The Rise of Shams

The Rise of Shams is the first volume of a story that follows the spiritual awakening of a superfluous millennial in a new world.

His name is Darien Shams, a young Iranian living in Dubai, whose life is void of meaning and direction. On one of his darker nights, he is visited by a deity in a dream, who tells him to follow the sun. And on the eve of his best friend’s wedding, he meets a girl who has a sun tattooed on her arm. He follows the sun as he was asked by the angel only to wake up on an island in Abu Dhabi called the Ashkhas Island. The story ensues on a magical island weaved with Persian, Arabic, Turkish and wider Middle Eastern folklore and mythology.

The story is built on Darien resurrecting himself and giving mankind its salvation through his journey on the island. But it does not come without a cost.

This is a modern voice and interpretation on the duality we collectively face and feel through life. It is a story that incorporates esoteric elements of good versus evil derived from Buddhism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The storyline is built with allegorical secrets and twists. It binds a world of fantasy in magical realism that unravels what matters most to Darien, and that is to live a life built on three constitutions: love, faith and preserving the world he lives in.