The autofictional element of the text is altogether fascinating. Michael Lincoln is an inversion of Lincoln Michel ... Michael’s comments on fiction and creating art deeply resonate for their authenticity ... Gut-punching honesty gives Metallic Realms its soul. That’s essential because Michael, as a narrator, is a lot to handle. He’s off-putting in the most hilarious ways ... Michael says that SF reflects our present reality, and I felt that deeply by the time I reached the novel’s end—the thin veneer of academic analysis at the beginning of Metallic Realms steadily evolves into an examination of what it means to make anything creative when life conspires against us ... While Metallic Realmsis described as an 'inventive romp through realms real and unreal,' it’s also heartbreaking: Michael’s motivation to capture The Star Rot Chronicles and the Orb 4’s is grounded in an unconditional love for his friendship with Taras, to the point that it destroys his career prospects, livelihood, and social life ... Michael is unlikeable and, in some ways, unredeemable, but he’s also loveable and tragic, which makes his eccentricities fascinating to follow on the page ... The turn at the novel’s end is sudden, albeit foreshadowed, and a part of me would have loved to have spent more time with this narrative shift to observe the person Michael becomes ... Michael occasionally feels like a caricature of himself ... The moments of realness are refreshing and grounding ... A genre-bending examination of friendship, obsession, and creativity that moves between SF, autofiction, and experimental literature with clear intent. I left this book feeling both assured of the future of storytelling and lamenting the realities of writing fiction today.
A riveting tale of a sci-fi writing group and its obsessive hanger-on ... Michel has a knack for exploring the characters’ complex relationships ... This captivates.
