Metallic Realms Cover Reveal: Coming May 2025

A cover reveal and description of my next novel

My readers, next year

If you subscribe to Counter Craft or follow me on social media, you may have seen me tease my “Pale Fire meets Star Trek” novel that will be published next year by Atria Books. Well, today I’m excited to be able to reveal a little more about it… as well as provide you, dear Counter Craft readers, with an exclusive cover reveal.

Drumroll, etc.

I love this cover, designed by Danielle Mazzella di Bosco. I think it does an excellent job getting across the “vibe” of the novel, which (I hope) you will find a fun, comic, weird, and inventive romp through realms real and unreal.

More specifically, Metallic Realms follows a science fiction writing collective in NYC, whose members cope with underemployment and overeducation while crafting their otherworldly adventures. The novel is narrated by Michael Lincoln, a hanger-on friend who fancies himself the “scholar” of their fictional universe. As he analyzes and elucidates their short stories—which are embedded in the novel—he slowly reveals his own backstory and complicity in the destruction of the group.

The novel will land on May 13th, 2025.

If you are enticed at all, preorders are vital to any novel’s success. They really do help. You can preorder now at Bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, or your local bookstore.

Metallic Realms is, for me, a lot of things. It is a satire about publishing and the (wannabe) artistic life. A treatise on science fiction and the “literary or genre” debates. A cosmic space opera. A tale of friendship. A comic Künstlerroman. And, frankly, a bit of an odd (anti?) autofiction novel in which many aspects of my own life have been remixed, distorted, or laid bare.

That is perhaps obvious from the narrator being named Michael Lincoln—an inversion of my own name that I’ve been mistakenly referred to throughout my life. (“Did you write your name down backwards? Lincoln is a last name.”) The Michael character is very much an example of the “weird little freak” narrator I’ve advocated for. He’s “unlikable,” but I think loveable. The leader of the SF collective, Taras Castle, is also a pen name I used years ago when I had a silly idea to write a science fiction poetry cycle. A few of these were published in lit mags that are now, perhaps, collecting dust in the back corner of university archives...

Above all, I hope you will find the novel a blast. My favorite writers—whether labeled “literary” or “genre”—have always had fun on the page and combined humor and depth, playfulness and literary weight. I tried to do the same. Anyway, that’s probably saying enough for now. You can read more at my publisher’s site. And infinite thanks here to my agent Angeline Rodriguez and editor Sean deLone for helping me shape a messy and weird draft into a finished novel. I’ll write more about my process writing the novel in the future.

Here are some very generous words from authors I admire:

“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, author of The Need and Hum

“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, author of Open Throat

“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, author of Appleseed

“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, author of The Immortal King Rao and This is Salvaged

If you are intrigued by the book, preorders are again deeply appreciated. Those preordering links again: Bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, or your local bookstore.

And if you are a book reviewer, interviewer, literary event booker, or otherwise have publicity inquiries you can reach out to Camila Araujo camila.araujo@simonandschuster.com.