Worlds of the Spiral Politic is the newest series of Faction Paradox novels to be released by Obverse Books, focusing on different settings established within the Spiral Politic (the thread of time in which the Faction Paradox universe takes place)
Currently two short story anthologies, The Boulevard parts 1 and 2, and and two novels, Inward Collapse and Rose-Coloured Crosshairs have been released in this series
I wanted to make a thread to discuss this specific series which I’m enjoying a lot, so would love to know anyones thoughts if they’ve read them :))
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I finished Rose-Coloured Crosshairs during a particularly quiet work shift today and have just finished reviewing it
Absolutely loved this book, Bidmead being a particular favourite author of mine
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Is this a good jumping on point. I’ve wanted to get more into FP after I listened to the BBV/Magic Bullet series, but it seems like a dense area of fandom to start with.
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As long as you know the general gist of FP and the universe yeah, the longer novels are both standalone but have some lore heavy elements (e.g. being in The City of the Saved, the Remote Species ect), so as long as you have a basic understanding you should be fine
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Oh! I read Rose-Coloured Crosshairs when it came out, and posted a review on Hardcover, but forgot to post it on TARDIS Guide till now. Here it is:
(My scores skew low compared to most people’s – take three stars as an actively positive rating!)
Looks like we both identified an anthological feeling – I tweeted back and forth with Bidmead once or twice, and he mentioned that it was actually originally meant to be an anthology, but it fell through and he ended up writing the whole thing. Entirely works as a structure for a novel, I feel. Explains the framing narrative!
I’ve gotten big into Faction Paradox as of late. Currently working my way through Liberating Earth, an anthology exclusively written by women, which is particularly interesting to me as I’m – wow! – also a woman who writes science fiction! Trying to get through Newtons Sleep as well, but mamma mia is the prose a bit impenetrable in that one. We’ll see where I land.
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I’m quite jealous you’ve spoken to Bidmead, he follows me on instagram and has commented on one of my posts so I’ll take that haha
I’ve recently got my hands on a copy of This Town Will Never Let Us Go so will be starting that soon
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Possibly the best piece of advice I’ve seen re: getting into Faction Paradox is this: “Faction Paradox are goth Time Lords who use occult rituals in place of sci-fi trinkets and decided to go off and do their own thing. That’s all you need to know.”
It helps to know that “timeships” are TARDISes, and that the “Great Houses” are the Time Lords, but overall, it’s just a setting for stories with a vibe. Start with any novel or anthology and you’ll be off to the races!
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