Samit Basu
Encyclopedia
Samit Basu is the author of five novels: The Simoqin Prophecies
The Simoqin Prophecies
The Simoqin Prophecies is a fantasy novel in English written by Indian author Samit Basu, and is the first novel in the GameWorld trilogy...

, The Manticore's Secret
The Manticore's Secret
The Manticore's Secret is the second novel in Indian fantasy author Samit Basu's GameWorld trilogy.-Heroes and characters:* Myrdak, of the house of Aegos, a ravian warrior....

and The Unwaba Revelations, the three parts of The GameWorld Trilogy, a fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

 trilogy published by Penguin Books
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...

, India, Terror on the Titanic a YA novel published by Scholastic India, and Turbulence, a superhero novel set in India, Pakistan and England, published by Hachette
Hachette
- People :* Jean Nicolas Pierre Hachette, French mathematician* Jeanne Hachette, French heroine* Louis Christophe François Hachette, French publisher- Entities :* a French group of publishing companies, see Hachette and Hachette Filipacchi Médias...

 India. He currently lives and works in Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...

, India.

Biography

Born December 14, 1979, Basu grew up in Calcutta, where he studied at Don Bosco School
Don Bosco School, Park Circus
Don Bosco School, Park Circus, located at 23, Darga Road, Kolkata, India, is an all-boys English medium school imparting education from first through twelfth grade. Established in 1958, it is run by the Salesians of Don Bosco, which is a minority institution within the Catholic Church...

, and later Presidency College, Kolkata
Presidency College, Kolkata
Presidency University, Kolkata, formerly Hindu College and Presidency College, is a unitary, state aided university, located in Kolkata, West Bengal. and one of the premier institutes of learning of liberal arts and sciences in India. In 2002 it was ranked number one by the weekly news magazine...

, where he obtained a degree in Economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...

. He dropped out of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and then went on to complete a course in broadcasting
Broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...

 and documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

making at the University of Westminster
University of Westminster
The University of Westminster is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom. Its origins go back to the foundation of the Royal Polytechnic Institution in 1838, and it was awarded university status in 1992.The university's headquarters and original campus are based on Regent...

, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

.

Writing career

The Simoqin Prophecies was written when Basu was 22 and published when he was 23, making him one of India's youngest authors at the time. The Simoqin Prophecies, written in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

, has been published in Swedish
Swedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...

 by Ordbilder, and German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 (from Piper Verlag
Piper Verlag
Piper Verlag is a German publisher based in Munich, printing both fiction and non-fiction works. It currently prints over 200 new paperback titles per year. Authors published by the company include Andreas von Bülow and Sara Paretsky. It owned by the Swedish media conglomerate Bonnier. It was...

). The subsequent volumes in the trilogy, The Manticore's Secret and The Unwaba Revelations were released in 2005 and 2007 respectively. The GameWorld trilogy has been widely well reviewed and all three books have reached Indian bestseller lists but not made a significant impact on international markets.

Basu has contributed to The Harper Collins Anthology of New Indian Writing (2004). Basu has also written short stories for children, which appear in the Puffin Book of Bedtime stories (2005), the Puffin Book of Funny Stories (2005), 'Seven Science Fiction Stories' (Scholastic India, 2006), 'Superhero!' (Scholastic India, 2007), 'Bewitched' (Scholastic India, 2008) and several other anthologies, including the controversial erotica anthology 'Electric Feather' (Tranquebar, 2009)

In 2006, Basu published a series of articles and interviews on Indian speculative fiction
Speculative fiction
Speculative fiction is an umbrella term encompassing the more fantastical fiction genres, specifically science fiction, fantasy, horror, supernatural fiction, superhero fiction, utopian and dystopian fiction, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, and alternate history in literature as well as...

 called The Trousers of Time: Possible futures of Indian speculative fiction in English on a fellowship from Sarai

In 2003, Basu was in Outlook magazine's list of 16 Indian achievers under 25.In 2007, Basu was declared, along with other prominent young Indians such as Rahul Gandhi
Rahul Gandhi
Rahul Gandhi is an Indian politician and member of the parliament of India, representing the Amethi constituency. His political party is the Indian National Congress.-Early life and career:...

 and Vidya Balan
Vidya Balan
Vidya Balan is an Indian actress, who appears in Hindi films. After graduating with a degree in sociology, she started her career starring in music videos, television shows and commercials, before appearing in feature films....

, one of India's most promising 'Emerging Indians' by a survey conducted by IMRB and The Week magazine, India.

Basu is also a comics
Comics
Comics denotes a hybrid medium having verbal side of its vocabulary tightly tied to its visual side in order to convey narrative or information only, the latter in case of non-fiction comics, seeking synergy by using both visual and verbal side in...

 writer. He worked for Virgin Comics and continues to write comics. His initial projects with Virgin Comics were Devi (#3-#10) and The Tall Tales of Vishnu Sharma
The Tall Tales of Vishnu Sharma
Tall Tales of Vishnu Sharma: Panchantantra is a five issue comic book limited series, created by Virgin Comics, loosely based on the Panchatantra.-External links:*...

 based on the Panchatantra. Basu also co-wrote Untouchable, a graphic novel with X-Men
X-Men
The X-Men are a superhero team in the . They were created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, and first appeared in The X-Men #1...

 and Lucifer
Lucifer
Traditionally, Lucifer is a name that in English generally refers to the devil or Satan before being cast from Heaven, although this is not the original meaning of the term. In Latin, from which the English word is derived, Lucifer means "light-bearer"...

 writer Mike Carey.

In 2010, Basu published two novels, Terror on the Titanic a YA novel published by Scholastic India, and Turbulence, a superhero novel set in India, Pakistan and England, published by Hachette
Hachette
- People :* Jean Nicolas Pierre Hachette, French mathematician* Jeanne Hachette, French heroine* Louis Christophe François Hachette, French publisher- Entities :* a French group of publishing companies, see Hachette and Hachette Filipacchi Médias...

 India.
According to the Mumbai Mirror, a film adaptation of Turbulence is under way, to be directed by Ravi Udyawar. Turbulence is currently Hachette India's most successful Indian title.

Apart from his novel writing, Basu is a columnist
Columnist
A columnist is a journalist who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs....

, screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...

, documentary filmmaker and freelance journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

 writing on travel, film, books and pop culture. He also runs a weblog.

Sources


External links

  • Short story: The Plasmoids
  • Short story: Roundabout (A Delhi Fable) for Outlook City Limits, Delhi (2005)
  • Article on literary spats among Indian writers (Tehelka
    Tehelka
    Tehelka is an Indian weekly political magazine under the editorship of Tarun Tejpal known for its undercover exposé style of journalism. Its cover price is Rs 20 per issue. The publication began in 2000 as a news website, Tehelka.com...

     newspaper, 2005)
  • Interview with British/Asian writer Hari Kunzru
  • Basu's fellowship project essays and interviews on Indian speculative fiction in books and comics
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