KPU creative writing instructor launches fantasy book exploring climate change
The book has been in the works for 10 years
Renée Sarojini Saklikar is a KPU creative writing instructor and is hosting a book launch on Aug. 30 for her fantasy book Bramah’s Quest which is set in the year 2087 in a world ravaged by climate change. (Submitted)
Kwantlen Polytechnic University creative writing instructor Renée Sarojini Saklikar is hosting a book launch on Aug. 30 at The Lido in Vancouver at 7:00 pm for her epic fantasy book Bramah’s Quest, written entirely in verse.
The book portrays fantasy and magic through a mix of poetry and fiction. The epic fantasy verse is second in a multi book series titled Thot J Bap, which is an acronym for “The Heart of this Journey Bears All Patterns.” Epic means longform poetry while verse includes different poetry forms such as a sonnet, blank verse, and cantos.
“I love the way epic fantasy gives you action, myth, and magic all in one,” Saklikar says.
The story is set in the year 2087 where the world is ravaged by climate change.
“One of the things I do when I’m presenting a book is I ask my audience, ‘How do you experience climate change right now?’ And of course, we all end up talking about the weather, and growing up here … you realize, ‘Oh, the seasons are really messed up and things are changing.’”
Saklikar says the book was inspired by Western and Eastern cultures as well as Hindu mythology including the Ramayana, a Sanskrit epic, and the Vedic scriptures. It has three key themes — a battle for good and evil, climate change, and power and politics, along with the way it affects global inequality.
“Can the good people hang on in the face of terrible laws? Well, that’s what the book explores,” she says.
While researching the characters, she was also interested in women who work in traditionally male professions, and she came up with the idea for her lead character Bramah, a locksmith who is on a quest to find her identity.
Through her characters, Bramah and Sherronda, Saklikar also explores the duality of human nature. While Bramah is quiet, skilled, and thoughtful, Sherronda is an extrovert, strategist, and skilled war general, while also portraying the two sides of a warrior and a mother goddess.
Saklikar believes eco-fiction does not necessarily pay much attention to the issues of race and justice in climate change, and wanted to highlight this through her book.
“If you’re in labour of any kind … you understand climate change at a very elemental level and a lot of that is woven into this book,” she says.
Saklikar also says the central message of the book is to invite the readers to contemplate the nature of power and politics.
“Do we as protesters and resistors embrace violence, or is there another road, and that’s the path of the makers?,” she says.
The cover art for the book is meaningful to Saklikar as it is based on a locket she received as a child in India. The purpose of the locket was to ward off evil spirits. She says the locket is a powerful symbol as it portrays the Hindu goddess Kali holding a sword in one hand and a severed head in the other.
Saklikar says the book allows the reader to decide if they want to fight climate change and how to go about it.
“Poetry can hold a lot of image and story, even in one line, and it allows the reader to come back again and again. Each time you can discover something new.”
To attend the book launch, visit http://bit.ly/3OPaIrM to register.
