One Destroyer's Dharma

Images by EM Godrej

The Novel's Inspiration

Three thousand years before the events of the novel, in what is now India, the Mahabharata was written. The epic chronicled a war between dynasties that broke an age. Ten times the length of the Iliad and Odyssey put together, it was a swashbuckling tale of gods and wars and family betrayal.

The telling also scrutinizes how societies and animals survive in an indifferent universe full of death and suffering. It is a mirror reflecting the contradictions and consequences of our duty to each other—not just of ordinary men and women, but kings, oligarchs and even the gods themselves.

One Destroyer's Dharma remixes the Mahabharata into a future based on the arc of today's society: full of injustice and grievance, yet bright with potential. Everyone—be they hero or villain—walks toward glory or ruin under the same cosmic light of dharma.

What Vivek Writes

GENRE: GROUNDED SCIENCE FICTION

The moral crises of Indian myth,
and problems of today,
brought into the cold vacuum
of a realistic near-future.

CHARACTERS IN CONFLICT

Stories about warring bloodlines,
inter-generational trauma,
found family, and
the burden of dharma (duty).

WHAT DOES THE WORLD FEEL LIKE?

When power and wealth unchecked
engineers new caste systems,
new "gods" emerge, and
humanity's survival demands its soul.

FOR READERS WHO ENJOY:

The sharp-tongued voice and found-family of Some Desperate Glory (Tesh),
the unforgiving void and cosmic dread of The Final Architecture (Tchaikovsky),
the digital afterlives and memories in A Memory Called Empire (Martine).

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About the Author

The son of Indian ambassadors, Vivek was raised on four continents, eavesdropping on power shaking hands with power at dinner parties. He came to the United States for college, and emigrated afterwards. After a decade in medicine helping people with dying kidneys live better lives, he co-founded a digital wellness company to people heal their minds and bodies. A million people have read his science writing.

Vivek loves reading speculative fiction that goes beyond imaginative worlds and compelling characters. His favorites ask questions of today's society and its injustices. His favorite authors include Leguin, Banks, Asimov, Jemisin, Leckie, and many others.

He writes science fiction because he's both inspired and frightened of our future, and which path we will choose.

He lives in New England with his wife, daughters and three talkative cockatiels. Every day is a neverending battle between screentime and the rejuvenation of going outdoors. (Blue-blockers, caffeine, and a treadmill desk are not enough.)

Agents and Editors

The novel is complete and available for representation and publication inquiries.

Vivek's Blog

Welcome to the Flow:
To Flow is to travel the Worldrivers,
the setting of One Destroyer's Dharma.

FAQ

What is the plot of the novel One Destroyer's Dharma?

What books are similar to One Destroyer's Dharma?

The novel combines the gritty, near-future realism of James S.A. Corey’s The Expanse with the sharp-tongued protagonist of Emily Tesh’s Some Desperate Glory and the intricacy of Arkady Martine’s A Memory Called Empire.

Is One Destroyer's Dharma a retelling of the Mahabharata?

Is One Destroyer's Dharma part of a series?

While the novel stands alone, it is intended to be the first book of the Arohana series.

Vivek's debut novel is set in a near-future Solar System. It follows sharp-tongued Ishara Kiriti, the secret daughter of a powerful oligarch and "Great Man", who discovers she was engineered for a destiny far from her backwater Earth ranch. Hunted across the Worldrivers (chains of space habitats garlanding the orbits of Venus, Earth and Mars), she must choose to fight in her father’s war, or against the society that created her.

No. The novel is a techno-Vedic fusion of the characters, themes and philosophies into a modern, sci-fi setting full of neural augments, artificial intelligence, orbitals, and starships in place of chariots. It explores themes of dynastic power, transhumanism, and the cost of duty.