If you've been a fan of writer Ashok Banker, it's impossible not to share his excitement, as he prepares for his international debut. Banker, 55, most known for his mythological fiction, spent an incredible part of his writing career in Mumbai, before moving to Los Angeles in 2015. In LA, he has been heavily invested in the fantasy series, The Burnt Empire, whose first title Upon A Burning Throne (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) released in the US this week. "It is my 70th book, but it's the first one that I felt was deserving of a world readership," he admits, in an email interview.

The book has already received reviews in the US publishing circles: Kirkus, BookList, Publishers Weekly and Library Journal. An elated Banker also took to Facebook to mention how he had completed the "sacred foursome of American critical reviews". This roaring confidence isn't misplaced. For Banker, who didn't have a godfather to break into the US publishing industry, it's an opportunity of a lifetime. "I've been a lifelong fan of fantasy, science fiction, horror in all forms: books, comics, movies, shows," he says. "The big market for genre writing is international, and the US leads it. So, it was only natural that I would want my work read by the widest audience possible. At the same time, I knew enough as a reader and consumer of US genre content to judge that my mythological retellings and most of my other Indian books wouldn't work for Western readers and publishers."