Empire of Sand

"Empire of Sand is the first part of an adult fantasy duology set in a world inspired by Mughal India. The first book follows Mehr, the illegitimate daughter of an imperial governor, whose mother was Amrithi—part of a nomadic minority descended from the daiva. When a cruel mystic comes to court, Mehr is pressured into an arranged marriage with a warrior named Amun, which blossoms into a beautiful slow-burn romance. I love so many things about this book, but the magic system, particularly, is unlike anything I’ve encountered before—it’s based on dance. I also appreciate that Suri celebrates the endurance and cleverness of women, and the quieter sorts of strength that women have historically used to survive and claim some power under patriarchy: She did not have her jewels or her fine clothes, but she had this power, at least: she could give him a simulacrum of what he desired from her. And hold her crumbling strength tight. Let him think he had broken her. As long as he believed he already had, as long as she fooled him, he would not succeed in truly doing so. I feel the genre dismissed these qualities for a long time, when we were still fixated on ‘Strong Female Characters’ that embodied traditionally masculine traits. I chose Empire of Sand as a mythopoeic fantasy because the backstory has a rich, mythological feel to it—the world is shaped by the dreams of slumbering gods, whom Mehr can influence through dance and hand sigils. Sometimes you’ll get a rare storm of dreamfire, where the dreams have a visible impact on the world. I’m very excited for Tasha’s next book, The Jasmine Throne . Being able to write a series this long is an enormous privilege. Paige, the main character, and I have grown up together—although I’ve overtaken her age-wise by a long way now. She and I were both 19 when I started writing the series, and now I’m 29. But getting to stay with her for such a long time, put her through so many different situations, and explore how she reacts and changes in response to those situations, is so rewarding. It also means I can build a dystopia far larger than a trilogy would allow, and examine in from both inside and out. I’ve always had the skeleton of the series laid out in my mind, but I’ve been working on it for a decade already, so some of my ideas have changed over time. I leave myself room to manoeuvre. I know where I’m going, but not always exactly how I’ll get there."