Five Authors I’d Like To See Do Graphic Novels

By David Ferguson on April 30, 2026 • ( 0 )

By David Ferguson

Inspired by the announcement of a graphic novel written by Adrian Tchaikovsky and set in his Final Architecture book series, featuring art by Mike Collins, I started thinking about other authors I would like to see do a graphic novel set in the worlds they created.

Coincidentally, there’s an Adrian Tchaikovsky connection to four of the five. Adrian co-hosts the Starship Alexandria podcast with one of my picks, Emma Newman. They and their patrons recommended the books: the Hugo Award-winning A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine (2019), The Ministry of the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson (2020) and The Coral Bones by E. J. Swift (2023). This is how I discovered the authors of said books, who are all included. Not and advertisement or anything but may as wells slip in a recommendation for a great podcast. I’ve also finished the first Final Architecture book and would recommend. Anyway, here are my picks.

(Please note, for completeness, all book links are AmazonUK Affiliates, but many of the books listed are still available from independent bookshops via uk bookshop.org and we have included links to those in the “About the Authors” section, below)

Emma Newman

Book Series: The Planetfall Sequence

Books included: The novels Planetfall (2015), After Atlas (2016), Before Mars (2018), Atlas Alone (2019). The short story collection Before, After, Alone: A Planetfall Universe short story collection (2023)

Emma Newman writes both fantasy and science fiction, is a podcaster (including as noted co-hosting the wonderful Starship Alexandria with Adrian Tchaikovsky) as well as being an excellent audiobook narrator. She has been nominated for a number of awards including the Arthur C. Clarke Award and a Hugo Award for the series I am going to talk about.

She has written a few book series, but the Planetfall Sequence is the only science fiction one to date. Not only does she create a huge world of ideas for a graphic novel to build on, she mixes genres, so we could see a number of different types of stories.

Planetfall (2015), a book that looks at philosophy and religion, centred on a group of humans who travelled to a new planet on a ship called Atlas to find god. The novel also features the mystery of why they are waiting next to a huge structure called God City. The main character is an engineer from the crew, Ren, and we see things from her perspective.

After Atlas (2016) is a police procedural set back on Earth. One of the children of the Atlas crew, Carlos Moreno, who was basically abandoned by his mother as a baby, is a detective, in indentured servitude. Earth is ruled by Mega Corporations, and he is property. The leader of a cult is found dead, a cult he has a connection to, and he is selected to investigate. The book deals with his past and is very intense and psychological. This one really gets into futuristic technology and how crime and police work might develop. It is definitely my favourite book of the series.

Before Mars (2018) sees Anna Kubrin, a geologist and artist travelling to Mars, to create art for the leader of one the Mega Corps. When she arrives, she feels something is wrong and tries to investigate. She is also dealing with depression. The book covers motherhood in a way not often covered by the media. The details of her relationship with her family, particularly her husband, unfolds in an interesting and compelling way.

You can read the first three books without having read the others and you can switch one and two as it gives you a different perspective due to Carlos’ connection to the Atlas crew. However, Atlas Alone (2019) needs to be read last, as the story directly follows from events in book two and three. It is one I won’t go into too much detail as it would spoil the books for potential new readers.

The short story collection covers a number of characters from the books, and the stories are all over the continuity. It shows the potential for a graphic novel as there are gaps in continuity where one could be slotted into. An example being, I don’t know… an early Carlos Moreno case?

If you’re an audiobook fan, it is worth noting that Emma Newman, an excellent audio narrator, narrates all of the books except After Atlas (2016), which makes sense, given the main character.

Arkady Martine

Book Series: The Teixcalaan Series

Books included: A Memory Called Empire (2019), A Desolation Called Peace (2021)

Arkady Martine is a science fiction author who impressively won a Hugo Award for both of the books in the series I am going to talk about. These being her first two novels.

The series follows Mahit Dzmare, a citizen from a small independent republic called Lsel Station. She is selected to become the next Ambassador to the Teixcalaanli Empire. Her people have a secret “imago” technology, that allows them to carry the consciousness of their predecessor. She carries the memories of Yskander Aghavn. The problem is that Yskanderhadn’t returned to the station in years, so her memories are 15 years out of date. Also, her process was rushed, as the empire suddenly requested a new ambassador. The book starts with the mystery of what happened to Yskander. Mahit’s “fish out of water” status allows us to learn as she does.

Martine does a great job of creating an “evil empire”, while at the same time making it believable that people, like Mahit Dzmare, might be drawn to that empire. She builds a long history for both the empire and Lsel station, as well as language, grammar and customs for both them and some other cultures.

There are little things that add to the feeling that this universe is something real. One I will note is the cute names the Teixcalaanlitzlim have for people close to them. They have a naming convention where their names are a number followed by an object. Mahit’s diplomatic liaison Three Seagrass is given the nickname “reed” by a close friend.

Given the way Martine has built a history, there is plenty of room to fit in a graphic novel. Her style makes me eager to see how she would do it too.

TJ Klune

Book Series: Cerulean Chronicles

Books included: The House in the Cerulean Sea (2020), Somewhere Beyond the Sea (2024)

TJ Klune is an author of fantasy and romantic fiction. His book The House in the Cerulean Sea (2020) was a New York Times best seller and my introduction to his work. His books often cover found family and include LGBTQIA characters. This is the only fantasy series on my list, and the only one I would say is definitely kid friendly.

The series begins with Linus Baker, a civil servant in the Department in Charge of Magical Youths. He is tasked with inspecting the orphanages that home these youths. Due to his spotless record, he is given a special assignment to visit an orphanage whose occupants are deemed particularly dangerous, including one child that one day may cause the end of the world.

Living amongst the children makes Linus start to think about what happens to these children after he is done with his inspections and how the wider world treats them.

Klune has an uncanny ability to make you care deeply for his characters and to tug at your heart strings. I got emotionally invested in these books and there are so many wonderful characters.

I highly recommend the audiobooks, performed by Daniel Henning. He really brings the characters alive.

Klune has already hinted that he would love to do a graphic novel based on fan favourite character, Chauncey, and that is just one of a number of ideas that would work.

Kim Stanley Robinson

Book: The Ministry for the Future (2020)

Kim Stanley Robinson is a science fiction writer who is best known for his trilogy of novels that chronicle the settlement and terraforming of Mars. His books cover a variety of subjects. The one I am covering touches on many of these topics including ecology, politics and culture. Scientists are often the heroes of his novels.

With some of his previous climate fiction works, Robinson dealt with the aftermath of events. However, this one starts off with a deadly climate event, a heat wave in India. The event traumatises American aid worker, Frank May, one of the books main characters. The other main character is Mary Murphy, a former Irish Foreign Minister and head of the titular Ministry of the Future, an organisation established by the Paris Agreement to advocate for the world’s future generations of citizens, as if their rights were as valid as the present generation’s.

The book builds from the events in India, as Mary struggles to get things done to prevent similar events. Her struggle is caused mainly by world politics and financial institutions.

Many of the book’s chapters feature mostly anonymous characters’ accounts of future events. We also hear their ideas about ecology, economics, and other subjects. These chapters are one of the reasons the book has been dubbed a “science fiction non-fiction.” Its unique style giving readers ideas of potential changes based on actual science.

The book covers a lot of Mary’s life but there are other events referenced that aren’t gone into that Mary is largely unaware of and this is where I think a graphic novel could fit.

E.J. Swift

Book: The Coral Bones (2023)

E.J. Swift is a speculative fiction writer, and several of her books fall under the genre of climate fiction or “cli-fi.”

The breadth of time in The Coral Bones (2023) is what I think would make a graphic novel work. This one has three main characters set in three different time periods. They are divided by time but connected by the ocean.

In the present day, marine biologist Hanna Ishikawa is racing against time to save the coral reef. The book starts with her discovery of a dead body with an environmental slogan written on it. Her story is a bit of a murder mystery.

In 1839, seventeen-year-old Judith Holliman, an amateur biologist, lives in Sydney Town. She keeps a menagerie of creatures to study but longs to go exploring the wider world with her father, the captain of a ship. She tries to convince him to let her go on his latest voyage, having been recently abandoned by her mother.

In the sun scorched 22nd century, Telma Velasco investigates environmental crimes, mostly involving people raising creatures from the dead using stolen DNA and selling them to wealthy collectors. In her story, she is investigating the discovery of a leafy sea dragon, a beautiful creature, in Queensland.

As you might expect, the stories end up being connected, but EJ Swift does it in an entertaining way. For me, I’d like to see a story in Telma’s era as I feel there is more potential for new stories there.

When There Are Wolves Again (2025) By E.J. Swift

The audiobook uses three narrators, which really adds to the experience. I’d also recommend E.J. Swift’s book, the recently-published When There Are Wolves Again (2025), another excellent climate science fiction book.

David Ferguson

About The Authors

Book links in this section are UKBookshop.org Affiliate Links where available, directing you to Local Bookshop purchase options

TJ Klune is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling, Lambda Literary Award-winning author of The House in the Cerulean Sea, Under the Whispering Door, In the Lives of Puppets, Somewhere Beyond the Sea, the Green Creek series for adults, the Extraordinaries series for teens and more. Being queer himself, Klune believes it’s important – now more than ever – to have accurate, positive queer representation in stories.

Books included: The House in the Cerulean Sea (2020), Somewhere Beyond the Sea (2024)

Arkady Martine is a speculative fiction writer and, as Dr AnnaLinden Weller, a historian of the Byzantine Empire and an apprentice city planner. Under both names she writes about border politics, rhetoric, propaganda and the edges of the world.

Arkady grew up in New York City and, after some time in Turkey, Canada and Sweden, lives in Baltimore with her wife, the author Vivian Shaw. A Memory Called Empire is her debut novel, which is followed by A Desolation Called Peace.

Books included: A Memory Called Empire (2019), A Desolation Called Peace (2021)

Hugo Award-winning podcaster and an audiobook narrator Emma Newman

Emma Newman writes short stories, novels and novellas in multiple speculative fiction genres. She won the British Fantasy Society Best Short Story Award 2015 for “A Woman’s Place” in the 221 Baker Streets anthology.

Between Two Thorns, the first book in Emma’s Split Worlds urban fantasy series, was shortlisted for the BFS Best Novel and Best Newcomer 2014 awards. Her science-fiction novel, After Atlas, was shortlisted for the 2017 Arthur C. Clarke award.

Emma is an audiobook narrator and is involved in several podcasts, including Tea and Sanctuary. She also co-wrote and hosted the Hugo and Alfie Award winning podcast Tea and Jeopardy, now archived, which involved tea, cake, mild peril and singing chickens. Her hobbies include dressmaking and playing RPGs.

Kim Stanley Robinson is a New York Times bestseller and winner of the Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards. He is the author of more than twenty books, including the bestselling Mars trilogy, 2312, Aurora and New York 2140. In 2008 he was named a ‘Hero of the Environment’ by Time magazine, and he works with the Sierra Nevada research institute. He lives in Davis, California.

An unofficial website, kimstanleyrobinson.info, is an excellent resource for his works.

Book: The Ministry for the Future (2020)

E. J. Swift is a speculative fiction writer based in London. Her novel The Coral Bones was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, The Kitschies Red Tentacle, and the British Science Fiction Award for Best Novel. Previous novels are The Osiris Project trilogy, a series set in a world radically altered by climate change, and Paris Adrift, a tale of bartenders and time travel in the City of Light.

Her short fiction has been nominated for The Sunday Times short story award and the British Science Fiction Award, and has appeared in a variety of publications from Solaris, Salt Publishing, Jurassic London, and Vintage.

Book: The Coral Bones (2023)