Lyla HopperSpeculative fiction

Lyla Hopper — Science fiction about people, technology, and the civilizations they build.

A sunset over a bay of sailing ships, beneath a distant futuristic city and two moons.
Stories across the horizonDiscover the writing

People at the heart of possibility

Other worlds. Familiar hearts.

The future belongs to people: the families they make, the losses they carry, and the connections they find across unfamiliar ground. These are stories of possibility, where a different world offers a new way to look at our own.

From Lyla’s desk

Those Within Reach

A novel · Seeking representation

On a pastoral colony world, an aging doctor and his grandson encounter the Tahla, a canine-derived people with an empathic culture. A story of grief, family, and learning to meet another civilization without trying to remake it in our own image.

Contact Lyla

On the bookshelf

An image of the front cover of Matagorda Breeze, by Lyla Hopper

Matagorda Breeze

A speculative-fiction novella · First published 2020

Two centuries after the world’s oil-powered civilization collapsed, sailing ships once again carry the lifeblood of commerce across the Gulf of Mexico. Ruby Turner has earned her place aboard them. Now she’s been given her first command, and a ship meant to finish her career. The Matagorda Breeze is neglected, her crew battered by years of abuse, and Ruby’s superiors expect her to fail. But she sees something worth saving. With sharp instincts, stubborn compassion, and a pair of knives she knows how to use, she sets about turning the company’s castoffs into a crew proud of their ship and their captain. As new loyalties take root and an unexpected romance crosses her course, Ruby begins questioning the rules that keep sailors afraid. But the Gulf’s dangers are real, and following her own heading may bring her closer to them than she ever intended. Matagorda Breeze is a maritime adventure of found family, hard-won trust, and a woman determined to make room for a better future. Step aboard the world of Matagorda Breeze, Lyla Hopper’s published novella. A first doorway into her fiction, and a world with more stories still to tell.

Explore Matagorda Breeze

The author

Meet Lyla

Lyla Hopper writes speculative fiction about people, technology, and the civilizations they build. Her stories explore family, belonging, and the possibilities that open when people learn to understand one another. She is the author of Matagorda Breeze and the forthcoming novel Those Within Reach.

Say hello