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Dreams in the Black Smoke
Amidst the Great Age of polar exploitation, Captain Blaz Ritter leads a doomed expedition into the Arctic in search of the Fountain of Youth (and a very special banana).
Dreams in the Black Smoke is an experimental novella: part Kipling, part hallucination, part grotesquerie—by turns absurd, poignant, incomprehensible, exquisitely poetic, and unexpectedly hilarious.
Join Captain Blaz on a psychedelic descent where edges and centres fold in on themselves. An expedition that becomes its own distortion, a strange mirror in which exploration turns back upon itself, revealing the beginning of its own end.
Haunting children’s games, secret manuscripts, indiscreet seductions; scenes carved in ivory and street-grime. Characters that cling like a prickle at the back of the neck, or a sudden shudder—Blaz himself like a piece of food between the teeth, sore and insistently present.
At once classic and sickeningly modern, otherworldly and as mundane as a nail through a shoe, the novella builds a growing sense of grim delight that circles back on itself irresistibly. An exploration of the inside of your head as much as the author’s, and a seductive invitation to lose the boundary between the two.
Dreams in the Black Smoke is an experimental novella: part Kipling, part hallucination, part grotesquerie—by turns absurd, poignant, incomprehensible, exquisitely poetic, and unexpectedly hilarious.
Join Captain Blaz on a psychedelic descent where edges and centres fold in on themselves. An expedition that becomes its own distortion, a strange mirror in which exploration turns back upon itself, revealing the beginning of its own end.
Haunting children’s games, secret manuscripts, indiscreet seductions; scenes carved in ivory and street-grime. Characters that cling like a prickle at the back of the neck, or a sudden shudder—Blaz himself like a piece of food between the teeth, sore and insistently present.
At once classic and sickeningly modern, otherworldly and as mundane as a nail through a shoe, the novella builds a growing sense of grim delight that circles back on itself irresistibly. An exploration of the inside of your head as much as the author’s, and a seductive invitation to lose the boundary between the two.
204 pages, Paperback
Published June 21, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 29, 2026
Everything I love about Adam's previously published work lives in this book. In Dreams in the Black Smoke, he masterfully stretches his hands across fiction, poetry, diary entries, and songs to dissect life, death, and the chaos embedded in how his characters drag themselves through the in-between.
September 9, 2026
Galanski-DeLeon never disappoints, and this book is no exception. A journey to the North Pole but through the lens of a dizzying kaleidoscope of dreams and color as one man contends with his fate and his actions. Absolutely amazing book.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Mosquitos dipping into sunburnt skin like sommeliers swirling wine.
"I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a review." I always thought people were lying when they said that, but it turns out it actually happens! And they sure picked the right person to send it to because this was everything I want out of a book: a super weird plot, next-level prose/imagery, and an unhinged main character. It reminded me a lot of North Sun by Ethan Rutherford, which was a 2025 National Book Award finalist. I've been reading a lot more historical fiction this year, and this book easily stands among the ones I've read from the genre's heavy hitters. I immediately bought one of the author's older books after finishing this because I was bummed that it was over, so I hope people give it a shot. Psychedelic historical antics with prose reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy and Laird Barron. Just check out this carnival ride if you don't believe that you'll have a good time:
One of the more dismal games was the Vulture's Circle. Kids who passed the height specs for the ride got to lay on their backs upon a steel merry-go-round spun by a fairground worker in a bloody jumpsuit who handed them loose strips of carrion meat. When the buzzer went off vultures were released from a cage above. The last child to have the carrion ripped from their palms was given a pink plush elephant.
And this was one of the tamer carnival attractions!
"I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a review." I always thought people were lying when they said that, but it turns out it actually happens! And they sure picked the right person to send it to because this was everything I want out of a book: a super weird plot, next-level prose/imagery, and an unhinged main character. It reminded me a lot of North Sun by Ethan Rutherford, which was a 2025 National Book Award finalist. I've been reading a lot more historical fiction this year, and this book easily stands among the ones I've read from the genre's heavy hitters. I immediately bought one of the author's older books after finishing this because I was bummed that it was over, so I hope people give it a shot. Psychedelic historical antics with prose reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy and Laird Barron. Just check out this carnival ride if you don't believe that you'll have a good time:
One of the more dismal games was the Vulture's Circle. Kids who passed the height specs for the ride got to lay on their backs upon a steel merry-go-round spun by a fairground worker in a bloody jumpsuit who handed them loose strips of carrion meat. When the buzzer went off vultures were released from a cage above. The last child to have the carrion ripped from their palms was given a pink plush elephant.
And this was one of the tamer carnival attractions!
July 5, 2026
An epic poem about a mad captain seeking immortality at the frozen end of the earth. Between scenes of adventure we explore the adventurers' back stories: grim celebrations of language and madness. The prose is sometimes dense and tangled, sparkling with the characters' vivid grit and spectacular laments. Increasingly the book becomes a page-turner as you realize Blaz's mission and the things he's done, and you need to witness the fate of his crew. Tragedies compound into a heartbreaking homage to aging and death, which somehow also works as a celebration of life.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews