Absolutely brilliant, engaging and powerful!

The ancient Indian sages knew how to engage the imagination, the heart and the soul, and this retelling packs all that into a tour-de-force of a narration! The story flows seamlessly, giving you ample detail while at the same time skipping certain non-essential side-stories (like Ravana's family history) that would bore the modern listener and slow down the story too much.
Also, there's a healthy balance between external events and their spiritual significance, the latter being seamlessly integrated into the narrative without feeling forced. I've bookmarked all these for myself.
Perhaps the war might have been slightly more compressed, but as it is, you get a sense for the way stories were told in ancient India: they were drawn out, included incredibly huge numbers (of warriors and battles, for instance), with new, unexpected twists waiting at every corner, even after the climax (i.e. the bad guy's death and the reestablishment of order). Krishna Dharma's lengthy retelling captures all that beautifully.
Another thing I really liked about the story was the fact that the rakshasas (the bad guys) had complex characters, and were not altogether evil in every respect (not even their chief), unlike in many other novels, where the bad guys are ‘flat’, i.e. simply evil - period. An intelligent touch by the ancient rishis, I'd say ...
The author reads out his own book with insight and passion, yet with the necessary decorum befitting an ancient epic. Having just finished it, I feel uplifted, optimistic and at peace ;-)

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