The year is 2110, and Bramah—the time-travelling locksmith and hero of the series—must rescue Amahl the Beggar, trapped in the Eternal Game of Climate Chess by a boss of the criminal underworld. With unexpected aid from a one-eyed guard, an oracle and two shape-shifting mythical beasts, Bramah must break free from captivity in Baghdad and battle wits with a Paris collective of supernaturals in order to save her friend. Each challenge forces Bramah to discover truths about her past, her origins as a demigoddess and the price of idealism in the face of ecological and economic calamity.

Ten years in the making, Bramah’s Discovery weaves the devastation of climate change into speculative verse to create an epic family saga that is also a meditation on good and evil. Bramah—brown, brave and beautiful—is determined to conquer the odds and deal with what fate and chance throw in her path. Each twist and turn tests her ability to live up to the motto “Let all evil die and the good endure.”

What Themes Run Through Bramah’s Discovery?

Key themes include the struggle between good and evil; the role of chance and fate in determining outcomes; the impact of accelerated climate change on the lives of ordinary people placed in extraordinary times; the choices humans must make when faced with catastrophic circumstances, including whether to use violence to overcome injustice. 

This book is my most personal, most political, and most fantastical: all three aspects weave together in ways that surprised me:

• the death of my mother and the “feels” of now being without both parents; 
• the terrible news about events in Europe and the Middle East;
• the climate change emergency, which is forcing us to take stock of how we live. 

The writing of Bramah’s Discovery gave my imagination the opportunity to take all these and put them into a futuristic world of magic, mythical creatures, chess, supernatural powers and accelerated climate change. The story combines realpolitik, personal heartache, and epic fantasy. I think it’s my favourite book to date!

—Renée Sarojini Saklikar

A sample poem from Book 3: Bramah’s Discovery:

            
EVERYONE DESCENDS ON AHMEDABAD LOOKING
FOR AMAHL THE BEGGAR

This New World Order. These despairing conditions.
These Seed Savers and Resisters, separate and apart.
Those Makers run down by violent gangs.
Those gangs breeding by rape and by pillage—
hand-to-hand combat, those villages ransacked,
farmers indentured to feed an army on the march.
Those marching Incels loyal to the Grand Vizier.
That Al-Rashid. Those Consortium Executives.
Their Bitcoin ETFs. Everyone buying out everyone else.
Everyone searching for big money, easy access, satellites and drones.
Those searchers on the lookout for the boy named Amahl.
That Amahl playing climate chess.
Those slender fingers, trembling, mercury poisoning,
piece by piece. Everyone swearing by the White Queen.
Those brigades of orphans, enemies of the Incels.
Those armed standoffs outside the city gates.
          Everyone everywhere dreaming of rain
          droplets to downpour, no burning, no floods;
          just a good soaking from the time from Before.
         Only the orphans knew to sing:
                 
                 Hey Aunty Monsoon!
                Come find us, we’re W-C-N-S-F
                Bramah, you’ve deserted us
               Hey Aunty Abisha,
               We know you are for us
               Everyone, everywhere, W-C-N-S-F.

When Guards of the Fifth heard these words, they stormed,
grabbing orphans left and right, cursing, No tear gas
as directed, knowing they’d not catch a single one.
Heard then, those children calling,
             
             Tumblers or sliders.
             turn, click or spin!
             Seven or sixty-four
             your move, checkmate.
            Seven from the centre
            up, down or across—

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Delve Deeper into Book Three: Bramah’s Discovery

© Renée Sarojini Saklikar 2021-2023.
© Nadina Tandy Cover Art. © Top Shelf Creative Book Design.
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