Metallic Realms

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 These masterpieces have gone tragically unpublished--until now.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.

Author: Lincoln Michel
Publisher: Atria Books
Published: 05/13/2025
Pages: 320
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.05lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.10w x 1.20d
ISBN: 9781668058671


Review Citation(s):
Booklist 03/01/2025 pg. 70
Publishers Weekly 03/31/2025
Shelf Awareness 05/23/2025

About the Author
Lincoln Michel's previous books are the story collection Upright Beasts and the novel The Body Scout, which was named one of the 10 Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of 2021 by The New York Times and one of the 50 Best Sci-Fi Books of All Time by Esquire. His writing has appeared in The Paris Review, McSweeney's, Lightspeed, Granta, The New York Times, The Guardian, and other publications. He runs the popular literary newsletter Counter Craft and coedited the anthologies Tiny Crimes and Tiny Nightmares. He was born in Virginia and lives in Brooklyn. He can be found online at LincolnMichel.com.