Malcolm Devlin

The Coode Street Advent Calendar 2025 - Day 7
Jonathan talks to BSFA Award winner Aliya Whitely about what she's been reading, would recommend and has coming up.

www.podbean.com/eas/pb-7vyvv...

Half Price Engines Beneath Us and You Will Grow Into Them and other Influx goodies. And a very tangential excuse to repost this picture of my son's Halloween Lego house even though neither it nor the books have anything to do with Black Friday.

We're running a big #BlackFridaySale!

All Influx titles in paperback and eBook are a full 50% off (+P&P) until November 30th

Just use discount code BFRIDAY25 at checkout.

influxpress.com/shop

The cover of MAD SISTERS OF ESI with "The Washington Post" written above it and "Best SFF Novel of 2025" written below it.

A picture of The Washington Post article. Title reads "10 best sci-fi and fantasy novels of 2025" and the subtitle reads "From an indigenous vampire story to the tale of two sisters living in a cosmic whale, this year's books kept us guessing."

The Washington Post review of MAD SISTERS OF ESI. It reads: "Two sisters live inside a cosmic whale, visiting the innumerable worlds within its body, until one of them escapes into the universe outside. There, she uncovers the whale's origin story, which lies with another pair of sisters who lived on a shape-shifting island where everyone goes mad once a century. A poetic, metaphysical epic, "Mad Sisters" feels like it's in conversation with other recent books about people in surreal, liminal spaces questioning what everything means - and it's my absolute favorite book of the year. (Book World review.)"

MAD SISTERS OF ESI is one of The Washington Post’s 10 best SFF novels of 2025. In the sheer amount of what gets published each year and what gets lost, this feels like a small, precious miracle ❤️

I'm incredibly excited that this is coming out next year. Translated by the brilliant María Pilar San Román and published by @obscuraed.bsky.social.

Generation Loss by Elizabeth Hand, Engines Beneath Us by Malcolm Devlin, and Fizz the cat who is about 13 years old and has still not written a single book

Bookmail! October sale pickups! From Influx Press! They arrived over a week ago but the cats liked sitting on the parcel and it is illegal to move them!

Boy cocking his head watching The Groke show up in the 90s Moomin cartoon.

Groke AI

Fantastic news, this. Nina Allan wins the Prix Médicis étranger for The Good Neighbours.

As if by magic, this review (the Swift one, aka read this everyone) is now online. locusmag.com/review/when-...

Preorder Now! February 2026 “Riveting, weird, unpredictable, and magnificent.” - Oliver K. Langmead “Whiteley never puts a foot wrong... another triumph to add to her list of many.” - Tim Major “Taut and surprising...A stunning achievement.” - Helen Marshall “Artfully woven and humming with the power and possibilities of the spoken word.” - E. J. Swift Against a black sandy background white and lilac text surrounding a 3D Hardback of THE MISHEARD WORLD by Aliya Whiteley.

Feb 2026 brings a new standalone novel from the Queen of Speculative Fiction: Arthur C. Clarke award-nominated Aliya Whiteley!

Here's what @oliverklangmead.bsky.social @manuscriptgal.bsky.social @timjmajor.bsky.social & @catamaroon.bsky.social thought of it!

Preorder geni.us/misheardw

Sale graphic featuring a sassy skeleton

15% off all Cloisterfox zines from now until Halloween! We've got stories by Robert Shearman, Ally Wilkes, Malcolm Devlin, and many more. Give one to a child instead of sweets and completely derail their psychological development.

www.etsy.com/shop/cloiste...

You Will Grow Into Them and Engines Beneath Us by Malcolm Devlin and a Lego haunted house. Oooooooooh.

Half price for Halloween. You Will Grow Into Them, Engines Beneath Us and a whole lot of other excellent Influx paperbacks including Joel Lane, Elizabeth Hand and more.

HALLOWEEN SALE — Influx Press

Link would be useful, right: www.influxpress.com/sale

You Will Grow Into Them and Engines Beneath Us by Malcolm Devlin and a Lego haunted house. Oooooooooh.

Half price for Halloween. You Will Grow Into Them, Engines Beneath Us and a whole lot of other excellent Influx paperbacks including Joel Lane, Elizabeth Hand and more.

Indie presses in ‘existential crisis’ call for trade support More than 20 independent publishing houses – including Bluemoose Books, Tilted Axis Press and Influx Press – have written an open letter calling for the trade to “work together to ensure the longevity...

www.thebookseller.com/news/indie-p...

Hardback edition of When There Are Wolves Again by E. J. Swift, with cover featuring a wolf and branch/leaf/flower design, photographed in the garden with the author's cat in the background being dramatic

When There Are Wolves Again is out in the UK today! I wrote something about the book, and keeping going, and some personal stuff I dithered over but, well, it's been A Year.

I'm so glad the book is out there and thank you so much to everyone who has supported it 🐺🤍

ejswift.co.uk/2025/10/09/w...

Like Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita? The Lady, The Tiger, and the Girl Who Loved Death weaves together magic, political spectacle, and the power of storytelling in a world where reality and illusion blur dangerously together. Out from @titanbooks.bsky.social now!

#DarkFantasy #CircusBooks

Thanks to @argonautbooks.bsky.social for sending M home with this one last month; she inhaled it this evening in the pub with a soundtrack of 90s and 00s Britpop, which was apparently "A++ vibes" for this unsettling little read.

Blimey, thank you very much!

Yes! All down to the excellent Luke Bird, that is.

This is absolutely wonderful news.

Engines Beneath Us by Malcolm Devlin (published by Influx Press). Folk horror! (Ish) But in a housing estate with a weird bit in a cellar.

Gottle of gears. Very happy that this one has had a new lease of life.

💙📚🩸 You will start & finish this in a day. It's equally chilling and heartfelt, immediately grabs you, and has much to say on reality and perception. An incredibly relevant, compelling, and scary book ⬇️

Thank you very much!

Thank you!

Thank you, Dan!

And Then I Woke Up by Malcolm Devlin. Frustratingly still topical. I mean, really. Come on. Seriously though.

Just putting this here. Again.

Featuring The Death of Stalin, The Prestige, La Strada and Moulin Rouge!

These are some of my favorite films and if you love them too, my novel is absolutely made for you! THE LADY, THE TIGER AND THE GIRL WHO LOVED DEATH has all the magic, drama, and political edge you crave🔥

Out from @titanbooks.bsky.social (and thanks to @cathtrechman.bsky.social for the fab edits!)

The Lady, the Tiger and the Girl Who Loved Death by Helen Marshall: Review by Ian Mond The Lady, the Tiger and the Girl Who Loved Death, Helen Marshall (Titan 978-1-80336-951-8, $18.99, 368pp, tp) June 2025. I’m a big fan of Helen Marshall’s fiction, both short and long, including he…

“At its core, THE LADY, THE TIGER AND THE GIRL WHO LOVED DEATH is a story about stories.” @mondyboy74.bsky.social reviews @manuscriptgal.bsky.social

Croquet, Anyone? Making Moscow a Vast Fun Zone to Divert Minds From War.

Life imitating art: Reading about Moscow’s surreal detachment from war while people live in carefully constructed unrealities reminds me why I wrote The Lady, The Tiger and the Girl Who Loved Death—a story about power, illusion, and the lies we tell ourselves
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/30/w...