Plus, you’ll get the inside scoop on publishing the Japanese translation of THE TEN PERCENT THIEF, from my editor Wataru Ishigame at Tokyo Sogensha.
The programme will be bilingual, in Japanese and English.
Sign up to get the Zoom invite, and I’ll see you there!
👾🚀
Saturday’s programme promises to be a brilliant look at Indian and Japanese SF. In addition to me, you’ll hear from:
🚀 stellar authors Samit Basu and Taiyo Fujii
🚀 science fiction experts like Japanese SFF critic Yutaka Ebihara and India’s own Sami Ahmed Khan
🚀 professors Miwako Namba and Toru Tak
My gratitude to my wonderful editor Wataru Ishigame and everyone who worked on this translation at @tokyosogensha.bsky.social for the thought and care taken to translare my book. And many thanks to the lovely folks at @solarisbooks.bsky.social for enabling the Thief to find its way to Japan 💜
Illustrated book cover for the Japanese edition of The Ten Percent Thief. In a futuristic cityscape, enormous lotus-shaped structures float above a dense settlement of small, rounded buildings. In the foreground, a leafless tree stands beside a metal gate while several people sit or walk along a cracked, muddy street scattered with puddles. The scene mixes lush greenery with improvised urban structures, suggesting a stratified, speculative city. Large vertical Japanese characters dominate the center of the cover, with the English title The Ten Percent Thief and the author name Lavanya Lakshminarayan near the bottom. Vertical Japanese text along the side credits the author and translator.
And on that note, I’m delighted to introduce you to CHOUTEN TOSHI, the Japanese translation of THE TEN PERCENT THIEF 👾✨
Translated by Nayuri Arai (新井なゆり) as Chouten Toshi (頂点都市／Apex City)
Published by Tokyo Sogensha, 2025
Cover illustration by Takeshi Oga (緒賀岳志)
Illustrated book cover for the Japanese edition of The Ten Percent Thief. In a futuristic cityscape, enormous lotus-shaped structures float above a dense settlement of small, rounded buildings. In the foreground, a leafless tree stands beside a metal gate while several people sit or walk along a cracked, muddy street scattered with puddles. The scene mixes lush greenery with improvised urban structures, suggesting a stratified, speculative city. Large vertical Japanese characters dominate the center of the cover, with the English title The Ten Percent Thief and the author name Lavanya Lakshminarayan near the bottom. Vertical Japanese text along the side credits the author and translator.
I’m giving a talk on the Japanese translation of THE TEN PERCENT THIEF with the Japanese Association for South Asian Studies, and you can sign up!
Register here for the Zoom invite:
bit.ly/indojapanSF
Date: Saturday, March 14th
Time: 15:30 IST | 10:00 GMT
Congratulations and happy book birthday @lavanya.bsky.social !!
Thank you so much, Samit! ❤️❤️❤️
can I say that I love absolutely every endorsement and review of either Interstellar MegaChef or Intergalactic Feast that uses food metaphors/puns? there are a *lot* of them, and I've laughed at every single one
Omg same! They’re such a treat—I’m rather savouring every single one 😆
Thank you so much for your generosity—it really means a lot coming from you. I’m delighted you enjoyed it 💜🥹
INTERGALACTIC FEAST is out today! Congratulations to the lovely and insanely talented @lavanya.bsky.social – go get it, people!
Thank you so much, Tashan ❤️🥹
Finally, thank you to readers and reviewers, booksellers and librarians, the wonderful writing community, and my friends and family for cheering me on through some impossible circumstances while writing this book.
You know who are, and I couldn’t have done it without you 💜
Thank you for everything, @solarisbooks.bsky.social ! @dtmooreeditor.bsky.social , @jessgofton.bsky.social , Natalie Charlesworth, Sam Gretton, Sam Birkett, Chiara Mestieri and everyone at team Solaris—it’s a privilege to work with you!
And all my gratitude to my wonderful agent, Cameron McClure!
The wonderful @samitbasu.bsky.social , @kbwagers.com , and @tashanmehta.bsky.social were generous enough to blurb this book, and I’m super grateful to them for their incredibly kind words!
It’s a delight to read them on the first page of this book 💜
I also had a fabulous chat about both the FLAVOUR HACKER books on Breaking the Glass Slipper, which you can listen to here:
www.breakingtheglassslipper.com/2026/01/29/f...
And it’s been featured in “16 new fantasy and science fiction books to read in March 2026” on WinterIsComing:
winteriscoming.net/16-new-fanta...
It’s also made its way to this expansive list of “86 New Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Books Arriving in March” on Gizmodo:
gizmodo.com/march-2026-n...
And it’s been included in this lovely list of “12 Exciting New Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books of March 2026” on Book Riot:
bookriot.com/new-sci-fi-a...
It's also been featured in Vogue India's “Must Read Indian Books of 2026” list, to my utter delight, in some fabulous company.
www.vogue.in/content/indi...
And another wonderful review in Library Journal:
“Readers will devour this novel, with its multiple points of view, sharp writing, and a constant pace, plus a slow-burn romance."
www.libraryjournal.com/review/inter...
Massive gratitude to the early reviews of INTERGALACTIC FEAST that have started to make their way out into the world.
Here’s a generous one in Publishers Weekly:
“"Fans of the first book will not want to miss this."
www.publishersweekly.com/9781837866823
If you’re in India/ South Asia: exciting news!
It arrives March 20th from HarperCollins India, and is now available to pre-order here:
www.amazon.in/dp/9373076930
It’ll also be available to pre order at your local bookstore, so sign up for a copy!
Onward to where you can get your hands on this book!
Here’s where you can find INTERGALACTIC FEAST in the UK/ North America:
geni.us/Megachef
It’s out in North America from Solaris Books @solarisbooks.bsky.social and available everywhere books are sold.
And it’s coming to the UK on March 12th.
Here’s an unboxing video!
I just got back to Bangalore this evening, and found my copies from @solarisbooks.bsky.social waiting for me.
The full video is on my IG handle with subtitles. I’ve had to edit it down to post here, and sadly, Bluesky has cropped it so you can’t read the captions.
I’m standing against a plain light wall, holding a copy of Intergalactic Feast at chest height so the colorful space-themed cover faces the camera. I’ve got long, dark hair, and I’m wearing a navy lace top, light jeans, and red lipstick, looking directly at the camera with a small smile.
INTERGALACTIC FEAST is out in North America!
It’s the sequel to Interstellar MegaChef, with more Serenity Ko shenanigans, more secrets sneaking up on Saras… and all the food in the galaxy 🍩🚀
I’m super excited to be sharing this book with you!
A 🧵 of gratitude! But first…
I just told my grandmother my new book comes out tomorrow. She immediately asked for her copy, then started telling me about “The First Men in the Moon” by H. G. Wells.
I’m so glad she’s here and getting better 🥹
Thank you to everyone who sent her good wishes.
If you’d like to pre order a copy, here you go:
geni.us/intergfeast
Woman standing in a field of purple flowers, smiling softly while looking down. Text reads: “This is who finds inspiration everywhere.”
Woman standing in profile on a mountain viewpoint overlooking a wide valley and distant mountains. Text reads: “This is who dreams about our possible pasts and futures.”
Woman leaning against a stone wall outdoors and smiling at the camera. Text reads: “And tomorrow, her third novel arrives in the world.”
Writing SFF means I’m always on the lookout for ideas—wondering about the paths history didn’t take and the futures we might build.
INTERGALACTIC FEAST takes my latest wonderings out into the universe. I can’t wait for you to read it.
Thank you for being part of this story 💜
Young child dressed as a mouse with whiskers drawn on her face, smiling mischievously at the camera. Text reads: “This is who loved to play pretend…”
Child sitting at the end of a playground slide, grinning with her chin in her hand. Text reads: “…and imagined entire worlds.”
Portrait of the author as a young adult with short hair, side-eyeing the world. Text reads: “This is who never quite stopped imagining.”
At some point, a head full of stories turns into an imagination running wild—all that reading quietly turns into dreaming loudly.
And once you start inventing worlds, it’s very hard to stop 🤓
