Recommendation: Metallic Realms

Lincoln Michel’s wildly inventive and darkly comedic romp Metallic Realms follows the exploits of a moribund science fiction writing collective called the Orb 4. The group’s comprised of four official members—and one desperate hanger-on/superfan—who craft short stories which explore the titular universe and are collected into an official canon called The Star Rot Chronicles. The series is obviously superior to every other “Star-based franchise” in every conceivable way, but publishing’s cynical gatekeepers refuse to take heed and the collective remains mired in commercial irrelevance and total obscurity. When interpersonal dramas start to subsume the group, and the relentless pressures of “real life” compound, The Star Rot Chronicles become increasingly meta-fictional and the once enthusiastic collective begins to slowly, then disastrously, dissolve.

Nabokovian Nightmare: The group’s aforementioned hanger-on/superfan is a walking cringe factory named "Michael Lincoln" who doubles as Metallic Realms’s impossibly unreliable narrator. Slovenly, paranoid, tone-deaf, creepy, deceptive, and surprisingly sinister, the character’s utterly unhinged, totally reprehensible, and completely captivating.

Without a doubt, the deep first-person narration makes this novel work on multiple levels. Had this sad tale of pathetic sci-fi aficionados been written as a staid, past tense, third-person limited account, the novel might've been borderline unreadable. Instead, the so-called “voice” of Michael Lincoln transforms the proceedings into a mesmerizing train wreck from which you simply cannot look away. Better still, when the novel reaches its climax, and the multiple layers of meta-fictional elements come to a head, the full power of this narrative structure is revealed.

Even the Meta’s Meta is Meta: Aside from the nightmarishly funny narrator, Metallic Realms plays with structure in a very creative way. The short stories comprising The Star Rot Chronicles feature as chapters within the novel—analogous to the “novel within a novel” structure seen in Erasure—and this dynamic induces some wince-worthy laughs. For example, two members of the Orb 4 collective are dating "IRL" and their petty squabbles and relationship woes are first detailed in the novel (as the lowly writers Taras and Darya) and then not-so-subtly reimagined by their auto-fictional stand-ins (as the fantastical heroes Captain Baldwin and First Mate Vivian). It’s extremely meta, very funny, and speaks to the idea of “fiction” never being truly divorced from “fact.”

Voice Control: Owing to this structural choice, one of my favorite aspects of the novel is how Michel calibrates the “quality" of each Star Rot story and fine-tunes the narrative voice of each character—both as fictional fiction writer and auto-fictional projection. More specifically, the Star Rot tales are fairly pedestrian, but since they were written to be pedestrian on purpose, that means they’re actually quite impressive! Moreover, each member of the Orb 4 writes in a distinctive style (e.g., the queer person of color is especially empathetic, the thirsty MFA striver is overly literary, etc.) and these differences are reflected in their individual Star Rot creations. Again, it’s all very meta, but the variety showcases Michel’s skill and the juxtaposition against Michael Lincoln’s fanatical and psychotic narrator is a blast.

Final Verdict: I must admit I tend to steer clear of novels where the characters are writers, because what could be more self-indulgent and self-congratulatory? This was my only reservation before reading, and I’m delighted to report Michel turned a potential weakness into a definitive strength. Metallic Realms is both a loving ode to and satirical skewering of the creative process, and the novel does an excellent—and unsettling—job of blurring the lines between fact, fiction, and a fandom. Strong recommendation.

FURTHER READING

Metallic Realms hits bookshelves today and the best way to support authors is, of course, to buy their dang books (preferably from Bookshop.org, Libro.fm, or your favorite local indie).

But Lincoln Michel is literary hot shit, so in addition to snagging a copy of Metallic Realms, you should consider subscribing to his excellent writing newsletter Counter Craft and adding his first novel, the cyberpunk classic The Body Scout, to your reading list. I do the former, have done the latter, and am a big fan of both.