A Literary Science Fiction Novel of a Time-Surving Irrepressible Mitochondrial Eve
By Erik Larson
Coming July 2026!
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Kikiloa is Mitochondrial Eve, the 200,000-year-old mother of humanity and our lyrical first storyteller.
“Moving, surprising time-travel story of the fight against entropy. Sharp prose, warm characterization, and the literary chops to make the heady ideas resonate at a human level.”
⚡ Editor’s Pick — BookLife Reviews (Publishers Weekly)
“An engaging time-travel romp that mashes up Jung and Doctor Who to masterful effect.”
OUR VERDICT: ✓ GET IT — Kirkus Reviews
“Imaginative, sincere, and bigger on the inside than it first appears.”
★★★★★ — Literary Titan
As a time surfer flickering across a trillion universes, she’s determined to discover an antidote to entropy before everything meaningful is lost.
And now she’s a freckled fourteen-year-old trickster bounding across a San Francisco park to meet her kind, grounded friend Hazel, who Kiki believes can cause even death to pass people by. Probably.
When a cliff collapses beneath them and Kiki vanishes mid-fall, Hazel is left alone with their attacker to begin her contemporary coming-of-age, while Kiki’s hopes unravel back to the trauma of her bleak beginnings as outcast and slave in a dystopian prehistoric world.
But Kiki never lets up, whether lamenting a Hawaiian tsunami, alchemizing sniper attacks, telling quantum stories, weaving through highway pileups, going Jungian, or baking perfectly average cookies. And throughout, she spars with her infuriating, enigmatic mentor Paha, who believes surfing is elegy: all waves break, and fighting the end only creates suffering.
The Kikiloa Chronicles is Erik Larson’s emotionally vast, funny, and wild speculative literary debut, carried by Kiki’s unmistakable voice from the devastating loneliness of her first life to the hard wisdom of friendship. Irrepressible and imperfect, she wrestles with love, a force like gravity, alive at the core of a universe destined for darkness.
Circe meets The Midnight Library by way of Ursula K. Le Guin and Douglas Adams.
Content Note
This story contains scenes of natural disasters with loss of life, gun violence with young teens in danger, and sexual oppression in a dystopian prehistoric setting. The scenes are not graphic, but readers sensitive to these themes may wish to know in advance.
Critical Acclaim
BookLife Reviews (Publishers Weekly): ⚡ Editor’s Pick
“Moving, surprising time travel story of the fight against entropy. This assured and surprising sci-fi debut…bursts with memorable invention. With sharp prose, warm characterization, and the literary chops to make the heady ideas resonate at a human level, Larson spins a deep, winding epic about hope, empathy, and living in the moment…Lovers of humane SF will find much to relish.”
Kirkus Reviews: Our Verdict: ✓ GET IT. Featured Review.
“An engaging time-travel romp that mashes up Jung and Doctor Who to masterful effect. Like Jasper Fforde or Douglas Adams, Larson is one of a true minority of writers who can make cerebral science fiction both lucid and entertaining. This philosophical depth anchors the multiverse shenanigans in a tangible, and very human, reality.”
The Wishing Shelf UK: ★★★★★
“Wildly imaginative, surprisingly moving, and unlike anything else I’ve read—Kiki’s voice stays with you long after the final page. Most of all, The Kikiloa Chronicles succeeds because it has a personality all its own. It’s funny, strange, imaginative, heartfelt, and unapologetically ambitious.”
Reader Views – Jennifer Bishop: ★★★★★
“One of those books that will make you think and process the world in ways you may never have before.”
Reader Views – Paul Knobloch: ★★★★★
“Thoughtful, original, and emotionally resonant science fiction that leaves readers with much to ponder.”
Literary Titan: ★★★★★
“Imaginative, sincere, and bigger on the inside than it first appears.”
Early Readers
“I don’t think I’ve ever read anything quite like this, not in scope or execution. It’s emotionally rich, and that’s in large part because the characters feel like distinct, real people.”
— Ruchi, early reader
“I was immediately gripped and fully immersed from the first couple of pages. The twists and turns kept the story moving, and vivid imagery carried me through the key dramatic moments — the tsunamis, the iceberg ride, the dream of the many-trunked tree. I didn’t want to put this book down.”
— Jess, early reader
“There was never a place where I didn’t want to keep reading. In a way, it was like riding a wave. All I had to do was ride and let the water take me. I didn’t want it to end.”
— Leo, early reader
“Kikiloa is painfully human — messy and emotional and reactive. She makes mistakes and holds grudges. But mostly, she loves fiercely. You don’t expect to connect with a 200,000-year-old being who has seen and experienced so much, but this story does that for you at every turn.”
— Kaycee, early reader
“Science in fiction in the spirit of Madeleine L’Engle — folding in both the fantastical and the philosophical. Defies genres beautifully.”
— Caroline, early reader
Fun. Fast. Deep. A voice you won’t forget.
