--- title: Christian Hurst Wins IPPY Gold as the Lily Starling Series Grows Into a Universe description: The Lily Starling series adds an IPPY Gold Medal, a Kirkus recommendation and an audiobook, with book four arriving in September and a fifth planned for 2027. author: Darie Nani (Editor-in-Chief) date: 2026-07-13T13:01:07.457Z updated: 2026-07-13T13:01:07.476Z canonical: https://thequantumoflight.com/article/christian-hurst-ippy-gold-lily-starling image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/lily-starling-featured-1.webp categories: Author Journeys content_type: Spotlight region: Pennsylvania publication: The Quantum of Light about: - type: Person name: Christian Hurst description: Christian Hurst is an independent science fiction author and Creative Director based in Meadville, Pennsylvania. His Lily Starling series, a young adult space opera, won the 2026 IPPY Gold Medal for Best First Book and swept three categories at the BookFest 2026 awards. The series runs to three novels and a companion novella, with book four, Lily Starling and the River of Time, arriving in September 2026. url: https://churstpublishing.com sameAs: - https://churstpublishing.com - https://christianhurst.substack.com - https://www.instagram.com/churstpublishing - https://www.tiktok.com/@churstpublishing - https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/54551541.Christian_Hurst --- Christian Hurst's debut novel, "Lily Starling and the Voyage of the Salamander," has won the 2026 IPPY Gold Medal for Best First Book (Juvenile/Young Adult) at the Independent Publisher Book Awards, one of the oldest and largest honors in independent publishing. ### Book: Lily Starling and the Voyage of the Salamander *Book 1 in the Lily Starling Series* By Christian Hurst A seventeen-year-old girl wakes in a city she does not recognise with no memory and a metal tag engraved with the name Lily Starling. Recruited onto the SFS Salamander, a Union starship at war with the psionic Krythar Ascendancy, she discovers that her parents engineered her DNA as a weapon and that the only people she can trust are the crew who slowly become her found family. The first novel in Christian Hurst's young adult space opera series, winner of three First Place categories at the BookFest 2026 awards. [Amazon (Hardcover)](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DYRG7GDJ) When [Rich Woman featured Christian in April](https://thequantumoflight.com/article/voyage-of-the-salamander-bookfest-2026-awards), the book had just taken first place in three categories at BookFest 2026, and its author, an advertising creative director from Meadville, Pennsylvania, was writing his young adult space opera on evenings and weekends, with his wife, his son and three rescue beagles at home. The months since have brought a Kirkus recommendation for the third novel, an audiobook, sales in the thousands, and two more books onto the calendar. "It feels less like a single book finding an audience and more like a universe beginning to stand on its own," he says. "The IPPY Gold Medal was the moment the door opened a little wider — not just as a milestone, but as an invitation to keep expanding the story with more trust." ## What Are the IPPY Awards The Independent Publisher Book Awards, known as the IPPYs, have honored independently published books every year since 1996, drawing thousands of entries from small presses and independent authors across more than a hundred categories. The awards exist to bring unsung independent titles to the attention of booksellers, librarians and readers, and thirty years on, a gold seal on a cover still carries weight with them. A gold medal in the Best First Book category measures a debut against the whole of that field, and this year it went to a novel from Outpost Books, a small press in Pittsburgh. For Christian, the medal settled a question he had been living with. In April he described himself as "still very much in the mindset of building... the confidence to say, 'Yes, I am an author.'" The gold medal felt, he says, like "being welcomed in as an author rather than simply trying to prove I belonged there." ## Lily Starling and the Death Machine: The Kirkus Review "Lily Starling and the Death Machine," the third novel in the series, was published on April 30, ten days after the BookFest results. It has since earned a "Get It" recommendation from Kirkus Reviews, the magazine's marker for books it tells readers to pick up, with praise for its richly detailed science fiction world. The review runs in the August issue of Kirkus Reviews magazine, read closely by the librarians and booksellers who decide what goes on shelves. The series now stands at three novels for readers aged 13 to 17, "Voyage of the Salamander," "Storm Riders" and "Death Machine," along with a companion novella, "Love on Adius II," for anyone who wants more time in the universe between installments. Christian wrote all of it around his day job in advertising, on the same evenings and weekends that produced the first book. ## The Voyage of the Salamander Audiobook, Narrated by Aryn Mello Pryor In May, "Voyage of the Salamander" was released as an audiobook, narrated by stage and screen actor Aryn Mello Pryor, who gives voice to Lily's wry first-person narration. The story is told entirely in Lily's voice, which makes it well suited to audio, and it is the series' first entry into science fiction audiobooks. Following a promotion on BookBub, the platform that puts discounted books in front of millions of genre readers, the series has sold approximately 5,000 copies across retail, in-store and audio, Hurst says, and has charted in Amazon categories in four countries. ## Space Opera Books Where Queer Characters Are Whole People Christian calls the series an emotional experiment inside a space opera, and his description of what that means is direct: "Big, cinematic science fiction built around characters who are allowed to be emotionally messy, deeply human, and fully themselves — including queer characters who inhabit their identities completely, without being reduced to a single theme." Press coverage of the books, from awards juries to reviewers, keeps returning to that last point: queer characters written as whole people. Readers who come to LGBTQ YA books looking for characters with full interior lives have found them aboard the Salamander, in the found-family crew that has anchored the series since book one. Lily is at the center of it. Christian describes her as "flawed, stubborn, loving, avoidant, brave, and frequently wrong... She grows by widening her understanding of herself, of other people, and of what responsibility actually means." That growth runs across the novels rather than resolving inside any one of them. The seventeen-year-old who woke without a memory in book one has, three books later, a family she chose and a sense of what she owes it. ## Lily Starling and the River of Time: Release Date and What Comes Next The fourth novel, "Lily Starling and the River of Time," arrives in September 2026. A fifth is planned for 2027. Recognition has followed Christian off the page. He is a featured member of the NIEA Speakers Bureau, the National Indie Excellence Awards' roster of author speakers, which puts him in front of event organizers booking panels and talks. He has also joined SFWA, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association, the genre's professional body. The April feature was republished in Rich Man Magazine's Summer 2026 digital issue, putting the series in front of a second readership. **About Christian Hurst** Christian Hurst is an independent science fiction author and Creative Director based in Meadville, Pennsylvania. His Lily Starling series, a young adult space opera, won the 2026 IPPY Gold Medal for Best First Book and swept three categories at the BookFest 2026 awards. The series runs to three novels and a companion novella, with book four, Lily Starling and the River of Time, arriving in September 2026. [Website](https://churstpublishing.com) ## FAQ **Q: What are the IPPY Awards?** The Independent Publisher Book Awards, run annually since 1996, are the longest-running book awards devoted exclusively to independent presses and authors, with medals given across more than a hundred categories. Christian Hurst's gold came in Best First Book (Juvenile/Young Adult), the category for debut books for young readers. **Q: How many books are in the Lily Starling series?** Three novels so far: "Lily Starling and the Voyage of the Salamander," "Lily Starling and the Storm Riders" and "Lily Starling and the Death Machine," plus the companion novella "Love on Adius II." The fourth novel, "Lily Starling and the River of Time," arrives in September 2026, and a fifth is planned for 2027. The series is written for readers aged 13 to 17. **Q: Is there a Lily Starling audiobook?** Yes. "Lily Starling and the Voyage of the Salamander" was released in audio in May 2026, narrated by stage and screen actor Aryn Mello Pryor. It is the first audiobook in the series. **Q: What are the best young adult science fiction books for space opera fans?** "Aurora Rising," "Illuminae" and "Skyward" appear on most lists of young adult space opera. The Lily Starling series earns its place among the best space opera series for readers who choose their books by the crew: an ensemble found family, and a heroine who narrates her own story.