Age of Shiva

Age of Shiva by James Lovegrove. paperback edition. ISBN: 9781781081808.

Zachary Bramwell, better known as the comics artist Zak Zap, is pushing forty and wondering why his life isn t as exciting as the lives of the superheroes he draws. Then he s shanghaied by black-suited goons and flown to Mount Meru, a vast complex built atop an island in the Maldives. There, Zak meets a trio of billionaire businessmen who put him to work designing costumes for a team of godlike super-powered beings based on the ten avatars of Vishnu from Hindu mythology. The Ten Avatars battle demons and aliens and seem to be the saviours of a world teetering on collapse. But their presence is itself a harbinger of apocalypse. The Vedic fourth age of civilisation, Kali Yuga, is coming to an end, and Zak has a ringside seat for the final, all-out war that threatens the destruction of Earth.