamp, a lump of clay which did not look or sound very impressive, but it was expressly forbidden for her to light the lamp.

Buuuuut, This was Aru's last shot. And besides, it was just a lamp, what could go wrong?

Everything went wrong.

The Sleeper was set free from imprisonment, and the people in the museum were all frozen. Outside, vehicles crashed while the drivers were frozen in time. 

Just when things couldn't get stranger, a pigeon appeared (weirdness overload) and revealed that Aru was the reincarnation of one of the five Pandavas, the famous brothers of Indian Mythology who played a huge part in the legendary Kurukshetra war, and therefore had their souls. Subala, ( AKA Boo, as dubbed by Aru) and Aru then go through the Door of Many to meet her fellow Pandava sister. 

Then, as Aru and Mini, the other Pandava sister, have an awkward meeting, the two sisters and the EXTEMELY talkative pigeon then meet the Council of Gods, and discover who their Soul Fathers are.

Now, Aru and Mini must travel across the Otherworld, activate the Godly weapons they received from their soul fathers and confront the Sleeper to prevent the end of time, all in eight days. Oh joy.

Join Aru Shah on her journey as she struggles to prevent world destruction in Spider-man pajamas, as secrets are revealed and shocking revelations are made and ultimately, Aru and her sisters must banish the Sleeper, forever.

ALL BOOKS IN ORDER

• Aru Shah and the End of Time
• Aru Shah and the Song of Death
• Aru Shah and the Tree of Wishes
• Aru Shah and the City of Gold
• Aru Shah and the Nectar of Immortality 

Aru Shah and the End of time was the first book published under Rick Riordan Presents, The line publishes books that utilize the mythology of various cultures and countries in its storytelling akin to Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson, but written by a variety of different authors. After all, it is definitely not possible for Riordan to write about every Mythology in the world. But, it is to be kept in mind that the Aru Shah series does not have any connection whatsoever to the Percy Jackson series. 

The Aru Shah series is a modern spin-off of Hindu Mythology. The final book of the series, the Nectar of Immortality, is set to be published on 5th April 2022.

My Comments

The Pandava Quintet, or the Aru Shah series is an amazing middle-grade series filled with mystery and twists in every corner. Aru's character development from lying to fit in with the rich crowd to finally being proud of who she is was truly phenomenal. I became quite fond of Aru though the pages and her sassy nature and humor was an extremely amusing factor. The other characters of the book have a great personality as well and each of them have a backstory that helps us empathize and understand them so much more. Mini was the younger sister we all wish to have, and Boo was the 'Hagrid' of the series, with a much more stern temperament. The series is very refreshing and an enormously enjoyable read for fans of Percy Jackson who still can't get over the completion of the series (*cough* me *cough*). It has all the elements that the Percy Jackson series has; humor, fantastic characters, amazing plot line and so on. Though the Percy Jackson series will always be supreme and incomparable to me, the Pandava Quintet is truly worthy of Riordan Presents and a must read for all readers above the age of 10 who enjoyed Percy Jackson very much and miss it a lot. (again, me)

NOTE: Although this does not have any connection to Aru Shah, to all the Keeper of the Lost Cities readers, this is to inform that Shannon Messenger has announced that Book 9 of the Keeper of the Lost Cities series will be published on 8th November 2022.