What was the inspiration behind the book?
Believe it or not, the biggest inspiration didn’t come from other fantasy novels—though they certainly helped shape the world—but from my own life experiences. I began creating this world in my head decades ago, drawing more from the RPGs of my youth than from books. A few that stand out:
- Final Fantasy IV — I loved Cecil’s redemption arc. He begins the game committing an atrocity against the innocent people of Mysidia, only to later be forced to face their judgment, earn back their trust, and even fulfill their prophecy.
- Final Fantasy VI — The resilience of its characters, and their ability to make sense of a world gone mad, stayed with me. Unlike them, Agni doesn’t face an outright apocalypse, but like them, he has to find meaning after losing everything.
- Breath of Fire II — Ryu is thrust into a dark destiny he doesn’t understand, caught in prophecy. Agni’s story echoes that tension between fate and self-determination, and “rising to the occasion.”
But the deepest inspiration came from my own life. I’ve had several “false starts” at writing this book, stretching back from the early 2000s to the 2020s. It wasn’t until I endured my own collapse—losing nearly everything during a severe mental health crisis between 2016 and 2018—that I could write Agni with the depth I wanted. I don’t have a possessive ancestor like Anton, but I do know the terror of feeling like my mind wasn’t fully my own, and the struggle of finding reasons to keep moving forward. Those experiences went straight into Agni’s story.
Do you feel like writing Agni let you explore a different part of yourself, or is he more of a reflection of who you are?
By day, I’m a consultant, biopharma transaction advisor, and health IT startup leader—none of which exist in Agni’s world. But my ways of thinking, analyzing, and problem-solving naturally bleed into him.
Surprisingly, though, just as much of me comes through in Sara. She embodies my affinity for numbers, my sense of justice, and my long-term mindset. At one point, she witnesses a grave injustice she’s powerless to stop but swears she’ll make it right in dramatic fashion when she can. And when she does gain power, she keeps that promise. Like me, she plans for the long game…and bides her time.
How did your personal life and family experiences shape how you wrote about Agni and his relationships?
The influence is more in thought processes than in direct parallels.
Family is a central theme in Son of the Borderlands. Agni’s family doesn’t resemble mine—my upbringing was loving and supportive, while Agni loses his mother early and watches his father waste away in alcohol and grief, leaving him vulnerable to Anton’s influence. That absence shows the dangerous void left when a father figure is missing—Anton, with all his sinister goals, steps into the role instead.
Agni also finds “older brothers” in the Solantian garrisons who teach him the ways of war.
But family also shows up in the bonds Agni forges with Kali and Alexander. None of them have families left—their families are dead or grown up—so they become each other’s. That dynamic reflects how important chosen bonds are. We create families, consciously or not, because we need them.
Is Agni a fallen angel? What is the cosmology of the world like?
The cosmology of this world is quite different from ours. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I even de-emphasized magic. It exists, but it’s distant—an advanced tool outside the control of most people. More often than not, mortals use the “supernatural” as an excuse for failure. Fate is real, but in Agni’s world, to submit to it is seen as weakness. That idea—that our actions are our own, and that our fears and desires manifest through them—is more terrifying to me than demons or angels controlling them.
So no, Agni isn’t a fallen angel. Neither are Anton, Kali, Sara, Alexander, or Verlan. They’re men and women with the same capacity for good and evil that we all have.