City of All Seasons

Oliver K. Langmead writes speculative fiction. His new verse-novel, Calypso, is published by Titan Books in 2024. His novel, Glitterati, was shortlisted for a British Fantasy Award, and named one of New Scientist's best Science Fiction books of 2022. His previous books include Birds of Paradise, Metronome, and the verse-novel Dark Star, which was named one of the Guardian's best books of 2015. He is a Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Lancaster, and in late 2018 he was the writer in residence at the European Space Agency's Astronaut Centre in Cologne.Aliya Whiteley's is the author of The Beauty, The Loosening Skin, Skein Island, From the Neck Up, The Arrival of Missives and more. Her novels and novellas have been shortlisted for multiple awards including the Arthur C Clarke award, British Fantasy award, British Science Fiction award and a Shirley Jackson award. Her short fiction has appeared in Interzone, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Black Static, Strange Horizons, The Dark, McSweeney's Internet Tendency and The Guardian, as well as in anthologies such as Unsung Stories' This Dreaming Isle and 2084 and Lonely Planet's Better than Fiction. She also writes a regular non-fiction column for Interzone magazine.

PRAISE FOR LANGMEADLangmead's ambitious, original fiction is always something to savour, and Calypso contains some of his very best writing. Full of arresting imagery, emotional complexity and startling narrative turns, it's a thoughtful, elegant, exciting -- a really unique read. I loved it.Sarah WatersPerfectly balanced between timely and timeless, Calypso challenged my perceptions of what science fiction could be. The result is nothing short of iconic. A stunning work of epic imagination and outstanding craftsmanship. Langmead stretches language and form to create beautiful verse and a sizzling story.T.L. HuchuLangmead stands at the cutting edge of science fiction. He has taken on the monumental task of novelty in a jaded world and succeeded admirably. His work is gutsy in both thesis and execution, and he'll absolutely be on my list of stars to watch.Alex WhiteCalypso is many things. It's highly inventive, delicately crafted, and an elegant tale. It is both a written work and a work of art, using the kind of formal experiment which, when considered with the narrative, enhances the whole. I enjoyed it immensely. Tade ThompsonCalypso is an evocative and visionary novella that reshapes the cold, scientific story of human colonisation into a lyrical song, reminiscent of ancient epic poems.Sunyi DeanThis is very cool. The story of an interstellar colony mission rendered as an epic poem, rich with imagery and allusion. And it looks lovely. I really enjoyed this.David HutchinsonFar more than a literal Space Odyssey, Oliver Langmead's Calypso is a breathless high wire act of a novel. A rich, reckless, gravity-defying marvel.Malcolm DevlinI love everything about it. I love the structural play of it; I love that it's so beautiful, there's such wonderful language, those sections pulsing as waveforms are incredible; it's presented in such a beautiful way that I was honestly absolutely flabbergasted. It's extraordinary. It's so stylish, and powerful. And it's so absolutely, utterly assured, it totally understand itself and what it's trying to say and do. I loved it. James SmytheBloody hell, it's brilliant! Seriously, I'm happy something like this exists. It's fantastic. A sense of wonder pervades every line and every chapter; the characters are memorable, warm, heartbreakingly human. Give as many people as possible a chance to go on this strange, savage journey.Francesco DimitriCalypso is a brilliant, consistently amazing and utterly original piece of science fiction: intensely readable and absorbing not despite being in verse but because of it, expertly handled and thought-provoking.Adam RobertsVivid, mind-bending and utterly unique, Langmead is a writer at the very forefront of genre fiction.Stark HolbornCarried along on the undulations of the text, you sink into the narrative, subsumed, seduced by the beauty of flora-fauna-funga body horror; the splendour of becoming more-than-human. Calypso is a stunning piece of work that made me feel as one with all the glorious magnificence and horror of the world.Ever DundasPRAISE FOR WHITELEY"Intense and consuming writing, constantly challenging expectations."Adrian Tchaikovsky"Whiteley's self-deconstructing quest narrative is a puzzle box full of delights, perils and strange wonders. Haunting."Mike Carey, author of The Girl With All the Gifts and The Book of Koli "Whiteley takes the reader on a cryptic journey of trust, identity and knowing your place in the world."Starburst Magazine"Whiteley's trademark subtle surrealism shines."Publishers Weekly"A melancholy and compellingly weird tale of identity in crisis."SFX"A unique work of literary and speculative excellence."SciFiNow"One of the most original and provocative voices in contemporary science fiction."Nina Allen"A hero's journey stripped back to its essence, remixed with spaceships and conspiracies, masquerade and menace. Is it an allegory pretending to be an adventure story? An adventure masquerading as a secret history of the world? A new kind of wisdom literature for the digital age? Whatever it is I loved every second of it. Truly Aliya Whiteley is one of the most original and interesting writers in the field."Helen Marshall, author of The Migration"There's nothing like a new Aliya Whiteley novel, and no Aliya Whiteley novel is like any other. Three Eight One may be her most enigmatic work to date, a parable of maturation and the milestones of life that is at once mythical and down-to-earth. I adored every moment of it, and I found it overwhelming in its scope, honesty and emotional impact. It's certainly one of the best novels I've read this year."Tim Major, author of You Don't Belong Here and Snakeskins"A brain-charging voyage through the present and the future, a novel that shepherds the reader out and then brings her back in, changing her in the process. It's like Kafka rewrote Pale Fire as a science-fictional novel. A Pilgrim's Progress through a godless world where the pilgrim is Patrick McGoohan's 'Prisoner.' A dream of a book, in several senses: enigmatic, marvellous, utterly original. Whiteley really is one of the most striking and brilliant writers working today."Adam Roberts, author of The Thing Itself"Masterfully written and rich with meaning, Three Eight One confirms Aliya Whiteley as one of our most ingenious -- and important -- storytellers. Travelling the Horned Road is a wild and unique experience: funny and thoughtful, frightening and joyful. I already want to go back."Matt Hill, author of Lamb and The Breach"Like watching a magic trick happen... I'm going to be thinking about Three Eight One for a long time."Fiona Barnett, author of The Dark Between the Trees"Three Eight One celebrates the art of storytelling with every clever twist and turn in this exquisitely crafted, beautifully realized voyage of discovery."E. J. Swift, author of The Coral Bones and Paris Adrift"Slippery and whip-smart, this is a novel profoundly perceptive of the human condition. It has a disorienting ebb and flow - elegantly elusive and dream-like at times, while also being finely-tuned and precise. A mediation, perhaps, on the fallacies of history, and the futility of searching for meaning."Lucie McKnight Hardy, author of Water Shall Refuse Them and Dead Relatives