WARRIOR. STATESMAN. KING.Travancore, Eighteenth Century.Crown Prince Marthanda Varma has been forced to take refuge in the forested outskirts of his kingdom to escape the dogged assassins in pursuit. His realm has been paralysed by a ruthless confederacy of priests and feudal lords as well as the Dutch monopoly on spice, rendering the royal family powerless. Armed with his wit and political acumen and accompanied only by a rag-tag group of mercenaries, Marthanda fights tooth and nail to reclaim his right to rule.After the death of his uncle, the puppet king, Marthanda ascends the throne, determined to rewrite the story of Travancore. With his faithful second-in-command Ramayyan and an enigmatic Dutch general by his side, he builds an army unlike any the kingdom has ever known and triumphs in a series of unwinnable conquests. Using a shrewd combination of military might and diplomacy, he forges a formidable empire - the jewel, and terror, of the Malabar Coast.But power is a potent drug and trust, a rare commodity. Surrounded by duplicitous allies, murderous rivals and the looming danger of English dominance, will the Travancore king's thirst for glory and vengeance blind him to duty and honour?
