Metallic Realms

by Lincoln Michel

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 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 These masterpieces have gone tragically unpublished—until now.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 to bring the Metallic Realms to the world. No matter the cost.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy, Audiobook, Contemporary, Literary Fiction

320 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 13, 2025

About the author

Lincoln Michel is the author of the story collection Upright Beasts (Coffee House Press) and the novel The Body Scout (Orbit), which was named one of the 10 Best Science Fiction Books of 2021 by The New York Times and one of the 75 Best Sci-Fi Books of All Time by Esquire.

His short fiction appears in The Paris Review, Granta, Lightspeed, McSweeney’s, NOON, Pushcart Prize anthology, and elsewhere. His essays and criticism have appeared in The New York Times, The Believer, The Guardian, and elsewhere.

He writes the newsletter Counter Craft and his next novel, My Metallic Realms, will be published by Atria in 2025.

Reviews

[The Speculative Shelf · Rating 5 out of 5]

A full panoply of sci-fi delights—perfect for genre fans, the terminally online, or anyone caught up in fan culture, geekdom, or general sci-fi nerdery.

Metallic Realms is absurd, incisive, and a (toxic) love letter to classic science fiction, viewed through a sharply modern lens. It details the formation and eventual dissolution of the Orb 4, a group of writers creating short stories set in a shared sci-fi universe while living in a squalid apartment in present-day Brooklyn.

Told through the eyes of Michael Lincoln (a thinly veiled self-insert of author Lincoln Michel… or not, if Michael Lincoln is to be believed), the novel features one of the most hapless, oblivious, deeply unwell, totally unreliable, occasionally sympathetic, but almost always off-putting narrators of all time. He truly believes he’s chronicling the group that will usher in a new Golden Age of Science Fiction, and we are along for the bumpy ride.

The interstitial chapters, each a short story set within the Metallic Realms, are not mere pablum or window dressing. They’re inventive, closely tied to the “real-world” of the novel, and filled with endless geeky goodness.

As someone who enjoys taking very trivial things extremely seriously, I found this to be an exceedingly enjoyable read that I couldn’t put down. It’s a delightfully meta concept, executed to perfection. Count me in for OrbCon 2025.

My thanks to the publisher and Edelweiss for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

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[Melissa]

Pale Fire if Charles Kinbote were a failed-to-launch pop culture-obsessed (not obsessed in the colloquial way, obsessed in the original, deeply unwell way) hypernerd, and the writer he parasitically attaches himself to were the Orb 4, a loose confederation of self-aware creative class Brooklynites writing sci-fi stories within the shambolic Star Rot universe, a darkly autofictional place where members both explore personal and political anxieties through fiction and passive aggressively snipe at each other.

It took me a minute but once I was in I was IN. Just an incredibly fun and clever read that's occasionally sneakily moving and absolutely alive with sugarplums for anyone who's even slightly online or writing/publishing world-adjacent (I did lolfr multiple times). The ending cast a real pall over me (to be fair, the ending of Pale Fire did, too) but if you think this sounds like your thing, it might be VERY your thing. It's not for everyone but it'll be a favorite of the year for the people it *is* for. Its off-putting, unreliable, frankly insane narrator would approve!

[aja · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF at 55%. i wouldn't usually mark one of these finished or even rate it but honestly this made me so mad & i wasted so much time trying to force myself to keep going that i felt like i needed to lmao.

frankly i'm astonished at all the glowing 5-star reviews this has so far?? all the marketing describing this as a "genre-breaking ode to golden-age scifi", the reviews calling it a "(toxic) love letter" and a "panoply of sci-fi delights"... did we even read the same book???? bc there is literally no way i would describe this thus.

i'm not convinced this author even actually likes sci-fi. the structure of this is a whole bunch of like, "critical" essays written by the protag about sci-fi short stories written by his group of friends, & i use quotations around "critical" very deliberately. i've written more thoughtful commentary about a story in middle-school book reports than we got from this. some of this is certainly because our protag is wildly delusional & unreliable beyond the telling, but he himself is not written in a way that is at all entertaining or interesting. i just hated him. he was so unbelievably obnoxious & smug & condescending. i love unreliable narrators! i love protagonists who suck! but i wanted to punch this man in the face, which is also wild bc his name is literally an anagram of the book author's name. like. my dude. ANYWAY.

these "critical" essays & commentary are interspersed with the short stories his friends wrote, always tying in, in the laziest, most uninteresting way, with the real-world happenings of the characters who have written them. i kept reading as long as i did bc very rarely these would have a little spark of something in them that made me go, oh okay, maybe there is something to be found here. that would immediately get obliterated by everything else happening in these stories tho, so, you know. f me i guess.

which brings me to the quandary of deciding whether this author actually even likes the classic sci-fi he's riffing off. we have a protagonist who spends the vast majority of his time railing on the tastes of sci-fi nerds around him (including some charming diatribes about how fantasy is garbage, all while talking about how wonderful STAR WARS, OF ALL SCI-FI SERIES, IS), featuring innumerable rants about star trek (which the star rot chronicles or whateverthefuck are clearly copying). & then we have these short stories, again obviously inspired by star trek, but with all the stupid names ppl always make fun of sci-fi for having (the glorxo healthcare empire, the borj, which are in fairness in-narrative clearly rip offs of star trek's borg, with their oog, etc etc etc) & their stories that hearken back to the OG star trek episodes. like. who are we making fun of here? is it the super pretentious gatekeeping fans of sci-fi, or the ones who just enjoy fun sci-stories? we we commentating on fans like our protagonist, or fans like his friends? bc the story itself does not make that clear.

if not for the fake-omelas story "the ones who much choose in el'omas" i could prbly have pushed through this till the end, but that one made me so mad (el'omas? really?) that i finished that section & have spent the last week dreading finishing this. there was a really fucking weird conversation about ~~queering sci-fi~~ that as an actual nonbinary lesbian made me deeply uncomfortable, the borg manager was a woman named ca'raan (we made her a karen? really?), the entire bit where merlin got internet canceled was just sooooooooooooo

all in all this felt like an extremely lazy, unthoughtful attempt at sparking some sort of critical conversation about sci-fi & its fans, but it also just felt so scornful throughout, with no sense of actual joy or fondness for the genre, that it left a bad taste in my mouth.

thank you to netgalley & the publisher for providing me this ARC. i wish i'd enjoyed it

[Maggie Slater · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m a sucker for metafiction that incorporates footnotes and faux academic rhetoric, so when I first heard about Lincoln Michel’s Metallic Realms, I knew I needed to check it out. Metallic Realms follows Michael Lincoln (ha!), a wannabe writer, devoted sci-fi fan, and striving critic as he both witnesses the creation of and composes the critical analysis regarding the eponymous Metallic Realms stories, written by a writing collective of four aspiring authors calling themselves the Orb 4. But all is not well in the creative paradise of Brooklyn, NY. While Michael styles himself as a kind of relaxed version of Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory, there’s a dark undercurrent running through his perspective of the events that lead to the ultimate dissolution of the collective, a bit like Merrikat from We Have Always Live in the Castle, by Shirley Jackson. Pretty quickly one begins to question Mike’s recollection of things.
The Orb 4—composed of Taras, Darya, Jane, and Merlin—are not always likeable characters, but they are engaging. Mixed together, they generate the exact kind of drama-chemistry that makes it entirely too enjoyable to watch them clash and squabble. Portraits of these complex relationships are woven into Mike’s critical analyses of the selection of “canonical” short stories that create The Metallic Realms universe, along with presentations of the stories themselves. While the insertion of mediocre stories could have slowed down the narrative flow, instead they highlight Mike’s outsized adoration of them and provide a speculative-warped glimpse into the mindset of the collective towards each other and towards the world at large, as the Orb 4 are almost pathologically Millennial: disillusioned, cynical, and broke.
Yet through it all, you can feel author Lincoln Michel’s affection for the genre and its diehard fans, as well as his sympathy for each of the collective’s members, struggling to find their place in publishing, fandom, and life in general. It’s also a funny book, and more than once I caught myself barking in laughter at some witty observation about the creative world in which I, too, live. It’s a swift, fun read that will leave you thinking about a lot more than just what it takes to be a creative in this current environment.

This book is for you if:
- you enjoy fictional footnotes and faux academic criticism.
- you’re a bit of a cynical gossip who loves a juicy tidbit about your colleagues.
- you’re an aspiring author of speculative fiction and are wondering if you’ll ever “break in.”
- you’ve ever wondered what people say about you when they think you aren’t listening.
- you’ve ever struggled with friend groups and found them complicated to navigate.
- you enjoy an unreliable narrator.
- you enjoy books about creatives in New York City.

[Pamela Carvalho · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book has some nerdy charm to it, and had me giggling at times. However, the plot really seems to drag and I did not feel invested in the characters. Weird books are hard to land, and this one just didn’t land for me. The characters were super unlikable and I did not feel invested in the group drama constantly occurring. The sci-fi short stories seemed to be trying to also make a political statement that also didn’t land.
I don’t usually review books I didn’t finish (only made it to 65%) but it wasn’t just that this book wasn’t for me, I feel that this book really lacked what it needed to keep me invested.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC

[Darmok · Rating 5 out of 5]

Premise

As your intrepid editor and Star Rot whisperer, I’ll confess I occasionally ponder how my life might’ve differed if I’d never discovered The Star Rot Chronicles. Likely, I’d have finished law school. There’d be no possible warrant for my arrest. I might have a steady job. A mortgage. A loving partner. The patter of pajamed feet running up the stairs of my two-story suburban home; I pivot in my ergonmoic office chair to see a young boy and girl in matching striped jammies rush to hug my legs and then look up with wide-eyed cherub faces to say, “Daddy, we love you. Daddy, you are special. Daddy, you are our universe.”

“Pedestrian pleasures. I have another universe, and it is the Metallic Realms.”

Meet Michael Lincoln, the world’s foremost fan (or, as he’d put it, “scholar”) of the science fiction writing collective Orb 4.

For its millennial members, it’s one creative outlet of many. For Michael, it’s everything. He’s also the founder’s roomate, and spies on their meetings via a recording device he hid in a potted plant.

Holed up in an undisclosed location after a “tragedy” breaks up the group, Michael edits their short stories into a collection, complete with his extensive commentary on the tales, their tellers, and (at much greater length) his own tenuous connections to it all.

This fictional work provides the text for Lincoln Michel’s real novel, Metallic Realms, and what a novel it is.

My Review

I stumbled into this novel via a listicle into an impulse buy. It’s now my favourite new release in years.

As someone engaged with science fiction, literary fiction, and fandom communities, I loved reading such an accomplished lampooning of all three. The opening chapters made me laugh harder than any other book I can recall. Michael’s antics are ridiculous, but hilariously realistic, too. If you’ve spent any time in fandom, you’ve met many Michaels.

He is more than caricature, though: Michael is a sympathetic character, relatable in his loneliness and insecurity, and even admirable in his good intentions (though less so in the misguided actions that they inspire).

It’s voice that makes the novel, both Michael’s and those of Orb 4’s four members. Michel excels at this quintuple duty. Each Orb 4ian—from experimental Jane to pulpy Taras—reads differently, so much so that I found myself forgetting that it was all the work of a single author.

This made Michael’s unreliable narration all the more rewarding. Sometimes, Michel uses it for comedy, like when Michael fails to grasp the social insanity of spying on a meeting while taking a shit with the door cracked open. More rewarding, though, are Michael’s misreadings, both of Orb 4’s stories and his own life. He praises Taras’s stories above all, even though they’re pulp shlock. He disdains Jane, even though she’s most sympathetic to him, and completely misses the point of a genuinely moving story she writes about his neurodivergency.

And the prose! I am awed at Michel’s audacity, to intentionally write so poorly at such length. Michael’s musings are the most egregious (“we had been “ghosting” each other and I do not mean in the useful Force Ghost way”), and the Orb 4ians are no prose stylists, either.
That said, don’t worry that it’ll be grating to read—Michael balances badness and readability perfectly. Kevin Brockmeier’s review nails it:Metallic Realms accomplishes in prose what the classic silent comedians accomplished on film, turning the trips and missteps of a born fumbler into acrobatics.”

From there, the novel changed my perspective on bad art. In their stories, the Orb 4ians deal with timely themes—othering, capitalism, climate doom, etc—that shine through their inelegant articulations. The Orb 4ians aren’t great artists, but Michaels’ observations show how approaching these themes in fiction made them more bearable in reality. Realizing that, and seeing all that Michael was able to mine from the stories, too, made me realize that art’s quality isn’t as important as it’s effect on the reader. Other than Metallic Realms and other satires, few creative works are written to be bad. If someone mines more meaning out of a John Scalzi novel than a classic, who am I to judge?

Okay, back to judging. Fortunately Lincoln Michel is a better writer than his characters, so I don’t have many complaints. Some jokes that betray unfamiliarity with the fandoms involved. Some improbabilities—Jane’s $100,000 deal for umarketable literary drivel, Wizards of the Coast partnering with a Kickstarted copycat card game, Star Rot going viral twice—that, while annoying, did improve the story.

A story that, by its ambiguous ending, made me far more upset than I’d anticipated. I think I know what happened, but I can’t quite believe it in my soul.

Final Thoughts

I don’t know if Metallic Realms is an all-timer. The themes around creativity, friendship, and isolation are universal, but the contemporary references and chronically online humour might not work as well in ten years, or even today for someone in different readers’ and fandom spaces than me.

But for me, right now, this book is pretty much perfect.

[Heather Mynx · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whew, what a book. I really struggled with how to rate this one and in the end settled on a neutral 3 stars (neither disliked nor loved).

Ok now for my thoughts.

The book overall felt really slow considering it's only 320 pages. It's written more like a biography or memoir but fictional and interspersed with short stories or partially finished short stories written by the group the narrator is chronicling.

I really didn't like the narrator, Michael, but enjoyed the characters he talked about and the short stories in the book. Michael is oblivious, unreliable, mentally unwell, extremely opinionated, and off-putting. He is OBSESSED with the Orb 4 (the group who's stories he is chronicling) and his "best friend" to the point that it is his entire personality. That in and of itself isn't necessarily a bad thing but he's not a particularly likeable character. Most of the time he comes across as smug and condescending when, if you read between the lines, he has no true justification to be that way. Honestly Michael is the whole reason I just could not justify rating this book higher. His voice intrudes on literally everything and there were a lot of times where I just wanted more story and/or short stories and less of his analyzing the events that happened around him.

I did enjoy the geek pop culture references. I loved the complicated dynamics in the Orb 4, a collective/group of writers all very different from one another but with a shared love of Sci-Fi. I liked that a lot of the short stories included mimic what the characters are dealing with in their personal lives but in a sci-fi setting. I could feel sympathy for each of the characters through the lens of their stories. Honestly the Orb 4 itself is why I kept reading. Even though their stories are told from an outside PoV, I was invested in seeing what was coming for the group. Seeing them come together and grow apart was relatable. If this book incorporated each of the PoVs of the Orb 4 PLUS Michael, I would have enjoyed it way more.

The very first line in the Goodreads book description calls this book "wildly inventive and entertaining". While it did have its moments that made me laugh and it did feel unique, the overall vibe of the book was more depressing than entertaining. There's a dark undertone throughout the entire book and you know from the beginning it's going to end in tragedy one way or the other. It made reading this book feel like a chore because there was no "hope" for a better future, which is something I prefer in the books I read.

Would I recommend this? I don't know. Maybe? I think if I did it would be situational and depend on the person.

My many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this as an ARC!

[andy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Metallic Realms was my first book from OwlCrate’s sci-fi subscription box and I really wanted to like it, but this was not at all the book for me. I spent most of it bored to tears and the remainder rolling my eyes at the ridiculousness of it all.

The narrator may have been unlikeable on purpose, but what’s Michel’s excuse for everyone else? The side characters just fall so flat. Taras is painfully boring and Darya, Jane, and Merlin are more an amalgamation of tropes and references than they are actual characters with stories that I’m supposed to care about.

I also don’t feel like it’s fair to classify this book as a sci-fi. Yes, there are sci-fi short stories speckled throughout — but they’re short, cheesy, and predictable. If the rest of the book was good, I’d be willing to forgive, but there was very little to redeem this book.

[MH · Rating 4 out of 5]

When his childhood (and only) friend Taras starts a sci-fi writing group with a few other Brooklyn writers, narrator Michael becomes obsessed with the world they create - and we know from the beginning that it will all lead to catastrophe. The adventures the group writes are largely awful, on-the-nose stories about the health care system, the gig economy (and, ultimately, each other); our narrator Michael is unreliable and profoundly unlikable (self-centered and superior, unable and uninterested in functioning like an adult - the sort of insufferable super-nerd manchild that a lot of us have known, pitied, and avoided); and the humor comes from Michael's inability to see his world the same way the reader does and his insistence that these dopey stories are works of genius. Overall, though, I found the humor often pretty bleak - Michel builds the tension beautifully and the whole thing is deeply engaging, but for me it was less of "a marvelous romp" (as the cover pull quote calls it) and more of a heartbreaking look at loneliness, obsessive fandom, and the costs of choosing to - or refusing to - grow up.

I was lucky enough to win an ARC in a Goodreads giveaway.

[・❥・ neve 🌱 · Rating 5 out of 5]

this was 6 stars from the moment i read the words hopepunkhenry, actually

[Ian Mond]

Science fiction fans notoriously have no sense of humour when they’re the target of satire.* Yes, you could level this at any group—most people don’t like having the piss taken out of them—but genre fans, many of whom were bullied at school, are particularly averse to having their peculiarities mocked. Given this,** I wondered who the audience might be for Lincoln Michel’s Metallic Realms, a novel that doesn’t so much poke fun at fandom as embody, through its narrator Michael Lincoln, the worst excesses and mainstream clichés of fannish life.

Metallic Realms is presented as Michael’s historical account of the rise and fall of The Star Rot Chronicles. As he explains—in typically pompous fashion—The Star Rot Chronicles is:

> A cycle of interconnected space opera tales detailing the adventures of the ragtag crew of the good ship Star Rot in a sector of the galaxy known as the “Metallic Realms.” That you’re likely encountering them for the first time represents two tragedies. First, the narrow-minded, backward-looking parochialism of the ivory-tower elites who jealously guard the walled city of Literature™ and recoil in terror at the first sign of imagination, shouting, “Genre barbarians, stay away! We’re afraid of your wondrous plots and fantastic characters! Your uncanny visions challenge our perceptions! Leave, please, for we are frightened!”

> The second tragedy is the untimely dissolution of Orb 4, the artistic collective slash literary movement slash science fiction philosophy that created the otherworldly tales before collapsing under the very earthly pressures of jealousy, love, greed, and (as I will argue in my ensuing analysis) undiagnosed mental health issues.”

The members of Orb 4 are Taras K. Castle (Michael’s bestie and roommate), S.O.S. Merlin (also a roommate), Darya Azali (Taras’s girlfriend), and Jane Noh Johnson (a college friend). Michael, secretly recording the group as they workshop their universe and confront personal issues, is not part of Orb 4. The two paragraphs above give a clear enough indication of why the group might not have included him. But to spell it out: Michael Lincoln*** is socially awkward, obnoxious, narrow-minded, oblivious, and cruel. He’s the sort of fan who detests literary fiction and most media science fiction (with a special place in hell for anything Star Trek); the sort of fan you actively avoid at conventions or fannish get-togethers because you know they’ll spend the whole time ranting at you; the sort of fan you mock behind their back because they’re unaware that people can’t stand them; the sort of fan who believes they’re far more important than they actually are.

Michel’s lampoon isn’t unfounded. Versions of Michael do exist in fandom.**** But once you’ve met a Michael, you never want to be in their airspace again. Spending an entire novel with one—a novel told in his distinctly self-aggrandising voice—is like nails on a blackboard. At least it is to me. I need to be clear about that because not everyone who picks up Metallic Realms will have the same reaction. Some people—with far more tolerance than I—might see something tragic, even Falstaffian, in Michael’s many, many, many flaws and neuroses (masquerading as opinions).

So, no, I wasn’t the audience for this novel. Which is a shame because I rather liked the bits that didn’t include Michael, namely his gathering of all the published Star Rot Chronicles stories. While they’re not astoundingly original*****, they do reflect—and at times cleverly send up—the sort of fiction being published today. Add a few more pieces, even a novella, and I would have enjoyed a collection of just Star Rot material. They reminded me, in tone and general silliness, of the show Lexx.

Unfortunately, I found Michael so irritating that whatever commentary Michel was making about the publishing industry, artistic collaboration, loneliness, or friendship was lost on me. I may just be one of those fans who is too po-faced and earnest to get the joke. But I don’t think I’ll be alone.

*Unless it’s Galaxy Quest. That gets a pass, mainly because it isn’t a mean-spirited depiction.
** I grant I’ve framed the above claim as fact. It’s not something I intend to back up with evidence other than to say I’ve been a member of fandom for four decades and can’t recall a time when fans embraced the media’s exaggerated depictions of fannish culture.
*** Having Michael’s name be a near inversion of Lincoln Michel’s is a gag with limited payoff. The real Lincoln Michel is portrayed as a troll who writes crude sex fanfic based on the Star Rot Chronicles.
**** Though I’ve never met someone as horrible or clueless.
***** Fellow critic Paul Kincaid hated them (http://strangehorizons.com/wordpress/...).

[christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

With all affection, I wish I was too employed and too well-adjusted to understand or relate to anything in this book.

I picked this up based on the cover and title combo (and admittedly didn’t read the blurb too closely) so I was very surprised by what this book turned out to be. I guess when I saw “ode to golden-age science fiction, friendship, creativity, and the power and perils of storytelling,” I didn’t interpret that as “unlikable manchild dedicates his life to a sci-fi writing group’s mediocre short story collection and we watch his not-so-slow descent into madness.”

Major kudos to the author for capturing a very specific narrative voice that kept me reading early on. (I’ve met this dude. If you’re a woman and you’ve spent time in any male-dominated hobby circles, you’ve met this dude too.) Our Narrator, Michael Lincoln—not to be confused with real life author, Lincoln Michel—is oblivious, obnoxious, off-putting, only occasionally sympathetic, and yet remains entertaining throughout. Every character is purposefully a little insufferable in that creative-stereotype-dialed-up-to-eleven way. I struggled a bit at first because the sci-fi short stories did not hold my interest. They’re fun knowing winks to famous works and franchises, but make my eyes glaze over (despite Michael’s opinion of them as the second coming of golden-age sci-fi). I pushed through and I’m glad I did, because once you have Michael’s commentary on the happenings of the characters in the writing group, subtext makes the vignettes juicy. When I hit around twenty percent, things clicked and I was locked in.

This is definitely more on the side of satirical lit fic with sci-fi and fandom culture meta flavor. It’s also extremely millennial and cynical, and I would wager some readers will find it more than a little self-indulgent. The many conversations on the literary world, MFA gatekeeping/pretentiousness, and the state of art and capitalism will either work for you, or won’t. The commentary is not subtle and isn’t trying to be. The book is full of very current references for the terminally online and those in writing/publishing spaces. This will either delight you or drive you crazy. I love mess and low stakes petty drama taken extremely seriously, so I had a Time. Was it a good time? Debatable. While it was often very funny, by the end I was left feeling emotionally drained. (And not because of the ending. I loved that.) But if good art makes you feel things, this book certainly accomplished that goal.

Would I re-read this book: No, but I both do (and do not) recommend it to millennials feeling any kind of angst about ambitions of a career in a creative field in 2025.

Who should read this:
metafiction and unconventional format fans
anyone who has a high tolerance for cringe and secondhand embarrassment
creatives at the intersection of chronically online nerd culture and publishing gossip
millennials on the brink of existential crisis

Similar books: I have never read anything like this before, and now I want to read Nabokov’s Pale Fire

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for a copy of the eARC.

[Elle Benning · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite what I expected. Really more of a satirical literary experiment than scifi novel - clever but but not always satisfying. There are definitely some amusing moments, and I liked the idea of a book that’s partly made up of pulpy sci-fi stories written by its characters. But the execution wore on me, mostly because the narrator’s voice intrudes on everything. I get that he’s supposed to be insufferable, but there were times when I wished he’d just let the story breathe instead of constantly inserting his overbearing analysis. Well-written, and I can see why some people love it, but I found myself wanting more actual SFF and less knowing winks at the genre.

[Sara Zia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I actually enjoyed the science fiction stories embedded in the larger story--but the main story just wasn't for me. I wasn't invested in any of the characters and there was no sense of progress, and I can forgive those things if there's still beautiful prose or innovative world building but this didn't even have that. The group drama ended up being grating as a result, and its dudely focus made it even harder.
~Thank you to the publisher for a digital advanced reader copy~

[Julia · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read as an ARC through NetGalley

I really wanted to like this book but I just couldn't finish it. The style it was written in, and the short stories just made it hard for me to get through it. I was never invested in a plot or any characters to even give myself a push to finish.

[Susan Tunis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know that this book would have caught my eye had I not been a fan of Mr. Michel's previous novel, The Body Scout.

Speaking of fans, this book is all about fandom. Well, fandom, obsession, friendship, and a bunch of other stuff. The main character, Michael Lincoln, is clearly a stand-in for author Lincoln Michel, though it's hard to believe they share a whole lot in common. Because Michael is, to put it bluntly, a weirdo. He's an adult man--a law school dropout--completely supported by his parents. He is an obsessive fan and "scholar" of an obscure, unpublished science fiction-writing collective known as Orb 4, which is led by his childhood best (and only) friend. They're roommates, and the levels of dysfunction are deep. And all of this sounds awful, but it's actually really, really funny. But also more than a little bit tragic.

Honestly, I could go on about this book at length, because there's quite a lot going on here. There are some very interesting relationships depicted. There are several complete science fiction stories within the novel that get Michael's scholarly examination. There's broad satire of the world of fandom, but a more nuanced look at the impulse to create and the plight of the artist.

And there's Michael at the heart of it all. He's... not a pleasant character. He reminded me of Ignatius J. Reilly of A Confederacy of Dunces fame. Like Ignatius , who thinks he's surrounded by dunces, it is Michael who's the fool here. He's the perpetual outsider that unfortunately you laugh at, not with. Despite Michael occasionally growing tiresome, there's just too much interesting stuff going on in the novel. And, not for nothing, Michel is a gifted writer, mimicking multiple voices within the text. If anything above intrigues you, this is definitely worth a read.

[Ereader · Rating 2 out of 5]

(2.25)

Metallic Realms is a very distinct read.

One which I can't say I ended up enjoying very much. It is trying to be too many things and isn't quite doing any of them justice. I feel the setting is good, and you quickly get a sense of the aim of the novel. But then it takes turn after turn into directions that dont make a lot of sense. I don't know if there were just too many ideas going on or just not a solid enough plot to hold them up, but things did not gel. Also note that if you can't stand ultra modern references from the current day you will not like this. Contemporary is one thing, but this is another level. I did not enjoy any of the current day references it took me out of the story completely. It's not a pleasant read. I only made it to 52%. I hope someone can enjoy it but it is difficult to recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing an eARC of Metallic Realms in exchange for my honest opinions.

Publishing May 13, 2025

[Tony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Received this book on a Goodreads giveaway. This book was hard for me, I was expecting a science fiction or fantasy book. While there was an element of the book devoted to it, I think it should be more classified as fiction. I enjoyed the SRC stories and how they wove into the general line but I found the overall tone to be more depressing than enjoyable.

[Kat Sanford · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was hoping Capitana would end but being the worst book I read in 2025, but Metallic Realms has it beat. The only, and I do mean the ONLY, positive thing I can say about this book is that it was short. But three hundred pages was still far, far more than needed to exist in the world.

While reading Metallic Realms, the book it reminded me of most was A Dirty Job, for two reasons. Reason one: It has the same fundamental problem as that book, namely that there’s nothing worse than an unfunny joke repeated ad nauseam. Reason two: It gave me the same gross, slimy feeling, like I’d need a shower before I felt truly clean again.

The “story,” such as it is, is a collection of pulpy, camp sci-fi tales from a collective of four (fictional) amateur authors, gathered and annotated after the group’s dissolution by their fifth quasi-member, hanger-on and superfan Michael Lincoln. The name is a modified inversion of the real author of Metallic Realms, Lincoln Michel, so I suppose Mike is meant to be a literary version of himself. If so, someone get Lincoln Michel to a shrink, stat, for the worst case of self-loathing I’ve ever seen. Mike the character is obsessive, neurotic, self-absorbed, misreads social cues constantly, disrespectful of boundaries, thin-skinned, and responds to criticism with defensiveness and denial. He’s neurodiverse-coded in an extremely stereotypical way, which adds an additional layer of grossness and offensiveness to the book. Mike’s obsession with the perceived “greatness” of the group’s writings is mostly fueled by a fixation with their leader, Taras, Mike’s oldest “friend” and roommate. To be fair, the tension between them never seems romantic, but Mike’s hyper-fixation on Taras-As-Jesus is deeply unhealthy, and while it clearly makes Taras uncomfortable (not enough to not constantly mock and rile up Mike, however) he also fails to set reasonable boundaries for Mike, or to simply move out when it becomes clear Mike is incapable of respecting said boundaries. And Mike’s boundary violations are really beyond the pale. We’re talking following people without their knowledge, hiding microphones in houseplants, and using drinking glasses to listen at doors, for God’s sake. This is stalker behavior and it’s not okay.

The sci-fi stories themselves range from “kinda neat” (“Invisible Oceans”) to “unreadable dreck” (literally everything else). The characters are thinly-veiled self-inserts of the writers themselves, and the plots thinly-veiled parallels to whatever real world bullshit the group was experiencing at the time. They get lost in IKEA, there’s a power outage, and someone gets food poisoning from the meatballs? The sci-fi characters get eaten by a space whale, the universe goes dark, and one of them gets brain worm poisoning! A writer contemplates taking a corporate job to pay the bills? The sci-fi character gets assimilated by the Borj hivemind and becomes a mindless cog—excuse me, co-og—in the machine, with a supervisor named Ca’Raan! And all interspersed with Mike’s fawning, masturbatory commentary on how this garbage is pure Art.

I came so, so close to throwing this book at the wall so many times. This purports to be a loving send-up of golden age sci-fi tropes in the spirit of Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon, but it’s all so poorly done and so mean-spirited in tone that I’m pretty convinced Michel actually hates science fiction. As the author’s avatar, Mike purports to loathe fantasy (and Star Trek, for some reason) but adores fucking Star Wars, literal space fantasy, what the fuck. The real world interludes are even worse, a mind-numbing, self-pitying slog about how hard it is to be a broke millennial nerd in New York City and how cutthroat and heartless the publishing industry is. None of this is original and none of it is interesting to me, especially not the problems of the five main characters, none of whom I could stand in the least and most of whom I actively hated by the end of the book. These people are TOXIC.

All the characters are awful, but Mike is by far the worst. One of the lowest bars for a protagonist/main character/narrator to clear is to exhibit the tiniest bit of character growth, but Mike doesn’t grow. If anything, he regresses. He ends the book as stunted and pathetic as he began it, wallowing in his own misery, and what’s worse, he has zero awareness of his own failings and lack of growth. This book ends with anti-catharsis. It leaves a bad taste in the mouth and a nasty slime trail behind it, like a poisonous slug.

Bottom line, Metallic Realms is one of the cruelest and most mean-spirited books I’ve ever read. I’m genuinely shocked at the number of glowing reviews it’s received, and before you claim that I just didn’t get what Michel was trying to do, stop. I DO get it. I really do. But that doesn’t make it good or worth my time.

[Briann · Rating 3 out of 5]

For me, most of the novel was 2 stars. I found many of the short stories unoriginal, uninspiring, and obvious. Seeing the “real-life” inspiration for the stories was frustrating because it was beyond obvious. I also found the Orb 4’s dynamics and arguments frustrating and childish.

While it was an interesting concept to make the narrator and main character a fanboy of the Metallic Realms, it sometimes felt underdeveloped. I did like that Michael was an unreliable narrator, though.

The ending was the only reason I caved and gave Metallic Realms one more star. I am a sucker for sad endings that will stick with the reader.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I heard a lot of buzz about this book at Worldcon 2025.

I thought it was interesting, but it kind of tries to be "literary science fiction" with stories within the story. The narrator is named Michael Lincoln, the reverse of the author's name, and he's a truly unreliable narrator. That part isn't really subtle. I did appreciate some of the in-jokes about sff-fandom. I liked it enough, but if you are looking for this kind of meta-narrative, Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor, which came out earlier this year, was way better.

[Aiden Aprt · Rating 1 out of 5]

I knew I wasn’t going to like this book when OwlCrate announced it as their 2nd pick for their sci-fi quarterly subscription. The blurb they provided for the book simply was not science fiction. Still, I received the box and let the book sit.

Coming off a glorious trio of reads, I decided “What the heck not?!” and started reading this one. Huge. Mistake. At the end of the day, this is not even 10% sci-fi. It’s about struggling authors in NYC and an INSUFFERABLE narrator.

The OwlCrate special edition may be downright gorgeous, but do not let that swoon you into picking this book up.

[Medusa · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.4 stars. A book unlike any other sci fi book I have read. It’s sometimes warm and cozy and sometimes appalling; it made me laugh out loud many times. This book drops many allusions and savages many sacred oxen and is almost overwhelmingly self owning - by design, but it has important things to say and a core of realness and humanity that runs through everything. If you’re a sci fi fantasy nerd, you’re in this book in at least one and probably several places. It’s a book that will alienate many readers and it certainly makes this reader very sad, but still glad she read it. I hope you’ll give it a try.

[Cicero · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stopped on page 36. just could not take anymore. DNF

[Jefferz · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredibly meta and satirical novel, Lincoln Michel’s Metallic Realms is an ambitiously written story that defies conventional genre classifications. Featuring a collection of scifi-based short stories within a larger memoir-esque story, Metallic Realms recaps the highs and lows of the Orb4 writing collective group on their real and grounded struggles in creating cosmic literary art. Full of real-world metaphors, social commentary, and sharp jabs at the publishing and online communities, this book is an incredible experience written for hardcore SFF geeks and struggling millennials.

Note: For greater clarity for those who have not read this book, I will be referring to the author by his first name “Lincoln” instead of my usual review format where I would use his last name instead. When I drafted this review, I felt it might be confusing and too easy to misread the character Michael and Michel back-to-back.

Before I get into why I found this book so incredible, I feel the need to address some of the confusion about this book and offer some respectful advice for those potentially interested in it. First and foremost, Metallic Realms is a book full of satire, far-reaching scifi and fantasy references (and by that, I mean affectionately dragging fantasy), and general online geek culture. I write this a lot in my book reviews but in this case more so than usual, this book is NOT for casual readers or those deemed “normies”. The story within a story is layered with metaphors, witty sarcastic humor, and harsh criticisms of topics that will likely fly over the head of those not intricately familiar with or a fan of scifi culture. Secondly, retailers and book platforms do this book a disservice by categorizing it as a scifi novel which I believe sets the wrong expectation for the story’s narrative content. Written and intended to defy specific genres by design, if I had to classify this book one way or another, it’s probably closer to literary/contemporary fiction despite it being about all things scifi. While the short story collection Star Rot Chronicles written within the book is very much scifi in nature, the short stories are meant to reflect on the Orb4 members’ lives through symbolism and varied tone. This is NOT a book for those looking for a flashy space opera or any action-based epic tales. I read a negative review that questioned whether the author even likes scifi to begin with which is utter nonsense; the reader completely missing the point of the book and in fact falling victim to the book’s stated roasting of simple and close-minded readers.

So with that aside, what is Metallic Realms about and who is it for? It’s tough to summarize, but in essence, it’s a story about millennial young adults in their late 20's/early 30’s trying to write grand scifi art against the many difficulties that pull them out of their creatively inspired world. Set in a realistic version of post-Covid Brooklyn, Michael Lincoln (not to be confused with the actual author of this book Lincoln Michel) chronicles the rocky development of the collective writing group’s short story collection, the Star Rot Chronicles. Faced with complicated relationship histories, creative differences, professional success and subsequent jealousy, or simply finding a way to pay the bills, the story is told from Michael’s perspective as a fan of the group and roommate of its leader, seeking to record and release their stories at any cost.

From the get-go, one of the book’s defining and often most polarizing elements is its character narration tone. As a character and narrator, Michael Lincoln is “one that many readers might find unlikeable or off-putting or hard to root for” (Michael’s 4th wall breaking self-description and Lincoln’s own words, not mine). Personally, I found his character to have one of the most distinctive and established narration voices and tone I’ve read in quite some time. Highly introverted, anxious, a bit neurotic and very quirky, Michael’s recollection of Orb4’s meetings and his escapism life are very inspired. For those that follow MBTI theory, the book and tone scream INTP. Throughout the book, Michael repeatedly makes well-meaning but severely misguided choices that are so logically justified in his head despite how comedic or horrifying they can be to a 3rd party observer. Yet for how troubled and misguided he often is, his character, along with the rest of the orb4 members, are incredibly relatable, their concerns and worries often hitting very close to home.

Besides Michael’s quirks, Metallic Realms’s other distinguishing traits are its ambitious presentation and setup. The entire book is written in the second person perspective from Michael’s point of view in narrative form to prospective readers of his recollection of Orb4’s Star Rot Chronicles, post what is suggested to be the group disbanding. That alone is impressive enough but Lincoln takes the concept even further by including in full, ten Orb4 short stories. Episodic and largely anthology in nature, each short story is written by a different member of the group, followed by Michael’s analysis of its narrative content and connection to the “irl” circumstances of when it was written. Not only is each story influenced by the status and dynamics of the group, each writer has distinctive proses, interpretations of the Star Rot’s characters, and style of storytelling. For example, Jane’s stories have a very literary style reflecting her MFA background and autofiction approach to writing. Taras’s stories are more action-based, classic scifi material while Merlin’s lean heavier towards self-identity and reflections that align with their non-binary identity and interests in more abstract forms of art. Some stories are philosophically based like a reinterpretation of the Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas taken to a political and dystopian extreme while another is a vent piece that pokes fun at whatever the scifi equivalent of fantasy’s spice-heavy romantasy genre is. Even if one doesn’t necessarily enjoy the story, you cannot deny Lincoln Michel’s versatility and proficiency at writing, achieving five distinctively unique writing styles each with further variations based on the context of the short story. To his credit, he even purposely writes poorly when appropriately in-character as Michael, on top of making the most of the unreliable narrator element.

In addition to the impressive writing chops on display, Metallic Realms also features many other compelling themes and internal reflections on the current American society and psyche. The gatekeeping of creative and unorthodox ideas that don’t fit into the mainstream publisher vision, the compromise between settling for stability vs shooting for the artistic stars, familial expectations, even maxing out credit card debt to very entertaining results, all of these topics are well discussed through Michael’s passionate, yet often delulu eyes. Outside of the pursuit of publication, there’s going viral (and getting cancelled), conflict of literary loyalties, scifi vs fantasy debates, etc. Perhaps more respectable is the book’s portrayal of Michael and Taras’s childhood to adult friendship, loyalties, loneliness, and awkward expectations for young adults to know how to properly function as adults without any sort of guidebook to living. It is this last topic that creates the most tension in the story and where the book really hits its stride with its heavy-hitting content.

What starts as a simple story about four aspiring writers plus the leader’s roommate grows into something more thanks to the book’s strong character writing and well-developed characters. Outside of Michael, the four Orb4 members have diverse backgrounds, identities, and aspirations along with their aforementioned variety of writing styles. However, given that the story is narrated by Michael, his character is given the most development. While the tone of the book is consistently witty and snappy with a good dose of crazed frenetic energy, there’s a clear underlying sense of sadness that permeates throughout the events of the story that helps keep the book grounded. Even when Michael is describing positive and exciting things that are happening for the Star Rot Chronicles with upbeat optimism, those reading between the lines will easily see the inherently lonely and dejected feel of an outsider looking in, Michael often unaware of his own feelings in the moment. One element that I found particularly poignant and impressive is how completely tone-deaf Michael can be when others around him are upset. With his intense love for the project and his one-track mind set on getting the Star Rot Chronicles published, his severely misguided yet well-meaning attempts to keep their creative spark alive are tragically off. Some other reviewers have commented that Michael is a hard character to read about or is ridiculously silly, but that is completely by design, even Michael realizing how far off base he was by the end of the book.

While I could probably write a thesis on how brilliant this novel is from a literary standpoint, I will also admit that this book is not always an easy or pleasant read. Even outside of Michael, the Orb4 members are portrayed as being very human characters that make mistakes, argue with each other, lash out of pettiness, etc. Written as a pseudo memoir retelling the history of the Star Rot Chronicles conception, the fictional story sometimes feels like it's progressing aimlessly at a slow pace. This is purposeful as a metaphor for how life and art have no clear path or direction. While I didn’t really mind these potential drawbacks, I did feel like the ending was a little too open-ended for my liking. The book sufficiently wrapped up and achieved Michael’s goal of getting the Star Rot Chronicles released, but I felt like I was left waiting for some kind of definitive dramatic moment to end Michael’s character story. What the book delivered was good, particularly Michael’s bittersweet reflections of all the sacrifices made to get the story out and his uncertain future, but I just wanted more to it or maybe a single epilogue chapter around Michael post-release. In the grand scheme of things, this is a very minor nitpick compared to how well executed the book’s satirical and literary commentary are, but it was still notable enough to slightly affect the subjective enjoyability for me. That said, I read the Owlcrate Edition of the book which has an exclusive bonus interview chapter between Michael Lincoln and Lincoln Michel that’s a fourth wall breaking riot. In a way, this meta sit-down interview format sort serves as a kind of epilogue that adds to the book’s ending, though I’m not factoring it into my review/rating for the book as the vast majority of readers will not have access to this short bonus feature. As a side note, I must also applaud Owlcrate for selecting and featuring this book in its scifi subscription as it’s a very bold and inspired choice.

A true literary genre defier, Metallic Realms is an ambitiously crafted novel that’s incredibly unique in presentation. Filled with sharp commentary and tongue in cheek satirical content on top of its collection of stories within a story told in second person perspective to the reader, it’s amazing what this book is able to accomplish in just over three hundred pages. I personally loved the tone and frequently laughed out loud thanks to its hilariously subtle and smart humor. Though the narrative tone and meta-heavy focus may not be for the casual or unimaginative type of reader, this book is a one-of-a-kind pick for those looking for something that breaks the mold and dares to be different; one reader’s niche pick is another reader’s surprise homerun like mine. For fans of literary fiction, scifi enthusiast, or even millennial readers looking to commiserate in the struggles of adulting, Metallic Realms is one of the most unapologetically geeky and creative books you can go with! (On Goodreads, 4.5 rounded up to 5 stars rating)

*For more reviews, book lists and reading updates, check out my blog TheBookGrind!

[Karen Carlson]

he describes it as "Pale Fire meets Star Trek". I'm very choosy about SF, but I liked his collection Upright Beasts and I like about half of the Star Trek franchise, so I'll give it a shot.
https://bsky.app/profile/thelincoln.b...

[Aubrey Stewart · Rating 1 out of 5]

Whatever this book was trying to be, it failed miserably. In the first 100 pages, only about 10 pages were actual science fiction stories. The rest is just a creepy, obsessed narrator describing his own apartment, his roommates, the drama between the authors of said science fiction stories, analyzing these stories as if the narrator were an accomplished literature critic even though he himself says critics are just failed authors, and making fun of the very franchises and fandoms that the fantasy and science fiction genres are built upon. It throws in buzz words like "MAGA" and "wokerati" to try to be relevant. One of the "stories" of the "Star Rot Chronicles" is just an info dump of bodies of water on different worlds while the author tries to claim that one of the authors believes in "world gardening" rather than "worldbuilding" and would never info dump like *other* authors do. I'll never get back the time I wasted reading this.

[Sooz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book wasn’t rally for me but I stuck with it. I ended up liking it better than I thought I would and I appreciate that the author was trying to do something different here.

That said, I am really disappointed in what passes for science fiction these days.

[Lesley · Rating 2 out of 5]

narrator of the story is awful! couldn't keep reading...

[Bart McIlduff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this, and if you like parody and Science Fiction, I bet you will too. Its structure parodies Pale Fire, as an editor eclipses the main event with relish. The friendship between the main character and his inspiration hits with boyhood poignancy.
An SF group of millennials is viewed by an outsider, the narrator. Themes of in-groups, manipulation, relationships, and frustration (personal and occupational). The outsider's vehemence to gain critical appraisal for the group's genius propels him to promote them online and in publishing houses, but to little renown. They decide to part ways, but the narrator insists on one last push.
Tons of awkward humor, SF references. The intercut vignettes written by the members are largely parodic of established franchises. The narrator's voice is the major strength, tongue-in-cheek cringe inflected with bitter sympathy for a flawed outsider.

When I sat down to read Lincoln Michel’s new Metallic Realms, I knew to expect a romp of literary SF that would tease the tongue-in-cheek receptacle, and tickle the sympathy plate; there are enough blurbs even in my advance copy to telegraph as much. Nabakovnian narrative structure, implied by others, suggested I proceed with a dignified tack; superfandom, however distinct in its richness and fervor, has often eluded my will to pursue it. No cynic, I,—­not anymore, I should add,—didn't think this aspect appealed to me, though I concede its effect proved crucial to the juxtaposed eyebrows of the thing—one high, one low—which arch over two somewhat mismatched and (just barely) crossed eyes. All this I did expect, based on the front materials.
What I didn’t expect, even as I careened past the halfway mark, was that twenty pages from the end, the work would elicit a real tear or two from my own, deep brown and beautiful, focus-crossed eyes. I realized I was a-wobble in gushy chagrin for my companion, slovenly and embarrassingly awkward though he may have been, the narrator and main character, who struggles to 1.) find his place and 2.) forge an identity, two immediately sympathetic and human tasks. It seems many of us feel alien as human beings, which leads us to unite, in our imaginations and in our mediated zones, with tenuous aplomb: to feel an organic bond with a fictive figment, to share our passion for layers of make-up and masquerade, clothing, accessories, decorations, living spaces, wild but tempered arenas for playing—these devices for attraction and interaction seem to be expressed by our smallest, yet most inherent, particles. We can feel the desperation of merely existing.
If any of you have noticed a tone of frenzy to my script, I want to let you in on one of the secrets of Michel's text: that frenzy is shared by his narrator on every oozing glandular page, and so overshared. By characterizing him as a superfan, Michel allows himself to explore the currents of obsession with deft manipulation. The state of fervor is what drives me away from superfans in real life, yet it is how I most significantly relate to our not-so-humble main character. His excitement for the art—and science!—of writing is contagious; his love and loyalty to his lifelong friend, even more so. There are glib side characters, but they serve as obstacles more to dramatize the movement of plot rather than providing any vibrant shades of life outside this established obsession (which is what HE would say—not me, not really).
Who am I, to come read this book by such a dignified and established (well-read, by the looks of his references) author? I have no bearing in the sea of academia, no diploma, no candidacy for any position on staff anywhere. Bart McIlduff is known to few (and sadly, far-between, as middle age has presented fewer get-togethers and returns to see old friends—I say 'middle age', but that's really only just beginning). Perhaps this review will find you more curious about its author? Lincoln Michel, on the other hand, has wrenched free words from the goblet of parsimony as a smithy would the carcass of a demon from the yawps of Enron, for nigh on, or yonder a score of revolutions around our pitiable yellow star. I am resolutely humbled to brag on his considerably talented behalf.
Why, finally, would I step onto stage and relate an oratorio exculpating this thing, this not-yet born (released) human (made) thing? Why dissect and shave slivered carvings into someone else's creature? It was my duty: I was called. By the Battle of Goodreads, I tooke up my sword; and reverent, did I go to this task as a manly, yet coruscant, herald. Lmao. This novel balances so well on an axis of ridiculous and rigorous, that I can't say enough, and I can't help but do so, ridiculously. It's contagious. There are colors in it I haven't seen since before I landed on this planet, feeling low and alone. I intend to share with you the secret knowledge that the colors there can be found again: deep in the open space between this book and my heart.

There is a clear necessity throughout the novel to quip and wink about references to all manner of Science Fiction, past and present; to go with that are a handful of smack-lipped contentions regarding what qualifies as canon in an inherently (unto our current markets) marginalized sector of literary endeavor.
Critically, I must say the propensity to mix highbrow art with popular culture tends to lower one and falsely elevate the other. The giggling thrill is often, if not always, maligned. Literary disposition is touted as snobbery, while the author spouts halves of better-known lines from Shakespeare. These crop up regularly, hypocrisies that supposedly align the narrator with those of Nabokov's works that often deal with duality, blindness to self, and faulted characters who fail to grasp the sublime goals of presumably real artists. That contrast of reality with inability is rife here, and not entirely to its favor.
The novel is enjoyable, if the reader appreciates that bitter tang of cringe on one's palate. Cloying is an understated appraisal of the tone sustained in both the meta-narrative, and the supporting texts of vignette-shaped parodies of recognizable properties in Science Fiction. All the flags I placed on foreshadowing details were promptly followed up with unearned tension or lack of such feeling gratified. An online rancor passes fairly quietly, then is treated like a milestone.
It belongs on the shelf, more than anyone else I have in my library, next to Jason Pargin. By far less raucous, not as imaginative, and lacking much action. There is a sense that it's all held up by props, a set much like the false town erected at the end of Blazing Saddles. I suppose that is in part because each character as an author is represented with their own vignette (at least one), which is a bit like our main author, Michel, performing a puppet show, but not for us, instead for yet another puppet, who in turn parses his performance for us. Sometimes these analogues of interpretation run four characters deep: when the main character emulates his friend, who is creating the voice of a (third) character, who is then trying to reason through understanding their (the friend's stand-in's) fictional confidence by speaking in his voice. All of this serves to entangle a reader in the main character's delusion, which is handled masterfully, that is clearly, but its end is ultimately mediocre because it is nested in this first character, who, Nabokovnianly, is mediocre. Which, methinks, is why I cried.