South Asian Spec-Fic Working List

Dear fans, readers and fellow writers

Thanks for dropping by to The List. I’m Shweta Taneja, a fantasy and science fiction author from India. I have been writing speculative fiction since years now and have five novels and two graphic novels to my name. A few of my books are available in the Western markets and some of them are bestsellers.

This list started after a series of talks I gave at Eurocon in 2018 and at Dublin WorldCon in 2019 about diverse speculative fiction coming from the Indian subcontinent. Audiences in these talks wanted to know the names of the books I spoke about. There were readers and SF community fans I met, who wanted the same. This convinced me that The List is required.

This remains a working list which I will update soon. Right now, it only points to names of recent amazing books that have come out in the last five years in speculative fiction from South Asia. I will add more details on these books, links to buy, other older titles as well as books in other languages. Soon, soon.

To start with, I’m listing down recent books that you can read.

If you see a book you like and don’t find it in your markets, email me. I can put you in touch with the authors or publishers or book-sellers who can courier it to you. If I should add someone in this list, email me. Most of all, read and enjoy life. It’s short. (Life, not The List)

Fantasy – Urban Fantasy

  • Beast – Krishna Udayasankar – 2019
  • Anantya Tantrist Mysteries (series) – Shweta Taneja – 2014 – 2018
  • Djinn City – Saad Hossain – 2017
  • The Vishnu Chronicles – Sohail Mathur – 2017
  • Boy of Fire and Earth – Sami Shah – 2017
  • Immortal – Krishna Udayasankar – 2016

Fantasy – High Fantasy

  • The Sultanpur Chronicles – Achala Upendran – 2018
  • The Guardians of the Halahala (series) – Shatrujeet Nath – 2014 – 2018
  • Rakshasa – The Shadow Warriors – 2018 – Rajiv G Menon
  • Sharikrida – Krishna Trilok – 2017
  • The Demon Hunter of Chottanikkara – SV Sujatha – 2017
  • Dark Things – Sukanya Venkatraghavan – 2016
  • Gameworld Trilogy (series) – Samit Basu – 2004 – 2007 (+humour)

Fantasy – Historical Fantasy

  • The Prince – Samhita Arni – 2019
  • Kama – Jaya Misra – 2018
  • Tarikshir: The Awakening – Khayaal Patel – 2018
  • Harappa (series) – Vineet Bajpai – 2017-2018
  • Snuffing Out The Moon – Osama Siddique – 2017

Science Fiction – Dystopian Futures

  • Contingency Plans for the Apocalypse and Other Possible Situations – by SB Divya – 2019
  • The Butterfly Effect – Rajat Chaudhari – 2019
  • The Commonwealth Empire (series) – Yudhanjaya Wijeratne – 2019 -ongoing
  • Miragian Cycles (series) – Theena Kumaragurunathan – 2016 – ongoing
  • Clone – Priya Sarukkai Chabria – 2018
  • Leila – Prayag Akbar – 2017
  • Before She Sleeps – Bina Shah – 2018

Science Fiction – Satire / Humour / Wit

  • The Lucy Temerlin Institute for Broken Shapeshifters Guide to Starving Boys – Chapbook – Kuzhali Manickavel – 2019
  • Portalpettai – Avakkai and Chukka – Chapbook – 2019
  • Freedom Fables – Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (1880-1932) – 2019
  • Foxy Aesop – Suniti Namjoshi – 2018
  • Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars – A dangerous trans girl’s confabulous memoir – Kai Cheng Thom – 2017 – Lambda literary award finalist
  • Tooth and Nail, Fur and Scale: Fantastic Creatures from the Myths and Legends of India – Anupam Arunachalam – 2017
  • Djinn City‬ – Saad Z. Hossain – 2017
  • The Competent Authority – Shovon Chowdhury – 2015
  • Escape from Baghdad! – Saad Z. Hossain – 2015

Science Fiction – Genre

  • Earth to Centuari series – Kumar L – 2017 – 2019
  • 03:02 – Mainak Dhar – 2016
  • Aliens in Delhi – Sami Ahmad Khan – 2017
  • Turbulence, Resistance (duology) – Samit Basu – 2014-15
  • Domechild – Shiv Ramdas – 2013
  • The Island of Lost Girls – Manjula Padmanabham – 2015

Science Fiction – Lyrical / Magic Realism / Literary

  • The Liar’s Weave – Tashan Mehta – 2017
  • The Devourers – Indra Das – 2015 – Winner of 2017 Lambda Literary Award for Best LGBQT SF/F/Horror
  • The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn – Usman T. Malik – 2015
  • The Hundred Names of Darkness – Nilanjana Roy – 2015
  • The Wildlings – Nilanjana Roy – 2012
  • The Calcutta Chromosome – Amitabh Ghosh – 1995 – Winner of Arthur C Clarke Award
  • Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie – 1981 – Winner of the Booker Prize

Anthologies – Science Fiction / Fantasy

  • The Gollancz book of South Asian Science Fiction – 2019
  • Magical Women – 2019
  • The Best Asian Speculative Fiction – 2019
  • The Blaft Anthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction, Vol. 3 – 2017
  • The Djinn Falls in Love and other stories – 2017

Fear not, much more will be added to this list later in this year. Right now, I’m off for holidays!