‘I turned to Genevieve, and my jaw dropped. She was struggling in the arms of a great Beast. The creature’s head was snake-like, its tongue long and forked, a single eye, slit-pupilled, in the centre of its forehead. It opened its great mouth as if it meant to swallow her alive…’ In 1912, when Nathaniel Brown, an agent with the Morningstar Agency, boards the Titanic, his mission is simple: he must prevent the Eye of Empire, a stolen jewel with untold powers, from reaching America. Nathaniel is a young man of many talents—he can speak to animals, and he has incredibly sharp senses and the skills of many Jungle creatures. But between him and the jewel stands guard the burning-eyed and inhumanly strong Bavarian; and on his trail are the Parloks, horrific Beasts prepared to tear him to shreds in their quest for the Eye. With the help of Genevieve, a distractingly beautiful Morningstar agent with a mysterious past and an assortment of ingenious gadgets, Nathaniel must overcome all obstacles and complete his mission. For, the fate of the world hangs in balance.
Author
Samit Basu is an Indian novelist best known for his fantasy and science fiction work Samit's most recent novel, The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport, was published by Tordotcom in the US and Canada in Oct 2023. His previous novel, the anti-dystopian near-future The City Inside (Tordotcom, '22) was on the Washington Post and Book Riot best SFF of 2022 lists and earlier shortlisted for the 2020 JCB Prize (India) as Chosen Spirits. Samit's first novel, The Simoqin Prophecies, published by Penguin India in 2003, when Samit was 23, was the first book in the bestselling Gameworld Trilogy and marked the beginning of Indian English fantasy writing. The other books in the trilogy are The Manticore’s Secret and The Unwaba Revelations. Samit’s US/UK debut, the superhero novel Turbulence was published in the UK in 2012 and in the US in 2013 to rave reviews. It won Wired‘s Goldenbot Award as one of the books of 2012 and was superheronovels.com’s Book of the Year for 2013. Samit has also written children's books, published short stories for adults and younger readers in Indian and international anthologies, and has been a columnist and essayist in several leading Indian and international publications. Samit also works as a screenwriter and director. His debut film, House Arrest, was released as part of Netflix’s International Originals in 2019, and was one of Netflix’s top 5 most viewed Indian films that year. He wrote the film and co-directed it with Shashanka Ghosh. Samit’s work in comics ranges from historical romance to zombie comedy, and includes diverse collaborators, from Girl With All The Gifts/X-Men writer MR Carey to Terry Gilliam and Duran Duran. Samit was born in Calcutta, educated in Calcutta and London, and currently works between Delhi and Kolkata. He runs a newsletter, Duck of Dystopia (samit.substack.com) and can be found on social media at @samitbasu, and at samitbasu.com
