Your Autumn read: the new novel The Oktoberist out 16th October 2026
‘A spy, a dentist, and a disappearer walk into a shadow war…
The Union is dead and buried. New Albion’s Intelligence Chief, the Iron Dame is losing her tenuous grip on the benign dictatorship formerly known as England.
What remains of the Realm is reeling from the insidious attacks of datagarch Winslow Gang’s Sino-Camp. In response the Iron Dame turns to the entrapment and coercion programme, FLYPAPER. The unrefusable offer of eleven months of joy in return for one of service and sorrow is accepted by hapless dentist, O.
Payback time has arrived and O must become The Oktoberist.
But FLYPAPER’s creator, ex-techcon, Billy Hunt – dragged out of prison and into the Iron Dame’s orbit by his uncle and Chief Disappearer, Carsun ‘Carcass’ Stark – dreams of escaping their clutches once and for all, but has he got what it takes, if not where will he get it?
The Sino-Camp’s AIgent, TZU detects a sensitive counter-hack, forcing Gang to recall sleeper, Nelius Quaid to Night Town to investigate, but Quaid is burdened by mysteries of his own…
The Iron Dame gives Stark his orders, Billy still wants out, Nelius Quaid hits Night Town as the Oktoberist is activated.
It’s almost Hallowe’en, the last leaves are falling, who will prevail as the End-Game begins?
‘Born of imagined shared pints with JG Ballard, Anthony Burgess and James Joyce, Onyx gives us a surveilled Shoreditch as Night Town, puts an ‘X’ in Dublin and grants a glimpse into a dystopian future that may already have its feet under our cyber table.’
AIgent Q&A :
Q: Dear Andy, about the title. Why the ‘k’ in The Oktoberist (TZU)
A: Hi TZU-, there’s a two part double edged explanation (as usual)
Firstly I’d done an early version of the cover design and showed it to someone at Spybrary social event on my phone, they immediately loved the Oktober and said so, so that sealed it as I was deliberating still at that point.
Then it was about building an entirely new, dystopian world or alternate future with Night Town and Dublxn, where everything’s the same yet different, off kilter, Counterpart style if you like. So October becomes Oktober, September, Zeptember and November Neuvember, thankfully I didn’t have rename any further months of the year, the last two giving nods to a couple of classic bands. All my work’s infused with music and what some call counter culture, that’s just a couple of examples, there are many more within The Oktoberist, how many and where? Answers on a post card, please. Enjoy the soundtrack playlist.
Q: What’s the craic with the cover design? (TZU)
A: The craic? You’re coming on TZU! As one of The Oktoberist’s pervading themes is dystopian surveillance I drew Facial Recognition Software grids on the character Jyoti’s imagined profile, the autumn leaves and the flash drive, the acid smiley is another link back to Glimmer. The Janus mirroring represents duplicity at the heart of any spy novel worth its pink.
Q: Hi Andy, what’s the link if any to the BARBELL trilogy? (CLAPDRAGON)
A: Hi CLAPDRAGON, The Oktoberist is a standalone right now but in some senses it’s the natural sequel to The Glimmer Girl, despite Shev not being present, as we have a returning Admiral Dewhurst as The Iron Dame as one of several antagonists. With a small cast of deeply flawed characters it’s test to the reader to decide who the actual good guy or guys are here, but I believe the Onyxians out there are up to the challenge.
There are also references to the created near future of The Glimmer Girl, regarding the Soon Army street gangs, tech, AIgents and in particular the prevalence of the nano-narcotic, pink. In no way would anybody need to read Glimmer to enjoy The Oktoberist, but it’s there for seconds, along with the other works, if they enjoy their first helping of Onyxia.
Q: JG Ballard, and Anthony Burgess are lesser known than other the authors mentioned in your acknowledgements, Joyce, Huxley and Orwell, what was their influence? (TZU)
A: Sure, TZU, I’d say Ballard and Joyce were liberators for the likes of me, but starting with Joyce it’s his playful not-giving a-XXXXness with words and his invented language, much more under the radar than Orwell’s from 1984 which is ever more prescient today. I also flip the historic Monto of Dublin, featured in a debauched section of Ulysses, into the London of Night Town. JG Ballard in terms of imagination and the world building particularly with Vermillion Sands stories and others within his two volume cannon of short stories.Burgess did the same in terms of Nadsat the language the droogs in A ClockWork Orange spoke, I wouldn’t go that far but the street gangs, the Soon Army and Lazar Dollz, are definitely the great grand children of Burgess’s naughty droogies. I’d definitely class The Oktoberist as Ballardian though, but will others agree?
Q: What’s next? (CLAPDRAGON)
A: The Non-fiction, Green Genie (Ireland & I) Confessions of a Foreign Born National will be with you in the spring.
Regarding fiction I’ll be cryptic and take a line from The Oktoberist “tomorrow always knows and sometimes really wishes it didn’t” something’s cooking so wait and see. Until then enjoy The Oktoberist.