What a weird, wonderful little book this is. It’s at turns laugh-at-loud funny, occasionally disturbing, and altogether mesmerizing. This is a pastiche of so many things, and it's somehow something new. I’ve never read anything quite like this.

The narrator of Metallic Realms doesn’t waste time telling us that we are reading a profound work of scholarship: a thorough chronicle of the short-lived writers collective Orb 4, including all of their known published fiction interspersed with commentary and the narrator’s documentation of the lives of the Orb 4 members. Between pulpy, silver age short stories about a band of intrepid space smugglers, we learn fairly quickly that the scholar of this document is not being fully honest about himself, his motivations, and his relationship to members of Orb 4.

The author’s description of the book describes it beautifully:
“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.”

In my opinion, it’s more of a satire of the publishing industry and overeducated, underemployed millennials than science fiction. That may rub some readers (expecting something different) the wrong way. But isn’t the best scifi a reflection of our current age? Other readers might not jive with the fairly unlikable narrator, but a deliberately unlikable narrator is like catnip to me.

Well this was more fun than I anticipated! As a Nabokov fan (who hasn't read Nabokov in over a decade, lol), I thoroughly enjoyed this very meta and deranged story.

Our narrator, Michael, is indeed unlikable and quite unreliable. I had a hard time getting invested at first, but I grew more and more amused at his fanboyish obsession with his roommmates' sci fi writing that is mediocre at best. Michael Lincoln is a warning if anything, not a narrator you're supposed to like and trust.

As we got closer and closer to the ending, I started to suspect a suicide might take place... and then we got the most delightfully unhinged death (and telling of a death) you can imagine. I was dying when Michael thought Taras's final words were "You were my Aul-Wick" LMAO BRO NO. I'm not sure what my theory is of what actually happened with Taras's death, but wow.

The whole thing was an enjoyable journey and so, so well crafted. I'm not an avid sci fi reader and satire of the lit fic scene isn't always that interesting to me, but overall, this pulled me in and delighted me in all the ways it was smart, funny, strange, and original.

Michael Lincoln is an extremely online sci-fi fan who doesn't make the best decisions. He becomes enamored with a writing group, the Orb 4, consisting of his best friend, his roommate, his roommate's girlfriend, and an MFA student. This soon veers into obsession and Michael gets far too involved with the group and the stories they're writing, The Star Rot Chronicles. Michael seems mostly harmless, if a bit clueless, but as relationships change, this nature comes into question.

I loved the concept of this book and really wanted to follow the thread of how the main character got to his current state, but I genuinely couldn't finish due to the secondhand embarrassment of how bizarre and uncomfortable it was to read him interact with any other character.

This reminded me of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow! I love the behind the scenes of this sci-fi world but how the creators lives are also echoed in their work. Both the world building of reality and science fiction were on point!

“Metallic Realms” is about a sci-fi writing group and the interplay between the worlds they create and their personal struggles. The (utterly insufferable) narrator, Michael Lincoln (ha, ha), works to preserve the group’s work, the Star Rot chronicles (name maybe stolen from Samantha Shannon?). I really detested both the narrator and the writing style and gave up on this one only a few pages in.

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!

Fantastic premise, but unfortunately the premise is better than the book itself. It's mostly an assortment of pop-culture references and in-jokes, many of which are funny at first but get tiresome after a while. And the “stories” collected throughout are largely derivative and uninspired. This may be intentional to show that our cocksure narrator is overrating mediocre fan fiction, but it still means that a decent chunk of the book isn’t great reading. It’s a clever and often amusing novel, and sci-fi fans will appreciate all the references, but ultimately it feels disappointing in light of what great potential it has.

I’m not the typical target audience for this book, but it still offered a full sci-fi immersion that fans of the genre will likely appreciate. The format felt more like a TED Talk or an extended conversation, blending short stories and essays rather than following a traditional narrative. I did my best to approach it objectively, and while it didn’t land the way I expected, it was still an interesting read. The cover is absolutely stunning, and this experience has sparked my interest in exploring more science fiction in the future. 3/5 stars.

Metallic Realms by Lincoln Michel is less a science fiction story and more of an account of how the literary group Orb4 and fiends devolves into a dysfunctional group attempting to save the legendary Star Rot Chronicles stories. Filled with flawed characters and sometimes incomplete character development, this book is still an interesting and worthwhile read, because of its unique story.

Thank you, Atria Books, for the opportunity to read this ARC. All opinions are my own.

Rating: 3 Stars
Release Date: May 13 2025

Tags:
#AtriaBooks
#MetallicRealms
#LincolnMichel
#StarRotChronicles
#Orb4
#ScienceFiction
#YarisBookNook
#netgalley

Michael Lincoln is NOT Lincoln Michel. He tells you so. Orb 4, to a writer, agrees. It's about all they agree on.

Are you at all involved in geekdom, fandom, nerdery online? Are you vaguely aware of the idea roman à clef? Do you need something to make you laugh before it makes your ego say, "hey! wait a minute!", and rub its thumped nose?

Here's you a book.

Since reading Upright Beasts some years ago, then falling under the sway of what I called "{w}hat would happen if Gattaca and Moneyball had a bastard love-child" aka The Body Scout a while back, I've quite fancied my trips into Author Michel's head. He's facetious, rowdy, and disrespectful. I'd spank him if I met him in person, or maybe not since I think he'd like it, but on the page this is really fun stuff.

I'll assume you've read the synopsis. It's accurate as far as it goes. Lincoln Michel's a caustic and sarcastic soul, so it's not one bit of a surprise that Michael Lincoln is, as well. You think *I* say hurtful things? I'm the Canadian Ambassador to the Court of St. James's by comparison to this guy! No quarter is offered, no opportunity for a well-phrased dig is passed up. Think Dorothy Parker without the waspish edge, replaced by a cruel condescension.

Why, given all that, did I rate this 4.5 stars? Because he's unkind but he's not wrong. The beady eye in the scope is gonna shoot a vital part but he won't miss because he's seen the anatomy too close-up to mistake his aim by so much as a millimeter. And by Grabthar's Hammer, he really is funny.

Will you like it? Are you a Trekkie? A Tolkien/"high fantasy" fan? Then no. Are you exasperated by clever-clever satirical stuff? Avoid like it gots the cooties. A deeply-dyed AO3 lover? This way plagueships lie.

I had moments of stiffened-spine outrage (Ca'Raan? Really? That's where you're expending firepower?), but all's fair etc etc and being a whiny li'l bitch would only make the Big Bad Bully glow with satisfaction. So not gonna make some PC case with less than half my heart. Laugh at yourself, look at how your detractors portray you, because it's how they see you. No one knows they need a comb until they're told. He's telling us.

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 writing group’s mediocre sci-fi short story collection as we watch his descent into madness.”

Major kudos to the author for capturing a very specific narrative voice that kept me reading early on. 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. (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.) Every character is purposefully a little insufferable in that creative-stereotype-dialed-up-to-eleven way. I struggled a bit at first because the in-universe sci-fi stories did not hold my interest. They’re fun knowing winks to established famous works and franchises, but are purposefully mediocre and uninspired, despite Michael seeing 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 real world happenings of the characters in the writing group, subtext makes them juicy. When I hit around twenty percent, things clicked and I was in.

This is definitely more satirical lit fic with some sci-fi meta flavor; it is not subtle and isn’t trying to be. It’s also extremely millennial and cynical, and I would wager some readers will find it more than a little self-indulgent. The commentary on the literary world and MFA gatekeeping/pretentiousness and the many conversations about the state of art and capitalism will either work for you, or won’t. This book is also 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.

Would I re-read this book: No, but I both do (and do not) recommend it to millennials feeling any kind of angst about their ambitions for 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.

A love it or hate it book for sci fi lovers about....sci fi. It's inventive and also frustrating for those who like a linear plot because it's a series of essays held together with commentary from Michael. While it wasn't for me (and I didn't hate it), I know there's an audience for this. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. Over to others.

Sadly I had to DNF this about 30% in. Some of that is Hurley on me as I can see it is well written and does have an interesting concept. I could never really get a grasp of the story though and the characters felt too flat for me to try to push through.

I have decided to DNF this book about halfway through. I think that is on me, though, and that there is an audience for this one.

I was pulled in by both the cover and some of the quick tag lines I saw. I expected a sci-fi book with humor, similar to The Martian. This was quite different.

Metallic Realms is literary and sci-fi and satire, a set of somewhat interconnected short stories that share characters and theme...

That was just too much for me. I think if the focus and scope had been narrowed down, it would have done more justice to the content and been more enjoyable for the reader. While the text is engaging and the setting is well developed, and I quickly got a sense of where the novel was going, it kept turning and turning and turning until I gave up. It felt like the old adage, too many cooks in the kitchen. I couldn't hold on to the various ideas and found myself caring less and less.

There was some charm that comes from the general nerdiness of the characters, but weird books still have to be engaging and this one didn't do it for me.

METALLIC REALMS is a celebration of the unreliable narrator, a paean to and takedown of “fandom,” and a gleeful tour-de-force spinning dizzily across sci-fi genres. The narrator is named Michael Lincoln*, at one point pizza is deployed as a weird alien tongue in order to stop an argument?, and the book features the best use of footnotes since THE EXTINCTION OF IRENA REY. Watching Michael Lincoln’s obsession with his roommate’s writing collective metastasize from unhinged to straight-up criminal is deeply satisfying, and also there’s snark about muji pens.

*no relation to author Lincoln Michel

I wanted to like this novel so badly. The concept sounded so interesting and unique, but I just couldn’t get into the overall story. I found the plot rather confusing. I don’t read a lot of science fiction but I just felt lost and distracted by the crazy plot holes. Also the tone is strange and felt forced. Such a disappointment.

Props to the author for capturing a specific kind of cringe SFF fan voice that makes you want to run away within a few sentences, but manages to keep us involved through excerpts of the fiction the group was writing, and the sheer mess of drama and social ineptitude that comes with it, and it only escalates from there. If you have secondhand embarassment issues, this is not a book for you because it leans full into the cringe of our main character and the shit he does. Absolutely fascinating to watch it all ramp up though.

"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."

Ah yes, being the keeper of the flame, the one who wallows in nostalgia. I heavily relate.

engaging set of characters and a very interesting protagonist who generally feels like not a great person. sci-fi stories ranged from great to meh. 4 stars. tysm for the arc.