Payal Dhar’s fantasy novels A Shadow in Eternity and The Key of Chaos tell the story of Maya Subramaniam, a twelve-year old girl who lives a normal boring life in Bangalore, until one day an eerily tall man called Noah arrives to tell her that she is meant for greater things, she being a Preferred and he her Watcher. Transported via the Portal Road to the Eternal City, she learns from the High Council that she is the youngest person Summoned to train to be a Defender of the Sands of Time, which, if they ever ran out, would mean the end of Reality as Maya knows it. Puzzled at first, Maya succumbs to the temptation of a life devoted to something ‘meaningful’ but especially at the idea of learning the powers of Illusion, Healing and Combat. And so she agrees to be inducted and signs her name in the Book of Preferred, literally signing the pact with Noah in blood. What follows is part quest and part coming-of-age novel.
November 2007, volume 31, No 11