Andrion: Queer steampunk antiquity from Alex Penland

A tale of steampunk antiquity on the brink of a feminist revolution - Andrion will delight fans of Madeline Miller's The Song of Achilles and Pullman's Dark Materials, with all the focus on family dysfunction of Hades from Supergiant Games and just as much queer content.

When 16-year-old Kallis goes to see Aristophanes' latest play, she's inspired to sneak into the Assembly and try to make her name as an orator. It’s not legal, of course.

Even if she had been born a man, she is too young.

After overthrowing Athens and changing the course of the city’s future, her father raised her at his side. Even though the men around him treat her like a wild animal, Niko's always been proud of her outspoken intelligence. Kallis has no reason to suspect he'll be anything but supportive. She’s spent her whole life immersed in politics. Is it so unthinkable that she wants to follow in her father’s footsteps?

Andrion is a feminist and queer novella, centred upon the relationship between father and daughter: he who risked everything to give her a better life, and she who’s willing to risk it all again for the sake of a more equitable future.

Against the backdrop of steampunk antiquity – an Ancient Athens where automatons line the city walls – Kallis sets out to incite a revolution. She’s going to create a world where no one is forced to be someone they’re not: a world where women can be artificers and orators, where one’s future isn’t determined by the track set out by their parents.

A coming-of-age, cross-over YA novel that offers a rare space for asexuality and polyamory.

About the writer:

Alex Penland is a former museum kid. They spent their childhood running rampant through the Smithsonian museums, which kicked off an early career as a child adventurer. Alex has worked in the field with NASA scientists, linguists, and acclaimed photographers.

Now a Pushcart-nominated author, Alex currently lives in Scotland while studying for a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Edinburgh. Prior adventures include founding a writing organization in Iowa, volunteering at the National Zoo in DC, and various enterprises in the field of education. Their work has been internationally published in The Midwest Review and Orion’s Belt; it is forthcoming in Interzone and Metaphorosis.

They hold memberships at SFWA (associate), HNS, SOA, and BSFA. More on their website HERE.

About the host:

Lindz McLeod is a queer, working-class, Scottish writer and editor who dabbles in the surreal. Her short stories have been published by Apex, Catapult, Flash Fiction Online, Pseudopod, and many more. Her longer work includes the novelette LOVE, HAPPINESS, AND ALL THE THINGS YOU MAY NOT BE DESTINED FOR (Assemble Media, 2022), her short story collection TURDUCKEN (Spaceboy, 2023), and her debut novel BEAST is forthcoming soon. Lindz writes in English, Scots, and — haltingly — Gaelic. She is a full member of the SFWA, the newly elected Club President of the Edinburgh Writers' Club, and is represented by Laura Zats at Headwater Literary Management. You can follow her on Twitter @lindzmcleod or find out more from her website, http://lindzmcleod.co.uk