Beyond the Stars: Three Legends of Modern Sci-Fi Panel Event

Peter F. Hamilton, Christopher Ruocchio and Adrian Tchaikovsky share a stage

Three writers who have each reshaped what space opera can do come together for one night at St Edmund's Church, a pairing that does not happen often given how spread out this kind of guest list usually is across the festival circuit.

Peter F. Hamilton, publishing since 1988 and behind doorstop series like the Night's Dawn Trilogy and the Commonwealth Saga, brings Exodus: The Helium Sea, the closing volume of his Archimedes Engine duology. Christopher Ruocchio, who sold his debut novel Empire of Silence in his early twenties, is making one of only a handful of UK festival stops with his Sun Eater series, a run of books that blends space opera with something closer to epic fantasy. Adrian Tchaikovsky, winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Children of Time and a repeat BSFA Award winner for books including Children of Ruin and Shards of Earth, completes the panel. Debut author Jesse Aragon, whose own novel Demon Star has just been published, chairs the discussion, with audience Q&A and signing to follow.

Three distinct approaches to writing galaxies and empires, questioned by the same room on the same night, is not a lineup that comes round often.

Saturday 26 September 2026 · St Edmund's Church, Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire CV36 4AT · Starts 7:30pm