Imagining The Future

After working as an engineer for two decades, SB Divya now weaves incredible sci-fi tales in her second career as author

- SB Divya

In SB Divya’s 2016 novella Run-time, nominated for the prestigious Nebula Award for science fiction, a gritty, under-equipped young tech genius competes with the most advanced cyborgs in a challenging multi-terrain marathon set in the distant future. As the protagonist battles the elements, pain and even betrayal equipped only in fragile gear put together from other people’s garbage, the gripping, fast-paced narrative brings up issues relevant to the present world: economic inequality, corporate monopoly, and social injustice.

There are other absorbing, evocative stories in Divya’s 2019 collection Contingency Plans for the Apocalypse (Hachette, Rs 399) full of fantastical situations, genderless, ageless humans and brilliant machines – a must-read not just for sci-fi fans but anyone who loves a good book. “Most of my ideas tend to be mashups of different elements in real life. The technological inspiration often comes from the latest research and developments. I draw the human and social elements from observations about my life or news items,” says the 44-year-old Indian-American, who worked for 20 years as an electrical engineer before becoming an author.

Born in Pondicherry, India, Divya moved to the US with her parents at the age of five. “My father was a business professor (now retired), and mother raised me full-time until my teens, when she became a software engineer. I got into science fiction around the age of nine or 10. I also enjoyed math, science, oil painting, and bharata natyam,” she narrates. Currently based in southern California, Divya continues to visit family in India every few years.