Overview

Rochelle wakes from cryostasis to take up her role as engineer on the colony ark, Calypso. But she finds the ship has transformed into a forest, populated by the original crew’s descendants, who revere her like a saint. She travels the ship with the Calypso’s creator, the enigmatic Sigmund, and Catherine, a bioengineered marvel who can commune with the plants, uncovering a new history of humanity forged while she slept. She discovers a legacy of war between botanists and engineers. A war fought for the right to build a new Earth – a technological paradise, or a new Eden in bloom, untouched by mankind’s past. And Rochelle, the last to wake, holds the balance of power in her hands.

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9781803365336

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Reviews

Langmead’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 Waters A stunning work of epic imagination and outstanding craftsmanship. Langmead stretches language and form to create beautiful verse and a sizzling story. T.L. Huchu Langmead 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 White Calypso 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 Thompson Calypso 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 Dean Lush and lyrical, Calypso is nothing short of a marvel, calling to mind both ancient epics and thrilling dreams of the future. It’s a staggering odyssey that smashes the scifi genre as it spirals out, from moments of stillness on Earth to riots of explosive creation on a distant new paradise. I was consistently amazed. As a writer, I’m floored by his ambition. As a reader, I can’t wait to dive into his world again. Nathan Tavares This 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 Hutchinson Far 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 Devlin I 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 Smythe Bloody 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 Dimitri Calypso 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 Roberts Vivid, mind-bending and utterly unique, Langmead is a writer at the very forefront of genre fiction. Stark Holborn Huge in scope and heart, elegant in structure, and filled with an ocean of thoughts about humanity and our future: Calypso is a stunning creation. Aliya Whiteley Carried 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 Dundas

Langmead’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 Waters A stunning work of epic imagination and outstanding craftsmanship. Langmead stretches language and form to create beautiful verse and a sizzling story. T.L. Huchu Langmead 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 White Calypso 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 Thompson Calypso 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 Dean Lush and lyrical, Calypso is nothing short of a marvel, calling to mind both ancient epics and thrilling dreams of the future. It’s a staggering odyssey that smashes the scifi genre as it spirals out, from moments of stillness on Earth to riots of explosive creation on a distant new paradise. I was consistently amazed. As a writer, I’m floored by his ambition. As a reader, I can’t wait to dive into his world again. Nathan Tavares This 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 Hutchinson Far 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 Devlin I 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 Smythe Bloody 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 Dimitri Calypso 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 Roberts Vivid, mind-bending and utterly unique, Langmead is a writer at the very forefront of genre fiction. Stark Holborn Huge in scope and heart, elegant in structure, and filled with an ocean of thoughts about humanity and our future: Calypso is a stunning creation. Aliya Whiteley Carried 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 Dundas You can almost summarise Calypso from its first line – it ‘is a grand cathedral’. And Oliver K. Langmead’s writing is a rhapsodic exploration of faith, nature and space exploration that echoes powerfully through it. There are notes of celestial wonder and cosmic scale here, but also the more intimate and moving struggles of its central character, Rochelle, as she tries literally to find her place in the universe.  Tajinder Hayer It's been a long time since I've read a book so bold and lush, so skilled at making and remaking vibrant and richly imagined worlds, and yet so attentive to vulnerability - it was such an ultimately tender read. Jenn Ashworth Langmead’s kaleidoscopic space-opera-in-verse transforms glimpses of Homer, Ovid, Old English epic, the Bible and Milton into something rich and strange. As emotionally affecting as it is formally inventive, Calypso offers a gripping new myth for our distant futures. Catherine Spooner, Professor of Literature and Culture at Lancaster University

Author Information

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.

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