Akshaya Raman

Akshaya Raman studied biology at UC Davis and spent time working in education before leaving science for fiction. Born in Chennai and raised in the Bay Area, she drew on Indian history and mythology for her debut, The Ivory Key, published in January 2022 by HarperCollins in America and by Hot Key Books in Britain. Ashoka, its setting, is a kingdom where magic is mined like ore and sold abroad, and the seams are close to exhausted. After the Maharani is killed, her four estranged children, Vira, Ronak, Kaleb and Riya, each chase the artefact of the title for reasons that will not sit together. Kirkus praised the way the court scheming and the sibling quarrels are woven together. The Crimson Fortress closed the two-book story in November 2023.