Adrian Tchaikovsky

[Dave]

Adrian James Jan Czajkowski
(spelt as Adrian Tchaikovsky for his books)

born Lincolnshire, England: 14 June 1972

Adrian Tchaikovsky is a British fantasy and science fiction author, and a legal executive.

After spending 15 years trying to get published, his first published novel was Empire in Black and Gold (2008), the first in his series Shadows of the Apt.

Shadows of the Apt began life as a RPG called ‘Bugworld’ where the insect-people of the Lowlands threatened by the encroaching Wasp Empire. He still uses RPG to help develop action sequences in his books.

He is also known for his Children of Time series, beginning with Children of Time (2016).

More recently, the space opera, Shards of Earth (2021), has opened the new series Final Architecture.

His works have the themes of gods, messiahs, belief, artificial intelligence, alienness, bureaucracy, shape changing and genetic engineering.

A list of his works is to be found here: Summary Bibliography: Adrian Tchaikovsky

Wikipedia page: Adrian Tchaikovsky - Wikipedia

 

[Rodders]

One of my favourite authors and Dogs of War became an instant favourite. I still need to read the Children of Time trilogy and i only read Shards of Earth from his Final Architecture series. It was very good though and i will finish it.

Tchaikovsky is the closest that i've been able to get to filling a Banks shaped hole in my reading.

 

[Barleyman]

I'm actually working my way through the Apt series right now. I thought and in fact commented elsewhere how RPG like the setting is at some ways with the rock hard restriction of inapt inability to use any kind of mechanism at all, just like old skool D&D restrictions where the gown squad can't wield a wood axe to save their life. I feel he sort of locked himself in on that right in the beginning and wouldn't retcon it later on, so it leads to repeat silly scenes of people fumbling at simple latches because they're tagged as mechanical by the RPG.

I also avoided the series for a long time since I had misconception we're dealing with talking bugs, somewhat like Children on Time, while that was a very good book(s), I didn't really want more of the same in a fantasy setting which sounded really gimmicky. Happily it turned out the bug people angle is restricted to some RPG skills and abilities with maybe bit of catgirl features thrown in. (Bug-girl?)

The first couple of books in the series were somewhat clumsy but it improves along the way, especially once we put the clichey good vs evil setting behind us.

Philosopher Tyrants I liked a lot for the 1st two books but I felt the 3rd book (to my mind a thinly veiled allegory for redcoat escapades in far east ran) out of steam. The Perfection seems to be cracking along the seams but the whole thing was not really that engaging for me.

The Final Architecture had some really bold ideas and the existential threat bent on creating an artistic statements was something I've not seen before. Godlike aliens come with their raft of issues, though, and towards the end it's just getting out of hand, sometimes the mystery is better left a bit mysterious, like they didn't have a neat wrap-up for the Expansion existential threat. The series itself was quite a lot of rollercoaster with the characters constantly being tossed from one peril to another pretty nonstop, there are some pacing issues to my mind, it you've got action dialled to 11 all the time, it tires readers (at least this reader) out.

So in summary, some cracking good stuff there but still room for improvement overall.

 

[Rodders]

I just pre-ordered "Bee Speaker" which is the third volume in the Dogs of War trilogy. Really looking forward to this as the first two were exceptional.



Interesting cover.

 

[Ubergeek]

Really like Adrian's work . Read the Children trilogy and have " Alien Clay " on kindle and " Shroud " on audio narrated by Sophie Aldred of Dr Who fame .

 

[Rodders]

Agreed. He is an exceptional writer and it feels like not a single sentance is wasted. Dogs Of War went straight into one of my favourites, which is rare. It also gave me a very emotional response.

I've not read any of his fantasy, but his Science Fiction is just superb.

 

[Orcadian]

Tchaikovsky recently spoke at a bookshop in my city. I was tempted but they charge body parts for these events - and you don't even get a glass of wine.

 

[Mon0Zer0]

I enjoyed Children of Time. Not sure if I think his prose is all that sparkling but his books are worth it for the ideas, alone.

 

[nixie]

He's on my radar but haven't purchased yet

 

[Rodders]

Some of his short stories may be a good start, Nixie. Ogres was particularly good, as was Firewalkers and Elder Race.

 

[BAYLOR]

I just picked up Children of Time.

 

[Rodders]

Be interested to see how you enjoy it, Baylor.

 

[Barleyman]

Agreed. He is an exceptional writer and it feels like not a single sentance is wasted. Dogs Of War went straight into one of my favourites, which is rare. It also gave me a very emotional response.

I've not read any of his fantasy, but his Science Fiction is just superb.

It should be mentioned that both of the fantasy series I've read from him (Apt + Philosopher tyrants) are from the steampunk + magic school of fantasy, not the usual token dwarf in the set-business. Philosopher tyrants introduces basically fantasy version of Soviet Union which exports Perfection instead of Socialism, they're big on iconoclasm, as you can squish out the magic out of ritual gewgaw's, pond spirits and whatnot, and use them for your redcoat army's standard issue force bolt weapon. You might see a problem with this approach, once you've torn down all the superstition and religion (god is dead and we killed him), what is going to power your machines.. Demons, is what, but if you thought it's going to be old-skool horn's'hooves and a bit of midnight debauchery, let me introduce you to modern demonic contracts, and you thought IR35 was bad..

Apt has similar concepts without the philosophical/ideological angle, "apt" broke out of Tolkien's shackles 500 years ago, overthrew their elven overlords, burned down the Ent groves, wiped out the orcs and got in touch with the technological and scientific hub of Isengard to get things moving _forward_ at last instead of forever pining for the better past. Plus all this silliness of the old masters not being able to turn a key in a lock, even if said key was already inserted in the lock and someone tried to walk you through the steps..

But still, there's a steampunk arms race going over the series with initially some crude dirigibles and steam cars, ending up with oil-burning long range bombers and proper bug (but of course) leg tanks with integrated cannons.. The fantasy people become increasingly more irrelevant as the steampunk killing machines e.g. skirt WMDs with the fantasy poison gas, which for now has been relegated out of circulation, but..

I've often been a big fan of this kind of "industrial revolution in fantasyland" genre and even with their faults "Tchaikovsky" delivers pretty good on that.