Gifted young surgeon Sula makes a terrible mistake and flees to Dustria, the land of monsters and broken things; of people too far gone in their addictions, or their crimes. A Prince about to claim his throne is kidnapped, and his sister Princess Radh rides out to save him, whatever the cost - or so she thinks. Both young women encounter monsters and mayhem as Radh is thrust into a mystery of assassinations and treason leading to war, and Sula discovers the tension between love, magic and forgiving oneself enough to save the world.
Dustria is a dark, new adult, adventure fantasy wrapped around Sapphire, an addictive blue liquid that alters magic and the lives of those who drink it. Set within a vibrant world of warring Kingdoms, backstabbing Immortals and the tension between love and magic, Dustria is an intense intertwined mania wrapped around the cerulean liquid that changed the world.
Dustria is for the questioning reader, examining themes in unrequited love, sexual diversity, and enduring friendships. Can we redeem ourselves from terrible mistakes, or do we, sometimes need to find alternate ways to frame our lives to grow as individuals and forgive ourselves?
Gifted young surgeon Sula makes a terrible mistake and flees to Dustria, the land of monsters and broken things; of people too far gone in their addictions, or their crimes. A Prince about to claim his throne is kidnapped, and his sister Princess Radh rides out to save him, whatever the cost - or so she thinks. Both young women encounter monsters and mayhem as Radh is thrust into a mystery of assassinations and treason leading to war, and Sula discovers the tension between love, magic and forgiving oneself enough to save the world.
Dustria is a dark, new adult, adventure fantasy wrapped around Sapphire, an addictive blue liquid that alters magic and the lives of those who drink it. Set within a vibrant world of warring Kingdoms, backstabbing Immortals and the tension between love and magic, Dustria is an intense intertwined mania wrapped around the cerulean liquid that changed the world.
Dustria is for the questioning reader, examining themes in unrequited love, sexual diversity, and enduring friendships. Can we redeem ourselves from terrible mistakes, or do we, sometimes need to find alternate ways to frame our lives to grow as individuals and forgive ourselves?
The blood emerged like a red satin ribbon from the incision. She sliced into the body with an expertise far beyond her years. The heat of the living, breathing bodies circling her, observing her, wafted up her nape and over her ears. The hair bristled on her neck as she bent over the patient. Her skin cold to the touch despite feeling like a cauldron of inner heat.
The elixir warmed her innards, lit her loins, and stilled her to a deathly focus where all she experienced was the movement of her hands in perfect symphony with her mind. The darkness lurked beneath the skin, threatening to cascade out, but she harnessed it now, somehow, and its power seemed limitless.
Sulatant performed her first surgery.
High as a summer sky.
The intoxicant coursed through her veins and tugged at her nerves.
Surgery was a precise science, and Sulatant always extracted great comfort from that knowledge. The cuts and incisions had to be carefully timed, the sutures meticulously braided together, combining skill and craft, but now, she tested the limits of its scrupulous tenets. The Sapphire bathed her senses with a milky calm, dissolving the boundaries between the possible and impossible. Nothing seemed impossible.
Utterly helpless, Gabriel witnessed the procedure from the viewing chamber, tincture heightening his senses to the precarious position in which this young woman, barely formed, placed herself.
“Look at how she’s handling the blade,” whispered his fellow surgeon.
“Gabriel, are you sure this isn’t staged?” he only half jested. “Surely, this can’t be her first procedure?”
Gabriel let the whispers and voices foment around him. The darkness that took over Sulatant’s heart, born to his silent witness, a poisonous ivy wrapping around a tender sapling, threatening its collapse. He couldn’t breathe.
He must bring it up with her that evening, in his chambers. Her sweet perfume caressing his sensibilities and toying with his profoundly rooted notions of fairness and justice.
Barely an adult, her lissome, angular frame housed a fledgling heart. A heart taken by dark meanderings in its inchoate existence. Raven tresses framed an exquisitely sculpted face. With unbroken, brown skin and black vortices for eyes, she was a constellation of her own. Gabriel couldn’t file her away neatly into a comfortable space in his mind.
Sula excised the egregious tumour from the patient's neck with prodigious ease. Finally, she stitched the patient with silk fibre and dabbed the surgical area with tincture of iodine. The nausea started setting in and it was time for another fix.
She saved the patient.
Only numbness butted up against former emotions, reminding her at every turn she was broken. She registered nothing. Emotions reached a crescendo and collapsed, leaving only hollowness behind. Empty and exposed, to be filled with the elixir, inside out. Jealous of her gift, her fellow students admired her completely unaware of what was coursing beneath her pristine surface.
Time to go. Sula washed her hands, the blended red of the swirling water making its way down the drain. She looked up at the viewing chamber. Her eyes locked with the icy blue stare of Immortal Gabriel, the charade over. He would call her on this.
Her heart was breaking for a long while in the fantasy world she lived in, a place of unrequited love and guttural tragedy, but the tear in her psyche would never be able to be repaired. No romance in this. Nothing but ugliness. Intolerable panic.
Make it to the docks before sunset, she admonished as she went into the changing rooms to discard her bloody gloves and surgical sheaths. Her heart pounded in her ears. She observed herself, detached from her visceral being, the only way she could keep from disintegrating. One movement after the next. That’s all she was capable of, as life as she knew it imploded, one altered moment at a time.
Sapphire guided her motions, and she all but capitulated to its liquid clasp.
Through the glass, Vila gazed at her with affection. Her only friend of over three years. They shared their residential quarters and as but a handful of female medical students from Erath, they bonded in a way Sula never experienced as an only child. Like sisters. But even her friend wasere oblivious completely unaware of the undulating shadows moving beneath her skindire situation.
Sula pulled off a great deception. It was nothing personal. Or was it? How could an addled mind tell? For they were separate things.
Like all deceptions, it was time for the great exposure, denuding. For true colours to be shown. She didn’t have the stomach for this and would flee. But Sula wanted to be able to say goodbye to Vila. Talk to her one last time. Even about something trivial. A silent farewell. Time bent to her will under the influence of Sapphire and now, it beckoned to her, in her altered state, to use the window left to escape this self-inflicted predicament. No coming back from this. Tick tock. Run.
The raven haired prodigy had fallen.
In Dustria, Madhurika Sankar weaves a haunting tale of a fractured world teetering on the edge of collapse. It is a place where addiction fuels chaos, magic is both savior and curse, and redemption comes at a heavy price. Centered on Sula—brilliant, broken, and battling the grip of Sapphire addiction—the story journeys through the desolate prison island of Dustria and the decaying kingdoms of Erath. As mortals and Immortals alike confront their sins and weaknesses, Sula’s path to redemption becomes a fight to save a world on the brink.
This is not your typical sword-swinging, dragon-slaying fantasy. Sankar's writing is wonderfully poetic and intense. The scenes are immersive and drip with atmosphere, transporting the reader instantly. From the grim alleys of Temelach to the barren dust plains of Dustria, every setting feels alive, every word carefully chosen. The prose is lyrical, even when depicting dark, gut-wrenching moments. The writing is, simply put, beautiful.
I found that the thematic elements hit hard: addiction as both tragedy and temptation, the cost of power, and the painful search for redemption. One of the most poignant moments in Dustria comes when a character reflects on the power of addiction to blur the lines between comfort and destruction. In a quiet, introspective scene, the character acknowledges their addiction—not just as a physical craving but as an emotional shield against pain, loss, and the sharp edges of reality. The moment is heart-wrenching because it captures the universal struggle of knowing something is harming you but feeling utterly unable to let it go. This scene resonates because it’s not just about addiction—it’s about coping, yearning, and finding meaning when everything feels lost. It lingered with me, reminding me of the quiet battles people face and the strength it takes to confront them.
Fans of N.K. Jemisin’s The Broken Earth Trilogy or Robin Hobb’s Farseer Trilogy will feel right at home in Sankar’s world—dark, introspective, and morally layered. If you enjoy lush prose, character-driven narratives, and fantasy that makes you think and feel, Dustria is your next great read. It is a must-read for fantasy lovers. It is a stunning exploration of humanity’s darkest struggles wrapped in a gorgeously written tale. Those who embrace its beauty and depth will find a powerful, unforgettable story about redemption and the fragile line between salvation and self-destruction.