Fantastic universes and personal dramas collide as a group of friends blur the line between real life and fiction with delightfully disastrous results from the acclaimed author of the ''timeless and original’ (The New York Times) The Body Scout.
Perennially single, socially awkward, and drowning in debt, Michael Lincoln finds his life has turned out nothing like the intergalactic lives of the pulp heroes of his youth. But these are pedestrian concerns—he has a higher calling, and that is to preserve for all posterity the greatest series in the history of the written word: The Star Rot Chronicles.
Written collectively by Michael’s best (and perhaps only) friend Taras K. Castle and his misfit science fiction writing group, the Orb 4, the stories follow Captain Baldwin and his fearless crew on their mind-bending adventures across the Metallic Realms, from solar whales swallowing suns at the edge of spacetime to extraterrestrial romances and interstellar wars. These masterpieces have gone tragically unpublished—until now.
But the most urgent story Michael must tell takes place in the more intimate (if no less dramatic) confines of literary Brooklyn. Behind the greatest universe ever created, there are the all-too-mortal people who wrote it. As Michael chronicles the personal melodramas of the Orb 4 as well as the fun house reflections in their fiction, the line between real and unreal becomes dangerously thin, and the true reasons for the group’s fallout begin to emerge. As he labors away in hiding, Michael has just one mission: to bring the Metallic Realms to the world. No matter the cost.
Genre: Science Fiction
Perennially single, socially awkward, and drowning in debt, Michael Lincoln finds his life has turned out nothing like the intergalactic lives of the pulp heroes of his youth. But these are pedestrian concerns—he has a higher calling, and that is to preserve for all posterity the greatest series in the history of the written word: The Star Rot Chronicles.
Written collectively by Michael’s best (and perhaps only) friend Taras K. Castle and his misfit science fiction writing group, the Orb 4, the stories follow Captain Baldwin and his fearless crew on their mind-bending adventures across the Metallic Realms, from solar whales swallowing suns at the edge of spacetime to extraterrestrial romances and interstellar wars. These masterpieces have gone tragically unpublished—until now.
But the most urgent story Michael must tell takes place in the more intimate (if no less dramatic) confines of literary Brooklyn. Behind the greatest universe ever created, there are the all-too-mortal people who wrote it. As Michael chronicles the personal melodramas of the Orb 4 as well as the fun house reflections in their fiction, the line between real and unreal becomes dangerously thin, and the true reasons for the group’s fallout begin to emerge. As he labors away in hiding, Michael has just one mission: to bring the Metallic Realms to the world. No matter the cost.
Genre: Science Fiction
Praise for this book
"A brilliant, inventive satire of writers and super fans, even better for its obvious affection towards both. Lincoln Michel is one of the most surprising speculative writers working today, and this witty planet-hopping love letter to pulp science fiction is the most fun I've had reading all year." - Matt Bell
"Metallic Realms accomplishes in prose what the classic silent comedians accomplished on film, turning the trips and missteps of a born fumbler into acrobatics: Nothing goes well, butperfectly. Delightful to behold." - Kevin Brockmeier
"A synapse-blasting paean to devotional geekdom and the fugue state of starving artistry, this spectacular postmodern funhouse brims with literary delight on every page. Lincoln Michel is our canniest, most gleeful genre-exploder, and Metallic Realms is a galactic achievement." - Henry Hoke
"A marvelous romp of a book, a tragicomic interweaving of tales, a kaleidoscopic journey that takes place simultaneously in a city apartment and in the vast reaches of space. With his characteristic wit and intellect, Lincoln Michel unearths all sorts of truths about loneliness, community, creativity, and fan culture. I couldn't put this book down, and it delighted me at every turn." - Helen Phillips
"A wild, playful, mind-bending ride, Metallic Realms is an homage in equal parts to Nabokov and to online indie writing communities. A novel ultimately about the sacred communing that takes place when the writer's imagination meets that of the reader. It is a one-of-a-kind novel that only Lincoln Michel could have written." - Vauhini Vara
"Metallic Realms accomplishes in prose what the classic silent comedians accomplished on film, turning the trips and missteps of a born fumbler into acrobatics: Nothing goes well, butperfectly. Delightful to behold." - Kevin Brockmeier
"A synapse-blasting paean to devotional geekdom and the fugue state of starving artistry, this spectacular postmodern funhouse brims with literary delight on every page. Lincoln Michel is our canniest, most gleeful genre-exploder, and Metallic Realms is a galactic achievement." - Henry Hoke
"A marvelous romp of a book, a tragicomic interweaving of tales, a kaleidoscopic journey that takes place simultaneously in a city apartment and in the vast reaches of space. With his characteristic wit and intellect, Lincoln Michel unearths all sorts of truths about loneliness, community, creativity, and fan culture. I couldn't put this book down, and it delighted me at every turn." - Helen Phillips
"A wild, playful, mind-bending ride, Metallic Realms is an homage in equal parts to Nabokov and to online indie writing communities. A novel ultimately about the sacred communing that takes place when the writer's imagination meets that of the reader. It is a one-of-a-kind novel that only Lincoln Michel could have written." - Vauhini Vara
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