Master O: A thrilling tale of AI, mutants, and the fight for future

At a time when books are getting lost in a sea of FOMO-inducing content, Dhiraj Singh’s sci-fi novel ‘Master O’ has been making a splash. Dhiraj, who is an author, artist, filmmaker and Head of MIT-World Peace University’s Dadasaheb Phalke International Film Institute, is pleased with the attention the book has garnered.

Released to lavish praise and 5-star reviews, ‘Master O’ was soon translated into Hindi by Rajmangal Publishers. Then as the year came to a close Dhiraj won the Salis Mania ‘Best Author Award for 2023’.

‘Master O’ has wowed both critics and readers for its incredible storyline and pace. BookGeeks, a book-recommending site, has called it: “A reading experience at par with HG Wells and JK Rowling in terms of rattling the senses.” Corporate Tycoons magazine hails it as a “cinematographic book” that reads like a film… “One can almost hear the clapperboard between scenes.” Reedsy’s editor has described it thus: “Reading Master O was like taking an intellectual journey through the very fabric of karma. I felt like by the end I had come back full circle to the beginning.”

At its heart ‘Master O’ is a novel about the future and how it is going to become very difficult to navigate it. Especially, given the lightning and almost miraculous changes AI has begun to inject into our world. But Dhiraj’s masterful storytelling doesn’t lay out the plot in a straight line but goes in an unexpected zigzag of characters, plot-twists and narrative devices. The story is told through a flurry of characters who are being worked almost like puppets by a species of mutant elephants called ‘ibharis’ whose aim is to replace humans as rulers of the world.

Set somewhere in the future ‘Master O’ is a delightful read with a mix of characters that make the real seem imaginary and vice-versa. There is of course the eponymous Master O who is a godman whose superpowers are just a wee bit less than those of the ‘ibharis’. Then there is Bagga Aunty, the Minister of Emotions who goes on to become the Prime Minister. And there is Ake (as in ‘cake’) who is a TV interviewer who sets the plot-ball rolling.

Says Dhiraj about the inspiration behind ‘Master O’: “It comes from the idea that we are not too far from a reality where all the artificial intelligence and the algorithms around us will start to affect us in very strange and unintended ways. The mutant elephants in my book are the sum of all the AI that we have amassed around us to feel powerful about time - because we are saving so much of it - yet ironically we are constantly playing catch-up and we have this never-ending FOMO. So in a sense my book is asking the question: do we really have a lot of time and control on our hands or is it all an illusion?”

As readers await an even more thrilling sequel to ‘Master O’ the author is busy collecting high praise and plaudits for his incredible saga of the future. ‘Master O’ is available on Amazon and Flipkart.