Beasts of the Wild Black is a new series of sci-fi novellas by RJ Barker that was announced last week, and due to be published starting in October 2026 by Podium: Beasts of the Wild Black, Pride of the Wild Black, and Lost in the Wild Black.
The excellent covers for the three novellas were first unveiled by Runalong the Shelves, and immediately caught my attention. I’ve been a fan of Barker’s work ever since his excellent debut, Age of Assassins, so the fact that his name was on this was the first reason it is a must-read. Then I read the premise, which further cemented my interest.
The three books will first be available individually, before being published as a collected edition (in January 2027), in print, eBook, and audiobook — read by Clare Corbett and Vidish Athavale. Here’s the series synopsis:
Explore the Wild Black — where any signal could be a trap, any planet a mystery, and any companion a lifeline — in this trio of high-concept space adventures.
Deep Strike crews are accustomed to hostile terrain. But in Beasts of the Wild Black, Capt. Min Law and the crew of the Thunberg get more than they bargained for when they follow a garbled distress call to a seemingly quiet world. Meanwhile, in Pride of the Wild Black, Min’s mentor Maj. Gen. Alice Benner’s concern for her missing protégé draws her into a potentially wide-scale conspiracy. And in Lost in the Wild Black a wounded superintelligent cat named Bruce is trapped on a lethal planet desperate to send out a signal, no matter who — or what — hears it.
Here, too, is the synopsis for the first novella, for a little bit more information/detail:
The Wild Black wants to kill you: That’s the reality in this wildly imaginative sci-fi novella from the award-winning author of the Tide Child trilogy.
Years ago, Deep Strike cadet Min Law was left behind during what was meant to be a routine operation. Though he survived, the resulting trauma almost ended his career. Now, as captain of the DST Thunberg, he is preparing to take his crew on a similar journey to a seemingly quiet world following a garbled distress signal. The mission is simple on paper: find the source of the call, offer aid, return home.
But nothing is simple in the Wild Black at the edges of the unexplored universe. As the crew of the Thunberg searches for the signal’s source, they find strange ships and corpses that shouldn’t be there. The mysteries begin to pile up. What happened out here? And why does some of the technology look horribly familiar?
Fortunately, Min’s team of animal counterparts is prepared for anything. The bear, Sitka Pete, is eight hundred pounds of loyal muscle. The rooks are quick and coordinated, perfect for reconnaissance. And the cats, Oz and Hinder, well, they’re just cats. But together they’re more than up for whatever the Wild Black can throw at them — even if this region isn’t quite so unexplored after all…
Really looking forward to reading this series.
RJ Barker’s Beasts of the Wild Black is due to be published by Podium, on October 6th, 2026. No publication date, at the time of writing, for the second and third novellas. The collected edition is due to be published by Podium, on January 5th, 2027.
Also on CR: Interviews with RJ Barker — 2017 and 2020; Annotated Excerpt from The Bone Ships; Reviews of Age of Assassins, Blood of Assassins, and King of Assassins
Civilian Reader 