Book Review: Calypso by Oliver K. Langmead

This review was first published by Booklist on March 1, 2024.

A generation ship is sent from Earth to a far exoplanet, with several engineers in hyperstasis scheduled to awaken and lead the terraforming when they arrive, while generations of passengers live their lives during the journey. But when one engineer emerges from her sleep, she finds the others are missing and a schism has wracked the ship. Told in long-form poetry, Calypso gives this well-used plot a unique spin. Langmead (Glitterati, 2022) uses poetic styling in fascinating ways. He alters the formatting of the text for each narrating character and presents individualized, gorgeous artwork at the top of each chapter. Altering the poetic format not only conveys which character is narrating, it proves to be a potent method of character development; each character’s format gives the reader deeper insight into how their mind works. It’s also a uniquely powerful technique to unmoor the reader by disrupting expected visual cues. Ultimately, the story Langmead tells is secondary to his character and style explorations. A sure bet for readers of lyrical, lush, and character-driven sf.