The Door to Inferna is a 2020 novel by Rishab Borah. It follows the adventure of Khioneus Nevula, an Ordinary High-School Student who is actually a wizard prince from a parallel universe after he accidentally crosses over to the other world. There, he meets his twin sister who is the heir princess. Khi's best friend Max gets kidnapped by a shapeshifting dark entity and the main plot of the book is Khi's actions taken to save Max.
The book was published when the author was 16 years old.
The book has received a generally positive review from Kirkus Reviews.
Examples
- Above the Gods: The Fae and Immortal Demons are stated to be this.
- A God Am I: Angeline essentially states this about herself
- Another Dimension: Usifia, the universe which is where most of the book takes place, is this. It is specifically stated that Usifia is a universe, not a dimension. It is also explicitly stated that traveling between universes uses the fourth- and fifth-dimensional axes.
- Convection, Schmonvection: The protagonists can stand in the crater of an active volcano without burning to a crisp, although they do remark on the sheer heat. Potentially justified because the volcano has a magical seal on it, although interestingly when a demon corpse lands atop the seal, it burns immediately despite being far above the lava, suggesting that the protagonists are just far enough away from the lava and the trope is actually averted.
- Cool Gate: The portal to Elkloria, a boulder that becomes an archway with a dark floating sphere inside, and the portal to Inferna, a whirlpool of lava.
- Divine Ranks: There are (said to be) Fae and Immortal Demons, more powerful than anything, but beneath that lie the gods, who allegedly make the rules of magic, and even beneath that are the seraphim (angels), who regulate magic usage. To complicate things, Triskén claims to be as powerful as the angels, and is capable of breaking the rules created by those alleged gods. And of course Khi is a Semideus, which is a mortal who can become a Fae, and it's not clear where he is in this hierarchy except that he could defeat two Immortal Demons.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: Khi sees possible futures after he turns into a Fae, including one that reveals Angeline's betrayal
- Dream Spying: Khi has dreams from Nessa's perspective sometimes. It's never quite explained why, but it may be a version of Twin Telepathy.
- Fantasy Pantheon: The Elklorian gods are this, and are loosely implied to exist. Even if they didn't exist, there's still the Fae, who are thought to be higher than even gods.... Named deities include Psymus, a god of the mind, Paluxina, the supreme light goddess, Ariadne, the goddess of maps, and Destinis, the god of fate. Destinis has the most observed effects on the world via Khi's prophecy, although one could chalk those effects up to another being or phenomenon such as him being the Semideus.
- Godly Sidestep: Perhaps averted, as Khi discovers a multitude of things about reality as a Semideus but understands very few of them.
- Zigzagged when Tïtania answers some of Khi's questions about his nature as a Semideus but handwaves others
- Home of the Gods: Phantasia is this, although for the beings Above the Gods
- Lady Luck: Done with a male deity, known as Destinis. He is one of the few gods who is strongly implied to exist.
- Our Angels Are Different: The seraphim, who regulate magic
- Our Demons Are Different: Demons are divided into three castes, with the immortal demons being the most powerful, the half-mortal demons being quite powerful, and the mortal demons being the least powerful. There are humanoid demons, dragonlike demons (well, wyverns), and minotaurs. It is also revealed that demons actually act similar to people in a somewhat modern culture, but are possessed by a mysterious force that causes them to act monstrous
- Our Dragons Are Different: Dragons are alternate forms of wizards such as Khi and Nessa which can have varying breath attacks, including golden fire or crystallizing white fire.
- Our Wormholes Are Different: There are many portals in the book, including the portal to Elkloria which takes Khi through an interdimensional funhouse of bizarre mirror effects and where gravity switches in odd directions. Another type of portal is generic teleportation, which varies from being the surroundings fading into Mysterious Mist or a small Swirling Energy Thingy that goes from below one location to above another. A simple spatial field that transports every bit of matter in it to another place (yes, this did result in a Portal Cut). The biggest example is the Demon Portal to Inferna, a very big whirlpool of lava.
- Pals with Jesus: Khi has met Tïtania, basically one of the most powerful entities in the universes, so he would qualify
- Portal Cut: The kraken's tentacle in Nessa's memory
- Psychopomp: The death reapers, who appear as half-naked teenage boys or glowing figures of light. May also be a case of Don't Fear the Reaper, as the death reapers are not especially unfriendly.
- Telepathy: Khi and Nessa have been able to telepathically communicate, including accidentally. This is a general power of Neurazian wizards.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: The death reapers, apparently, who also wear loincloths
- Winged Humanoid: The death reapers, as well as Khi, when he becomes a Fae
