Vivek D. Menon

One Destroyer's Dharma

Ancient duty. Future war.

A subtle futuristic backdrop with stars and a faint mandala-like pattern, blending tech and ancient art – conveying “techno-vedic” atmosphere without clutter.

Upcoming: Book 1 of the Trimurti Horizon

The Mahabharata

Ten times the length of the Iliad and Odyssey put together.
Three thousand years before the Worldrivers, the Mahabharata chronicled a dynastic war that ended an era. In this epic of Indian mythology there are no heroes nor villains. Only the terrible necessity of Dharma governs all.

What Vivek Writes

Genre: Indian Mythology Meets Sci-Fi

The gods, wars and moral depth of Indian epics re-imagined as the high-stakes history of our solar system.

Characters in Dynastic Conflict

Stories about the children of monsters, warring families, inter-generational trauma, and the burden of Dharma (duty).

What Does the World Feel Like?

When unchecked power engineers new caste systems, new gods emerge, and humanity's survival demands its soul.

For Readers of

The sharp-tongued voice of Some Desperate Glory (Emily Tesh), the dark-void realism of The Expanse (James S.A. Corey), and the mythic reach of A Memory Called Empire (Arkady Martine).

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About the Author

The son of Indian ambassadors, Vivek grew up on four continents, witnessing power speaking to power at dinner parties. For a decade he fought institutional powers, helping spread life-giving technology for failing kidneys, before co-founding a successful AI-health company. A million people have read his science writing. He lives in New England with his wife and daughters.

Agents and Editors

The novel is complete at 99,000 words, and
currently available for representation and publication inquiries.

FAQ

What is the plot of the novel One Destroyer's Dharma?

What books are similar to One Destroyer's Dharma?

The novel combines the gritty, near-future realism of James S.A. Corey’s The Expanse with the sharp-tongued protagonist of Emily Tesh’s Some Desperate Glory and the intricacy of Arkady Martine’s A Memory Called Empire.

Is One Destroyer's Dharma a retelling of the Mahabharata?

What are the Worldrivers and the Kalpa of the novel's setting?

The Worldrivers are how humanity would in reality begin a "Dyson swarm." They are millions of space habitats orbiting the Sun, connected by "Filaments." They represent a technological utopia controlled by the Kalpa, a circle of oligarchs whose mandate is to usher humanity into the boundless future, no matter the cost.

Is One Destroyer's Dharma part of a series?

While the novel stands alone, it is also the first in the Trimurti Horizon trilogy. The series arc moves from the solar system to the wider galaxy, mirroring the Hindu concept of the Trimurti.

What works influenced the novel?

As the son of an English Lit MFA father and an SFF-loving mother, Vivek was exposed to words from an early age. Major influences include Herbert (Dune), Banks (Culture series), Leguin, Asimov, Gibson and others.

Vivek's debut novel is set in a near-future Solar System. It follows sharp-tongued Ishara Kiriti, the secret daughter of an oligarch, who discovers she was engineered for a destiny far from her backwater Earth ranch. Hunted across the Worldrivers (chains of space habitats garlanding the orbits of Venus, Earth and Mars), she must choose to fight in her father’s war, or against the society that created her.

No. The novel is a techno-Vedic fusion of the characters, themes and philosophies into a modern, sci-fi setting full of neural augments, artificial intelligence, orbitals, and starships in place of chariots. It explores themes of dynastic power, transhumanism, and the cost of duty.