Talbot Mundy and the Yasmini series get better as they go along. This fifth in the series looks back to Yasmini's manipulative origins, previewing the delightful and formidable adversary she would become. But the novel also demonstrates her loyalty and friendship--to the right people. Otherwise, it's India as you imagined it under the British Raj. Or at least the Raj as it should have been.

Guns of the Gods fills its pages with colorful, detailed imagery and a dashing retelling of action and adventure. But there is more than that. There is the sheer enjoyment of Mundy's writing, here. He wields irony like a rapier, making for some of most memorable passages in adventure literature. Just one from this novel will live on above all others: Akbar the rum-loving elephant and his run through the night after men and beasts, both those real and imagined.

Finally, Mundy achieves something else with the Yasmini series and this book in particular. He creates a wistful mood for a place few would have experienced and none today can visit. That feeling lingers into the characters themselves, especially in the way Mundy describes the parting at the end between Yasmini and Tess.

Fun to read. ( )