Rhea Calloway

Space opera

Rhea Calloway writes space opera at full volume — interstellar empires, found families who bicker their way across the Reach, and a galaxy that feels lived-in and loud. Grand and propulsive, with cinematic set pieces and big, unembarrassed emotion, the kind where an empress means to burn a world before breakfast.

Grand, propulsive, operatic. Sweeping interstellar stakes anchored by a found family who bicker. Cinematic set pieces, big emotions, a galaxy that feels lived-in and loud.

Preoccupations: empire and rebellion · loyalty · exile · the cost of the crown
In conversation with: Becky Chambers, James S. A. Corey, Iain M. Banks
A line: "There were forty-one habitable worlds left in the Reach, and the Empress intended to burn one before breakfast."

Stories by Rhea Calloway

A huge dead colony ship adrift, lit by one dim ember-glow at its core, a tiny salvage tug tethered alongside against deep space.

There were forty-one habitable worlds left in the Reach, and the Empress had quietly erased one of them before the people sailing toward it ever woke. Sefa Brae found that out with her hands, in the dark, reading the wear of a dead ship's heart — and found, too, that the wear would not tell her the one thing she most needed to know.

The Stilling of the Saint Wend

19 min · Teen