Calypso

Paperback
$17.99 US
On sale Sep 30, 2025 | 224 Pages | 9781803365343

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"Ambitious and immersive...an elegantly told meditation on how we can’t leave ourselves behind."  -Esquire Magazine - The Best Sci-Fi Books of 2024

A ground-breaking, mind-bending and wildly imaginative epic verse revolution in SF. A saga of colony ships, shattering moons and cataclysmic war in a new Eden. 

Experience the Hugo Award and BSFA award-nominated, truly unforgettable lyrical eco-fiction masterpiece, for fans of Kim Stanley Robinson, Adrian Tchaikovsky, and Jeff VanderMeer.


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.
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.

About

"Ambitious and immersive...an elegantly told meditation on how we can’t leave ourselves behind."  -Esquire Magazine - The Best Sci-Fi Books of 2024

A ground-breaking, mind-bending and wildly imaginative epic verse revolution in SF. A saga of colony ships, shattering moons and cataclysmic war in a new Eden. 

Experience the Hugo Award and BSFA award-nominated, truly unforgettable lyrical eco-fiction masterpiece, for fans of Kim Stanley Robinson, Adrian Tchaikovsky, and Jeff VanderMeer.


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.

Author

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.