This was a fun novella, and I really liked the blend of sci-fi and fantasy elements. It feels like more of a traditional fantasy structure, but it involves sci-fi aspects in fun ways. There are some really interesting ideas here, and it does bring up some questions that remain unanswered...for now (I'm really hoping that we get more stories in this world!).

The pacing is pretty good overall. It drops you right in to the story while doing a good job setting up the world. I feel satisfied with the story arc, but I definitely hope there will be more adventures here. I liked the idea of how advanced technology can seem like magic. This is a theme that comes up a lot here! The novella also deals with things like depression and feeling alone, but I thought that it does so in a nice way.

There are some interesting ideas with evolution, both culturally and physically, with how things can change after people arrive at a planet. It's fun to see how certain things can be adapted into mystical items, family sigils, or other things!

Lyn, the Fourth Daughter of the Queen, is quite adventurous. She's somewhat trying to prove her worth to her family as a royal to get past their perception of her as useless. She's very brave and wants to do what's right. Nyr, the Elder, is the last of his kind. He's able to separate his feelings from rational thought, but this can cause some issues as he's dealing with some heavy things. I think that they both help each other, and I really enjoyed seeing them interact!

I had a fun time with this novella and would absolutely recommend it!

My video review can be seen on my booktube channel (around minutes 13:57-16:17 of this video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3osZmeqtsw

Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

At first, I had the impression that I was reading something from Steven Brust, which, I should mention, is not a bad thing at all.

But this tale was much more about Clarke's First Law and with a cool anthropology twist and an old school sword and sorcery couched firmly, and formally, in a transhumanist long-term space-colony context.

Most of those older fantasies I read usually started on the fantasy side and gradually let in the SF. This one started from the opposite direction. So that's cool.

And another interesting addition is the whole technological correction of depression. :) I'm a big fan of certain kinds of representation, and this one kicks it.

I had no idea what to expect of Elder Race, but I had so much fun with it! The writing was wonderful and I really loved how the story was told in dual POV and we got chapters from Nyr and Lyn’s perspectives. The play on science fiction vs fantasy was a bit confusing at first, but but I really liked how it was done and how it made this such a fun read.

The world-building and how it was developed in just a few pages was also so so so good. I was so intrigued by this world and the legends surrounding the Elders. That was one of the reasons I liked having chapters from Nyr’s perspective so much: it gave the story balance and depth without taking away from its own mythology.

My favorite scene in the entire story was Nyr’s speech about magic and the way the world works. I thought that was such an interesting thing to explore considering Lyn’s entire existence. It was also really nice to see how that came to the forefront as well during the final chapters.

Overall, a really fun and fast read!

This novella is two stories in one; or, to put it a little more precisely, two *radically* different perspectives on the same story. Usually that kind of thing deals with the perspectives of people on opposite sides of a conflict. This is different: the two perspectives are on the same side, and in fact companions for most of the story.

The first perspective is that of a princess, the extraneous fourth daughter of the ruling queen. She grew up on stories of her famous ancestor who teamed up with a powerful sorcerer (the last survivor of the titular Elder Race) when a terrible evil arose to threaten the land. Together they defeated the evil, and before the sorcerer returned to his lonely tower, he pledged to his companion to come to her aid, or the aid of her descendants, if he were needed again. Now rumors have reached the palace of a new evil. Her mother, the queen, isn't taking it seriously, so the princess sets out on her own to find the legendary sorcerer and enlist his aid to defeat evil once again.

The second perspective is that of an anthropologist. He’s been in and out of cryogenic suspension for centuries, part of a long-term mission to study the inhabitants of this colony of humans that have forgotten both their technology and their origins. He’s supposed to observe without interfering (good anthropological practice, after all) but he decided to get involved a while back when one of the locals found some old tech, figured out how to work it, and set himself up as a warlord.

All in all, this is probably the best exploration of Arthur C. Clarke’s famous idea that “sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” that I’ve ever read. What makes it so great is that the anthropologist keeps trying to tell the truth: no, it’s *not* magic, he just has more advanced knowledge than the colonists. And the princess says yes, obviously: magic is deeper knowledge, and as a sorcerer of *course* he has such at his command.

What makes it hilarious is that the anthropologist’s knowledge of the language is rather archaic. He can communicate just fine, but it’s all to the effect of “Verily, I shall join thee on thy noble quest” when what he’s trying to say is “Sure, I’ll come help out.”

This is a quick, fun, and very interesting read. Very much worth checking out, and further solidifies my opinion of Tchaikovsky as one of the most creative authors writing today.

I am so impressed with this novella that it can pack in so much character and punch within less than 200 pages! I loved this book. It was like a fantasy adventure in disguise with talks about wizards, magic, quests and princesses. But at the core, this is a sci-fi novella about human race colonizing other planets to save their race. And how the actions of this successful colonization has evolved over centuries.
It was so well written with the communication and cultural differences evolved due to time, how the elders (original earthlings) are sorcerer because of the technology that has been forgotten to the new race of humans evolved on this planet. It was such a brilliant read and cant recommend it enough.

Lynesse Fourth Daughter is the immature and unpredictable Princess of Lannesite on a secret quest to help another people with a problem her royal mother deemed unimportant. To do that, she needs to climb a dangerous mountain and call upon an ancient compact the mighty sorcerer Elder Nyrgoth made with her family. But Elder Nyrgoth is no wizard - he is an anthropologist from Earth. A second class one at that. And he might be out of his depth.

Adrian Tchaikovsky's novella Elder Race is not only a phenomenal blend of sci-fi and fantasy, it also makes perfect use of the dual POV. While one chapter is more fantastical and told from the perspective of Lyn who doesn't understand science or engineering, the next chapter is told from Nyr's logical, scientific point of view interspersed with his musings on the ethics of what he is doing. For the reader, this juxtaposition keeps things dynamic and chronicles the development of the characters, one of whom firmly believes in magic while the other is supposed to be an impartial observer of a primitive civilization.

Although this idea isn't completely original (it's similar to Adrian Tchaikovsky's own hit novel Children of Time), it's still very effective and it works in shorter format as well. The use of fewer characters allows them to become fully developed and have distinctive personalities, while the main plot is the good ol' uncomplicated battle against evil. The source of this evil, however, is a Lovecraftian mystery that leaves some questions unanswered and makes you glad that Tchaikovsky is hyperproductive so the wait for a sequel won't be very long.

As expected, the writing is beautiful, the characters and the scenery come alive on the pages, and the flow of the novella is silky smooth and makes for a quick, fun read. Highly recommended for fans of fantasy and sci-fi that don't have the time or patience for 600 page tomes.

Elder Race comes out on November 16. Huge thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan-Tor/Forge and Adrian Tchaikovsky for the advanced reader copy.

This novella is an entertaining scifi twist on a traditional fairytale trope. Lynette, fourth daughter of the queen, and her trusted companion journey to the high tower of the legendary sorcerer to wake him and request his help in slaying the demon tormenting her people. After all the sorcerer did help her great grandmother do just that and promised to come to her aid again when called. The princess and the sorcerer have differing views of the history of the world in which she lives, making for entertaining and often humorous exchanges as they travel to the demon's lair. The sorcerer also has his own demons to fight along the way, as he battles the depression and loneliness he feels after centuries alone. It might only be a short novella, but with its engaging characters brilliantly portrays the clash of cultures and is a delightful meld of fantasy and scifi.

This was my first book by Tchaikovsky, but it won't be my last. The examination of magic vs. sci fi was fascinating, and though it touches on heavier topics, it never feels weighed down by them.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge, Tordotcom for providing me with a review copy!
Actual rating: 2.5 stars

Elder Race is the first work of author Adrian Tchaikovsky I’ve ever read. Judging from the blurb of the novella, I was expecting more of a fantasy story, with a twist. However, I quickly found that there was much more to this classic tale of the princess asking the hermit wizard to save the day, and that the story was definitely more of a take on a science fiction.

The main protagonists of the story are Lynesse the Fourth Daughter and the wizard in question that she turns to in order to save her people, Elder “Nyr” Nyrgoth. Like The Bone Shard Daughter, the story is written from the perspective of different characters, which also have different points of views. Lyn’s perspective is told from the third person, and Nyr’s from the first. There’s also one mind-boggling chapter that tells both of their perspectives at once, in separate columns. It was intimidating to behold these two columns when I turned to that chapter, but it actually made sense and fit into the narrative, proving an excellent depiction of the communication barrier between Lynesse and Nyr.

“I have no guarantee that there will ever be word from home. Three centuries of silence says there won’t be, and that I am a remnant of a culture whose second flowering into space, that seemed unstoppable and glorious, was actually just brief and doomed. I am more a relic worthy of study than those I was placed to observe.”


The narrative itself was less to my liking. I think I got really attached to the idea in the beginning of the blurb, where the black sheep of the princesses goes and begs the wise wizard to fulfill an ancient pact with her family and to save her people. When it turned out that the wizard was actually an anthropologist stranded on her planet for centuries, while studying her people, I couldn’t help but want to read the book I had been expecting. That is not to say that I didn’t enjoy the actual story ofElder Race, because I did like it, I’m just more of a fan of the fantasy genre personally. I honestly feel that I was the problem when reading Elder Race, not the novella itself.

“It’s also possible that I’m just resigned to being a very bad anthropologist. Which is a shame. I might be the last one left.”


My favorite part of the novella was watching the conundrum of the anthropologist unfold. The communication barrier, the locals’ belief in Nyr’s “magics,” which were really in fact, science that hadn’t been discovered yet, and his fraternization with “monsters” aka robots, were entertaining. I also thought the author did a realistic job of portraying the moral dilemma of Nyr, whether to die alone as to not interfere with the society he was studying, or to rescue them and possibly contaminate them with his presence and technology. I really wish I had his DCS (Dissociative Cognition System), a technology which allows him to compartmentalize all of his emotions and view them from a completely detached and outside perspective. Someone seriously get on inventing this.

“[The DCS] was an essential mod, for someone who was going to be on their own for long periods of time without any social contact. My emotions are still out there, and I can get fascinating readouts about just what that locked-away part of me is actually feeling, good, bad indifferent, bad, worse, but it doesn’t touch me until I choose to open the door again.”

Another thing Elder Race really has going for it is the creepy “demon” Lynesse and Elder Nyr encounter. It infects everything it encounters universally, creating terrifying amalgamations of zombie creatures that sound like they’re straight from the video game The Forest or an equally chilling science fiction horror movie. The way the two deal with this foe is very satisfying, in-character, and fitting for the novella itself.

On the whole, I could have done with a bit more character development and fleshing out in Elder Race. I found Lynesse to be less well developed than Nyr. Outside of her quest to save her people from “the demon,” readers don’t really know a whole lot about her. We know that she’s ridiculed by her family for clinging to stories of heroes, but that’s about it. And Nyr himself isn’t much more complex, as readers aren’t really shown anything of his life before he arrived to Lynesse’s planet to study the civilization there, or when he actually first arrived there. I would have loved to see a young, ambitious, and idealist anthropologist to counter the current despondent Nyr, who has mainly given up hope of regaining contact with his home planet and people after centuries of isolation and technologically-induced sleep.

“There were no songs sung for a Fourth Daughter, nor did histories often record them. Certainly there were none for a Fourth Daughter with a past as chequered as Lyn’s. She had met the formal adulthood of her fourth Storm-season with none of the accomplishments of a princess. She did not play music, nor could she manage the accounts of a fiefdom. Her one venture into diplomacy had been disastrous. Her sisters had quietly put aside stories, brawling and running away from their lessons. Suddenly, they had all three become responsible human beings while Lynesse was still clinging to childhood.”

Sure, there are hints Nyr’s past with Lynesse’s ancestors, but we are just told about them, and never flashback to experience his emotions first hand. As a result of this, though I could sympathize with both of the characters, with Lynesse for feeling like an unwanted outcast of the royal family, and Nyr for his unresolved desperation, I wasn’t really attached to either of them or to their quest. I would definitely say that Elder Race is more a plot driven story versus a character driven one, which is probably another reason why I just couldn’t love the novella.

Despite my inability to form attachments to the characters and their goals and the fact that I was sort of falsely expecting a different story altogether, I enjoyed Elder Race. It was a fun novella, written with a sense of humor, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes plot-driven science fiction, especially one where not everything is as it seems.

Nyr Illim Tevitch is an anthropologist, Second Class, from Earth who has been assigned to Sophos 4 to observe a colonized planet. After not hearing from Earth for almost 300 years, the local misfit princess knocks on his door asking for help. Lynesse’s kingdom is in danger from a mind-controlling demon, and only Nyrgoth Elder can save them.

I. Loved. This. This is my second Tchaikovsky story I’ve read, and I’m again blown away by his creativity. He draws me in so well and I just end up wanting more. I’d love to see more from this world, or other anthropological studies from other planets.

Thank you to Net Galley, Tordotcom, and Adrian Tchaikovsky for the chance to read this advanced review copy. Elder Race releases on November 16th.

This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reader Copy) provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Elder Race will be released on November 16, 2021. 

I knew absolutely nothing about Elder Race when I saw it come available on NetGalley, but I liked Children of Time enough to give me some faith in Adrian Tchaikovsky, so I submitted an ARC request. My reward? One of my absolute favorite books of the year. 

Elder Race tells one story that takes place in two subgenres with entirely different styles. We begin with a fantasy story—told in a moderately formal, mythic style—about a princess who has grown up hearing tales of the mysterious sorcerer at the top of the mountain. When a demon threatens an allied country and the regent seems content to let them deal with their own problems, she takes it upon herself to make the treacherous journey to enlist the sorcerer’s aid against a supernatural enemy. But the alternate chapters tell the story of an anthropologist second class, isolated and depressed on an alien planet, fearing his promised colleagues will never arrive, who against his better judgment decides to protect the low-tech locals from whatever archaic technology has been unearthed and turned against them. The sorcerer, of course, is the anthropologist, and his more casual, first-person chapters tell the same story as the Princess’, but from a radically different perspective. 

If I were to imagine a book that hit all my favorite genre tropes, I’m not sure I could do as well as Elder Race. I enjoy stories that lean in to the maxim that “sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” and tell science fiction tales from a fantasy perspective. I also enjoy stories featuring difficult but well-intentioned cross-cultural communication, and this has both in spades. Throw in a lead struggling with clinical depression, and Elder Race was set up to be a home run of a read. 

But to deliver on its promise, Tchaikovsky still needed to nail the execution. And reader, he surely did. The two styles each perfectly captured the feel of their respective subgenres, and the switches were smooth enough that I was halfway through the novella before I even noticed that the story was switching between first-person and third-person. The difficulty in communication was built slowly, climaxing in a short chapter written in a two-column format, with what one character perceives himself to say on the left and what the other character hears on the right. It’s an audacious structural choice, and it works perfectly (although it does require some flipping back and forth in the ebook for sentences that cross the short kindle page boundaries). 

And while the cross-cultural communication is a major theme, it is far from the only one, with both lead characters vibrant enough to feel fully realized, even in a novella-length story. A lot of the characters’ inner lives play directly into the communication storyline—a princess wrestling the sorcerer’s price for aid, cultural taboos on emotional displays, and the conflation of psychological struggles with physical ones—but there’s plenty that stays purely internal. In particular, the anthropologist cycles between stuffing his emotions deep below the surface and suffering episodes of being entirely overwhelmed by hopelessness and isolation. It’s a pattern that’s sharpened by the sci-fi framing yet rings chillingly true to life. 

You’ll note that I’ve doled out a lot of praise without saying much about the plot. And that isn’t because the plot is bad—it’s a well-constructed adventure that isn’t out to redefine either subgenre—but I don’t expect it to blow minds either. There’s enough there to support both the individual character arcs and the culture clash, and not everything goes entirely as expected, but it’s not a book that’s out to wow with twists and turns. If you’re here for the rest, the plot will serve. If you’re not here for the rest, the plot won’t change your mind. 

I tend to be pretty sparing with scores over 18, and a 20 generally means it’s something with the quality to be genre-defining (not necessarily that it has defined a genre, just that it’s good enough to do so). And I’m not sure Elder Race is there—it’s a brilliant execution of a few tropes that I like a whole lot, along with some really strong character work—but I’m also not sure what more I could ask of a novella. Maybe I wasn’t totally convinced that an anthropologist would have such detailed knowledge of the tech he was using, but it wasn’t much of a stretch, and it didn’t really inhibit my enjoyment. And, while the translation difficulties seemed extreme at times, I suspect that’s because it was more realistic than the more familiar universal translators scattered throughout the genre. 

At any rate, when it was all said and done, Elder Race gave us two compelling character arcs, tackling timeless problems in a way that was fascinating and never took the easy way out, and it did so in under 40,000 words. Whether that’s a 19 or a 20, it’s certainly hard to name a novella that’s better. 

Recommended if you like: sci-fi disguised as fantasy, cultural clashes, exploration of mood disorders, adventure stories. 

Overall rating: 20 of Tar Vol’s 20. Five stars on Goodreads.

Thank you to Tordotcom and NetGalley for providing an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was definitely an interesting read. I struggled a little to read the chapters from Nyr's perspective, because he isincredibly arrogant and has a massive superiority complex with a tinge of racism which makes him a very unlikeable character. As I continued reading though, it became clear to me that whether you like or dislike his character doesn't actually matter, because that doesn't make a difference to the main point of the story.

The main point of the story (or at least what seemed to me to be the main point of the story) is to make the reader aware of the limits of anthropology as a field, and in particular the problematic nature of the its origins. Being already aware of these things, I think the impact of this point for me was diminished since I didn't learn anything new. I can definitely see how this story would be a great way to make people aware of these things though, so I hope everyone who reads it comes away with a better understanding of these issues!

When a demon threatens her homeland, Lynesse Fourth Daughter, princess, secretly sets out to invoke an ancient compact, despite her family’s instance the demon is the imaginings of the peasantry. The sorcerer Nyrgoth has long remained a recluse in his tower, but he promised to aid the royal family should they ever need him. But what Lynesse doesn’t know is that Nyrgoth isn’t a creature of magic. He’s simply the last remaining anthropologist manning an outpost left by an advanced civilization. Nyrgoth’s mission is to observe Lynesse’s culture, to sleep in cryo for decades, and to wake to see how things have changed. But alone and cut off from home, Nyrgoth’s adherence to the rules of non-interference are wavering. So when Lynesse calls upon the promise he made to her ancestor, Nyrgoth decides to bend the rules juuust a little bit to see what this demon nonsense is about. Because surely there are no such things as demons, right?

ELDER RACE is an absolute triumph that balances in-depth characters, exploration of culture and language, and some incredibly creepy creatures, all in under 200 pages. For those just looking for a sci-fi adventure, they won’t be disappointed. The threat facing Nyr and Lynesse is strange and grotesque. The planet itself is a blend of a medieval society, but one that evolved out of a colony ship that seeded the planet centuries past. This blend makes everything the reader sees familiar, but slightly off. For reasons explained in the book, this society has regressed over time to one that holds faith in magic and superstitions, and Nyr’s tools must surely be great and powerful magic.

That disconnect in how characters see the world is the true magic of the writing. The chapters alternate between Lynesse and Nyr’s perspectives, each offering very different views on events because of the respective character’s blindspots. Lynesse has an obvious understanding of her people’s ways and traditions, but doesn’t have a frame of reference to understand advanced technology as anything other than magic. Nyr, on the other hand, understands technology, but has a limited grasp of how to effectively communicate in the language of the people; he knows the vocabulary, but not the nuance. Some of my favorite moments happen when the end of one chapter overlaps with the beginning of the next, and we see the disconnect between what Nyr thinks he has said and what Lynesse has heard because of his lack of command of the language.

Nyr himself is a complex character, one wrestling with loneliness, depression, and loss of purpose. Because of an implant he has, Nyr can choose to shut down his emotions and operate by pure logic, creating subtle transitions within a single page as he shifts his word choice from conversational to a very clinical, scientific mode. This is more his book than Lynesse’s simply by virtue of the journey he goes through, but Lynesse is still a capable character wrestling with her own insecurities.

ELDER RACE is an absolutely perfect story that explores the dichotomy between observing a thing and truly understanding it, without ever once losing the feeling of adventure and mystery. If nothing else, come for the unsettling monsters, but I suspect you’ll stay as these two people struggle (and frequently fail) to understand one another and figure out their own futures.

Note: I was provided a free ARC by the publisher in exchange for my fair and honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the free copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

A delightful, tight story in the spirit of the New Wave.

Elder Race is the first in a series by famed sci fi and fantasy author of such series of Shadows of the Apt and Children of Time. This book stars two main POV characters, a junior anthropologist on a distant planet called Nyr and the fourth daughter of the local dynasty, Lynesse.

The plot progresses well as it starts with Lynesse approaching the tower of Nyrgoth the Elder, a wizard, our anthropologist to seal an ancient pact between her and her people in order to defeat a demon, a growign presence in her kingdom. The gag is that Nyr is not a wizard as he knows the term. There is a fantastic blend of magical and scientific elements. The detail they go into about the locals being on a medeival-like place while balancing that with the technology of Nyr and the 'Elder Race' is a great inclusion.

The POV between the two characters is in their own voices, and the miscommunication between two languages and cultures so vastly different may be jarring for some viewers, but I personally loved that we got to see what it may be like for people from two such distinct backgrounds to converse. There is not graphic violence or sex, but it does have some darker themes. This was a quick read, and I did not feel the pacing lagged. I enjoyed the quest as well as the side characters, and thought the book left off at a great place in order to leave more.

The ending left a lot of information up in the air, but given how expanse some of his series is and that this is only the first of several books, I assume that was done intentionally. I would definitely recommend this book for lovers of sci fi and fantasy.

Pub date: Nov 2021
This novella is a perfect blend of scifi and high fantasy!

Princess Lynesse is the Fourth Daughter who can never do anything right in her mother, the Queen's, eyes. But she treks to the Elder Tower to ask the very old sorcerer for his help to defeat a demon threatening whole towns with his magic.

Nyr Illium Tevitch is an anthropologist from Earth's Explorer Corp left on Sophos 4 to observe an old colony. He's centuries old, heavily modified, and though he's not supposed to interact with the natives, he's done it before so now they think he's a sorcerer.

Their communication has lots of problems, which is a running joke through the novella, and is illustrated in one hilarious instance with a split screen of what he's saying vs. what she's hearing (utter genius!). Despite it, Lyn talks Nyr into helping and the line between magic and technology blurs as they confront the demon.

Nyr's fight against his depression with his tech gives depth to his character and Lyn's rebellion against doing things her mother way and her determination to save the world makes her an awesome heroine. I really liked both characters, both of whom showed growth (despite the short length of the story) and I loved the end!

Mr.Tchaikovsky is a must-read author for me!

4.5 Stars
What a brilliant novella! At first this read more like fantasy, but don't be deceived… this is definitely science fiction! I encourage readers to go into this one without knowing too much because the surprise is half the fun.

If you enjoy Star Trek, particularly The Next Generation, then you will love this one! This one gave me serious Trekie vibes and I strongly suspect the author is fan himself. 

I absolutely loved this novella. It was smart and well plotted with just a touch of humor. The ending was brilliant. If you want a sci-fi story focused on the anthropological side of the sciences then I highly recommend this one.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher, Tor.com.

When demons arise, only a great sorcerer can save the kingdom…Lynessa Fourth Daughter is the least of her family, but the one who remembers the old legends. After learning of demons terrorizing a neighboring kingdom, she sets off on a quest: find the sorcerer, defeat the evil, and return a hero. But Nyrgoth the Elder is both nothing and everything like she anticipated, and the evil they must defeat is just as incomprehensible.

She was smaller, under the artist’s hand, because she was less important. Fourth is less than Third. She had given their tutor ulcers for half a short-season after that, insisting that four was smaller than three when made to do her sums.

I feel like I would have enjoyed this a lot more if I’d read it as a teenager. As in, in the early 2000s, when I wasn’t as jaded and basic hero’s journeys and quests were exciting and a relatively simplistic plotline of overcoming a monster wasn’t boring.

This jazzes up the basicness a touch by having the Great Sorcerer be a wayward anthropologist from Earth sent to observe a pre recontacted colony lapsed into matriarchal medieval times, where the magic and science bumps heavily into Clarke’s magic is science we don’t understand yet, with heavy heapings of language mistranslations feeding into the magic misunderstanding.

Again, it’s a conceit that’s pretty familiar and I would have enjoyed it a lot more if the characters had any personality or depth, but aside from going deep into Nyr’s mind (he gets a first person POV), we don’t really get much of Lyn (third person POV) or Esha or really anyone else. Lyn remains a minor princess infatuated by stories of magic and myth and legend, despite her growing understanding that magic is just things she doesn’t understand quite yet and also despite her bravery in going at a monster with nothing but sword and armor and grit (despite it having worked so very well the first time).

Anywho, the twist on the trope was interesting but I felt that it thought itself clever and groundbreaking, when instead it just felt tired and a retread of other twists in the magic vs science sorcerer-in-the-tower and hero’s journey tropes.

Maybe this is all the story attempted to be, but I think I had been expecting something more from the author. It’s my first read from him, and I’ve seen on reviews of his other books mentioning how he’s taken tropes and twisted them into new and creative ways, but I just didn’t see that here. Some of the elements were cool, like the language drift and translation errors and cultural disconnects, but the rest didn’t really land or subvert the genre enough for me to enjoy it as much as I wanted to.

Trigger Warning: depression, death

I received this ARC from NetGalley for an honest review

Definitely a 4.5 and I’m rounding up.

I’ve been hearing great things about Adrian Tchaikovsky’s books for a while now but most of his sci-fi books have felt a bit more complicated than I usually read, so I’ve been avoiding picking up any despite owning a couple. But when I saw the announcement for this novella, I thought a short format might be perfect start and I was absolutely right.

By the time I started reading this, I had completely forgotten the premise and I think that’s the best way to appreciate this story - just go in with a blank mind and no expectations. The author does a seamless job of blending sci-fi and fantasy and I was so impressed. I will preface by saying that this is firstly a very contemplative story, with not much action or adventure you would expect in a conventional SFF book, but it has a lot of emotional depth that’ll keep you hooked. The author deeply explores themes like depression, loneliness, feeling unwanted, being rational vs emotional; and finding one’s purpose in life, especially when feeling like the existing purpose feels lost or wasted. The pacing might feel a bit slow, but I think the feelings it evoked more than made up for it. I also thought the use of linguistics as important part of the story was brilliant.

Despite this being a tale of defeating an unfamiliar and terrifying monster/demon, it’s very much a character focused story. Lyn is a fourth princess which makes her not very important in the hierarchy, and her impulsive nature since childhood has not made much of an impression on either her queen mother or her elder sisters. When news comes of a demon which is terrorizing one land after another and displacing thousands of people, she as a person who grew up on tales of heroes and wizards can’t help but want to help by fighting the monster and prove her worth to her family.

Nyr on the other hand is a centuries old anthropologist who has been alone on this diasporic planet for a long while, fighting loneliness and depression while also dealing with the fact that his original purpose of living there seems completely useless. When presented with an opportunity to help the people of this world, he is conflicted due to his creed of being only an observer but ultimately he makes a choice.

I thought their dynamic was so fascinating to see develop. She assumes he is a old wizard with magic who can defeat the demon; he is a scientist who is frustrated at being unable to convince the others that there’s no such thing as magic. The way they communicate is one of the highlights of this book - he speaks in his scientific language but what she hears and understands is more on the lines of her myth laden world. There is one particular chapter that emphasizes this difference in their language and I thought it was amazing. But despite these issues, they ultimately understand each other’s loneliness on a deeper level and are on the same page about how to help each other in fighting the monster. They both are well supported by Lyn’s friend Esha and a reformed convict Allwer, and all four of them became a wonderful found family.

To conclude, I had no idea what I was getting into when I started this book but what I didn’t think was it will become an unexpected favorite. It’s an excellent science fantasy novella that’ll make you feel a lot of emotions and leave you thinking. Go into it without knowing much about it and I promise it will wow you.

I found this to be a beautiful piece about life and what it is to truly live. Yes some may say it's short but it stays away from being overly sentimental .As we come to understand the motives of the two central characters Lyn and Nyr a world opens up that pulls the reader in with questions and ultimately hope.
A dutiful daughter who is overlooked and pitied is paired here with a scientist who is perceived as an ancient magician. Yes I did get Wizard of Oz vibes but this story made me so curious and also emotionally invested. The ending was perfect and made such sense although I'm still a little undecided about whether there was something paranormal involved or perhaps something more mundane such as terra forming. Honestly it doesn't matter because I loved this slice of the unknown and heartily look forward to reading more from this author.
This voluntary take is of a copy I requested from Netgalley and my thoughts and comments are honest and I believe fair