Ahilya and Iravan both possess key pieces of knowledge needed to prevent humanity’s demise, meaning they must find a way to salvage their relationship and save their world. Furthermore, Iravan’s competence is called into question when the governing council learns of his failing marriage. If this continues, the ashrams are doomed to fall from the sky.

Meanwhile, Iravan and his fellow architects are faced with the growing threat of unknown elements increasingly impeding their powers. Archaeologist Ahilya doesn’t possess this ability and her inferiority complex drives her to seek to end humanity’s dependence on architects, even at the expense of her own marriage.

Iravan is a senior architect, one of the exalted individuals whose mental abilities allow them to control plant life, thereby maintaining and shaping the ashram to their will. Iravan and his wife, Ahilya, are denizens of Nakshar, one of several semisentient temple cities called ashrams constructed entirely of plants and soaring above a far-future Earth rendered inhospitable to humans by cataclysmic phenomena known as earthrages. And as the earthrages become longer, and their floating city begins to plummet, Iravan and Ahilya's discoveries might destroy their marriage, their culture, and their entire civilization.Rao weaves a tale of broken love, redemption, and the Hindu concept of samsara in her magical and mind-bending debut. As their paths become increasingly intertwined, deadly truths emerge, challenging everything each of them believes. He needs Ahilya to help clear his name she needs him to tip the balance of rule in their society. Their marriage is already thorny-then Iravan is accused of pushing his abilities to forbidden limits. Like most others, she cannot manipulate the plants. His abilities are his identity, but to Ahilya, his wife, they are a way for survival to be reliant on the privileged few.

If not for their ability to psychically manipulate the architecture, the cities would plunge into the devastating earthrage storms below.Ĭharismatic, powerful, mystical, Iravan is one such architect. In these living cities, architects are revered above anyone else. Click here to purchase from Rakuten Kobo High above a jungle-planet float the last refuges of humanity-plant-made civilizations held together by tradition, technology, and arcane science.

The Surviving Sky by Kritika H. Rao