Kalivas! Or, Another Tempest, by Nick Mamatas

Book 15 for my 2026 goal of 36 books for the year! Only slightly behind. My link to the book is through my bookshop.org affiliate account, which means I may earn a small commission if you buy from there. I’ve been internet friends with Nick Mamatas for a long time now, even from the early Twitter days. (Remember Twitter? I try not to.) I’ve read and reviewed a number of his books on this blog (see here and here) and I’m always impressed by how unconventional his stories can be. In his book Sensation, for example, some humans get drawn into a secret conflict between intelligent spiders and the parasitic wasps that prey on them. Strange and instantly compelling! The same can be said about Mamatas’ recent work, Kalivas! Or, Another Tempest (2025). As the title suggests, it is a retelling of the story of Shakespeare’s classic play The Tempest, but through the lens of science fiction! Years ago, Kalivas was brought to a remote island archipelago by his mother, a brilliant scientist and…