Aman Sen is smart, young, ambitious and going nowhere. He thinks this is because he doesn’t have the right connections – but then he gets on a plane from London to Delhi and discovers, a few days later, that he has turned into a communications demigod, able to control and manipulate all networks, including the internet. And he’s not the only one with a secret.
Everyone on Aman’s flight now has extraordinary abilities corresponding to their innermost desires. Vir, an Indian Air Force pilot, can now fly. Uzma, a British-Pakistani aspiring Bollywood actress, now possesses infinite charisma. Tia, a housewife from the troubled Indian north-east, can now live out all the lives she dreamt of by splitting into multiple bodies. And these are just the nice ones. Terrible new forces have been unleashed. Businessmen, politicians, criminals, each with their own agenda. One of these is Jai, an indestructible one-man army with an old-fashioned goal – military conquest of the world. And there’s another, even more sinister force at work. A mind capable of manipulating mobs, of driving humans and superhumans into an all-destroying frenzy.
Aman and his rag-tag collective of superhumans find themselves in grave danger in a part of the world that needs radical change much more than it needs protection. They must decide what to do with their powers and their lives – and quickly. Aman dreams of uniting their powers to fight the world’s real villains – faceless, amorphous corporations, corrupt government officials, religious fanatics. Of ensuring that their new powers aren’t wasted on costumed crime-fighting, celebrity endorsements, or reality television. He wants to help those who need it most – untold millions without food, power, schools or voices. He intends to heal the planet. Save the world. But with each step he takes, he finds helping some means harming others, playing with lives, making huge, potentially disastrous decisions. Will they actually make the world better or will it all end, as 80 years of superhero fiction suggest, in a meaningless, explosive slugfest?
TURBULENCE is an hyper-real novel set in an over-the-top world. It features the 21st-century Indian subcontinent in all its insane glory – F-16s, Bollywood, radical religious parties, nuclear plants, cricket, terrorists, luxury resorts, crazy TV shows – but is essentially about two very human questions.
How would you feel if you actually got what you wanted?
What would you do if you were given the power to change the world?
‘For wicked wit, for post-modern superheroics, for sheer verbal energy and dazzle, Samit Basu doesn’t so much push the envelope as fold it into an n-dimensional hyper-envelope, address it to your hind-brain and mail it with a rail gun.’- Mike Carey (X-men, Lucifer, the Felix Castor series)
‘You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll gasp and you will demand a sequel.’- Ben Aaronovitch (Doctor Who, Rivers of London)
This is the paperback cover, designed by Peter Cotton. Many thanks to Priya at Hachette for adding production effects. It looks really good in book form.
There’s also a limited edition hardback, with an extra section that reveals more about a few characters. This is the cover, the image is by that formidable world-famous artist duo Sarnath Banerjee and Bani Abidi. Remember to play spot-the-difference with the back cover if you pick this up.
The Facebook page is here.
For preorders, visit Indiaplaza here or Flipkart (paperback and hardback)
For review copies/events/RSVPs, contact Anurima Roy anurima.roy@hachetteindia.com
Turbulence: Events and updates
Update: Here are two videos from the Mumbai launch, with the ever-fantastic Cyrus Sahukar:
Part 1, where Cyrus does a fake bodice-ripper reading from Turbulence after asking me a few questions
Part 2, where Cyrus unveils his Karan-Joharesque lie detector and probes even further.
Update – The book tour is done, and after travelling from Calcutta to Jaipur to Kochi to Bangalore to Bombay for round 2, I”m fairly glad it’s over. Much fun was had, and there are a few updates, and this is a big one: Mumbai Mirror on Turbulence going Bollywood. The last few days have been full of meetings with film types, who basically have the same Bollywood conversations that us civilians do, but for a living.
Also, many thanks, once again, to the fantastic Ben Aaronovitch, who puts me in his humour list. Considering the company, and the maker of the list, I’m deeply honoured.
Turbulence reviewed in Biblio and Caravan
Also: Deccan Herald review. Bloomberg UTVs report/review video
Update: Outlook magazine review of Turbulence.
Also, a video, NDTV-Hindu report on a launch.
And interviews in Bookchums and Blogadda, a Bookchums review and a review in Helter Skelter.
Yes, another Update: Hindustan Times review. Also, Turbulence appeared at number 1 on the Oxford bookstore bestseller list last week (Rushdie,the Booker winner for this year, Robert Jordan and Satyajit Ray were nos 2 to 5, so I am cackling in delight) and was talked about on the India Today last page newsmaker thingie. Cue more cackles.
Also. Take part in contest! Superhero Quiz! Win prizes!
Update: Turbulence in Mumbai Boss
Yet Another Update: Turbulence in The Hindu. Also, I love Air India again; they have found my luggage and delivered it, which means I now have clothes again.
Update: First leg of tour now done. Chennai was also lovely, and Tishani Doshi is the most elegant, charming event host possible.
On the bright side, though, there is this interview in the Mumbai Mirror, and this mini-review in the Telegraph (insert my usual murmurings about this not being a genre novel etc. here). Also, loose talk about Bollywood and bookbans in DNA.
Another update: Calcutta launch done, Dr Abhijit Gupta was wonderful as usual, though the high point of the evening was unintended – he read women instead of men in a bit which talked about the hairy chests and unrepentant paunches of Indian men in the 80s.
Also, here’s the Times of India (I weakly reiterate, this isn’t a science fiction novel, really – it’s being sold as completely mainstream fiction in India, though you could call it a superhero novel or, in the west, an urban fantasy novel) and Mid-Day Mumbai on the book. Also, extract at IBNLive
Update: The Pune and Mumbai legs are done, and both of these legs were extremely fine, I thought. Meanwhile, Turbulence has been turbulating: We’re no.1 on Flipkart’s new releases and no.3 on The Hindu’s bestseller list (behind F. Forsyth and D. Baldacci, a plague on both their houses)
Just done with the Delhi launch of Turbulence, which went off particularly well, I thought. Thank you very much if you were one of the almost-300-strong and extremely glamorous crew that showed up; it is a good thing I did not know that many of you had come, or I might have been tempted to yell ‘This is Sparta!’ which wouldn’t have worked out well for anyone.
Here’s Ben Aaronovitch being extremely kind to the book.
Also, listen to the dulcet tones of Anindita Ghose and the strangled-robot voice of the author as Turbulence is discussed on the Lounge podcast
