What happens when a filmmaker and a game designer team up to create a speculative universe? Readers will soon find out with MAYA: Seed Takes Root, the first book in a new series from Anand Gandhi (Ship of Theseus) and Zain Memon (SHASN). The authors spent five years crafting their new world, with collaborative input from other artists as well as scientists, linguists, architects, and beyond. As for the story, it’s described as a blend of “science fiction, fantasy, and philosophy” and “a new mythology for the 21st century—not of gods and monsters, but of us.” Here’s a little more about the plot: The Divya Trials have been announced. Billions will compete. One will ascend to godhood. On the planet Neh, the living forest called Maya is the planet’s neural network. Each citizen tethers daily to Maya, entering shared dreamscapes for work, play, and learning. The immortal Divyas harvest the data. Every thought and memory; predicting futures and bending reality itself. Everyone is connected. Everyone is tracked. Everyone is controlled. Everyone except Yachay. An ordinary 19-year-old manushya raised in isolation by his ailing grandfather, Daddu, Yachay has never tethered to Maya—making him invisible to the gods of data. Daddu urges him to enter the upcoming Divya Trials, a once-in-a-lifetime competition where billions compete for immortality and omnipotence. Yachay wants no part of it—until his grandfather’s death uncovers an ancient resistance and a lifetime of secret training. MAYA: Seed Takes Root, the first novel in the expansive MAYA universe, fuses science fiction, fantasy, and philosophy into an epic of thrilling adventure and urgent allegory. Drawing on South Asian mythology, hard science, and sharp social commentary, it asks the questions that define our time: Who controls our stories? Who profits from our data? And in an age of perfect prediction, is freedom still possible? io9 is thrilled to share this exclusive audiobook excerpt from MAYA: Seed Takes Root, read by iconic actor Hugo Weaving (The Lord of the Rings and Matrix movies, not to mention V for Vendetta, Captain America: The First Avenger, and more).