Writing Against the Odds

I grew up reading sci-fi with my dad.  We devoured Asimov and Heilein in droves.  Now I go to used paperback book stores to find those novels and magazines for my dad to enjoy once again.

He never moved into the realm of fantasy that became popular.  And what is now considered sci-fi is not anything he can even begin to wrap his head around.  Thus I have been slow in coming to the newest books of this genre.  So I thought it would be good to break in with one that seemed to pull together the sci-fi I grew up with melded with the fantasy of today.  

Rishabh Jain wrote The Red Serpent Trilogy that was shared with me by Tribute Books.  I love doing the tours they promote.  It is always something new and different so it catches my attention right off.  I found it interesting to have a novel come from this young man who was raised in Kanpur, India and finished his book while in high school.  It would seem that the odds would be against him breaking into the sci-fi/fantasy genre.  But instead he has embraced the stories he fell in love with as a boy (an absolutely fan of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and the Harry Potter series) and created his own worlds to share with us.  I was reading The Red Serpent Trilogy last night and ended up dreaming of it all night long. Apparently I was not ready to leave his world.

The Red Serpent Trilogy  presents a highly evolved vampire to fear: cold and callous, powerful and dangerous, possessed by mystic promises and destroyed only by silver. It is the year 2021 — the human world has degraded, its inhabitants unworthy of the supernatural gifts bestowed upon them. Compelled by ancient prophesy, an ancient vampire army takes the human race by force, sparing few lives. They await the second coming of their king, Anaxagoras, which will hurl the world into a final battle that will free the vampires from their infinite hiding. But by the hands of fate, there is one human who may save his entire race.

The Red Serpent Trilogy is a celestial fusion of science fiction and fantasy, unfolding conflicting intentions for the survival of both the human and vampire races. But in a world ruled by supernatural and mythological forces, there is only room for one race, and neither will go easily. The few survivors of the fatal vampire onslaught escape to an asteroid space station, Regnum, where they thrive as they keep an attentive watch on the vampires on the earth below. But unbeknown to himself or anyone else, Alex, half human half vampire, holds the keys to secrets that will help him realize his duties and cement his fate as either a human or a vampire.

Rishabh Jain  displayed remarkable traits of creativity and inventiveness when he was quite young. As a boy of 8 or 9 years old, Rishabh left his father (an electrical engineer) shocked and speechless one day, when he managed to make an asymmetrical and unbalanced structure made of blocks, with which he was very fond of playing, stand stable for 2 to 3 minutes, blissfully unaware that the laws of physics and mechanics made it impossible.

Rishabh entered Pathways World School in 2003, an International Baccaulaureate School on the outskirts of New Delhi, in the 8th Grade. Here, his multidisciplinary talents and interests blossomed in the creative environment of an International Level School. He was awarded an Academic Merit Scholarship. It was his dream to write a story of his own as a “Trilogy” which was the inspiration from which he conceived the genesis and plot of this current book The Red Serpent Trilogy. Rishabe completed the book in 2006 and was issued the copyright in January of 2007 while he was in 11th grade.

Rishabh entered the Mechanical Engineering program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he presently resides and is currently pursuing his engineering degree. Amid his grueling schedule of Engineering studies, Rishabh has almost completed a 2nd book, which is a space science fiction adventure & love story.