Author Event: Anand Gandhi with Ken Liu: Maya: Seed Takes Root

The Divya Trials have been announced. Billions will compete. One will ascend to godhood.

On the planet Neh, the living forest called Maya is the planet’s neural network. Each citizen tethers daily to Maya, entering shared dreamscapes for work, play, and learning. The immortal Divyas harvest the data. Every thought and memory; predicting futures and bending reality itself. Everyone is connected. Everyone is tracked. Everyone is controlled.

Everyone except Yachay. An ordinary nineteen-year-old manushya raised in isolation by his ailing grandfather, Daddu, Yachay has never tethered to Maya—making him invisible to the gods of data. Daddu urges him to enter the upcoming Divya Trials, a once-in-a-lifetime competition where billions compete for immortality and omnipotence. Yachay wants no part of it—until his grandfather’s death uncovers an ancient resistance and a lifetime of secret training.

About the Author:

Anand Gandhi is a filmmaker and systems thinker widely credited with ushering in a new wave of Indian cinema. His debut feature, Ship of Theseus, premiered in Toronto, won India's National Award for Best Film (the country's highest honor, often likened to the Academy Award for Best Picture), and collected honors at Transylvania, Tokyo and BFI London. It was the only contemporary film on the UK Critics’ Circle's centenary list of fifteen ‘life-changing’ films that included The 400 Blows and Raging Bull. His mythological horror epic Tumbbad, now regarded as a contemporary classic, was the first Indian film ever to open Venice Critics’ Week and won at Sitges. He has since produced An Insignificant Man, a landmark political documentary, and OK Computer, India’s first science fiction comedy series, for Disney+.