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Adrian Tchaikovsky


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I recently read his Elder Race novella and was blown away by it. I need MORE. I see he's published quite a few books in both science fiction and fantasy. Does anyone have any recommendations? 

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He is absurdly prolific, I've read a lot of his books but struggle to keep up with him - I haven't read Elder Race yet, for example.

Out of them I'd particularly recommend Children of Time, Guns of the Dawn and Dogs of War.

The first thing I read by him was his 10-volume Shadows of the Apt series, I thought the imagination of the world-building was fascinating throughout the series. It's not got the consistency of his later books, I think he was still learning his trade in the earliest books and it has some pacing issues at times and sometimes the plot got a bit repetitive but I've got many fond memories of it.

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8 minutes ago, williamjm said:

He is absurdly prolific, I've read a lot of his books but struggle to keep up with him - I haven't read Elder Race yet, for example.

Out of them I'd particularly recommend Children of Time, Guns of the Dawn and Dogs of War.

The first thing I read by him was his 10-volume Shadows of the Apt series, I thought the imagination of the world-building was fascinating throughout the series. It's not got the consistency of his later books, I think he was still learning his trade in the earliest books and it has some pacing issues at times and sometimes the plot got a bit repetitive but I've got many fond memories of it.

I kept hearing about Shadows of the Apt and when I saw that they were getting a rerelease with some slick black covers; I ordered them all.  Have yet to read them; but they are coming up soon in my To Be Read pile!  (For some reason, Book Ten has come already but books 8 and 9 are delayed.)

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My favourite of his that I've read so far is Cage of Souls, a Dying Earth standalone. Absolutely rammed with ideas.

The iron-age animal-shape-shifting trilogy starting with The Tiger and the Wolf is good fun too, and Dogs of War. 


Children of Time is very good, but I did find it covered some similar concepts - not just in the spidericity of it all but that was part of it- as Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge, and that was better.  I do have the sequel on deck though.

 

 

I dropped Shadows of the Apt after book 2 back in the day because I thought he was being too safe in a lot of choices he was making, but I've heard good things about how he played that long term so I should give it another try.


There's so many still on my list though. His output is insane, and so varied. The one I really want to try is One Day All This Will Be Yours, but I'm struggling to justify spending full-novel price, as it is on Kobo, on something that short. Probably will eventually though. Shards of Earth may be next, though. 

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I'm currently struggling through Shards of the Earth. The premise is interesting, but it feels too much like a generic SF adventure. His prose was better in the Children of Time/Ruin books which I greatly enjoyed. This is all I've read from him so far.

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My favourite of his is Guns of the Dawn -  I also liked Dogs of War a lot. I've still got a lot of his back catalogue to catch up on. Really, I should write 'catch up on his future output' since he writes faster than I can read. 

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9 hours ago, Corvinus85 said:

I'm currently struggling through Shards of the Earth. The premise is interesting, but it feels too much like a generic SF adventure. His prose was better in the Children of Time/Ruin books which I greatly enjoyed. This is all I've read from him so far.

Agreed. I DNF'd that book. Very bland and the world building seemed shallow for some reason 

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On 5/10/2022 at 6:23 PM, dog-days said:

My favourite of his is Guns of the Dawn -  I also liked Dogs of War a lot. I've still got a lot of his back catalogue to catch up on. Really, I should write 'catch up on his future output' since he writes faster than I can read. 

Guns of the Dawn does feel a bit different to his other books, one of Tchaikovsky's trademarks is the inventiveness of his world-building but it's not really the focus of this one. I think Emily is one of my favourite characters out of his books, she does go on quite a journey through the story in terms of character development.

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19 hours ago, williamjm said:

Guns of the Dawn does feel a bit different to his other books, one of Tchaikovsky's trademarks is the inventiveness of his world-building but it's not really the focus of this one. I think Emily is one of my favourite characters out of his books, she does go on quite a journey through the story in terms of character development.

Yes - the setting and story itself might not be ground-breaking, but I did feel that what it did, in terms of pacing, atmosphere, and characterisation, it did really really well. 

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Books 8 and 9 of the Shadows of the Apt showed up today.  They are thicker than most of the others, my shelf space I had set aside for the series had to be adjusted a bit to make it fit.

I'm finishing Psalms of Isaak and then I need to decide if this is next on my list or if I might read the new Dan Abraham book before getting into it.  

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On 5/10/2022 at 6:13 AM, Calibandar said:

He's just published the second one in his Shards of the Earth series, one of his most interesting series so far for me.

Also interested in Dogs of War and its sequel, and Cage of Souls.

Just finished Eyes of the Void..book 2 of Tchaikovsky Architects series, it was originally promoted as a duology but is now a trilogy it seems.

didn't enjoy it ..lots of bloat and exposition.. disappointed.. quite enjoyed Shards of the Earth..

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
On 5/11/2022 at 5:16 PM, williamjm said:

Guns of the Dawn does feel a bit different to his other books, one of Tchaikovsky's trademarks is the inventiveness of his world-building but it's not really the focus of this one. I think Emily is one of my favourite characters out of his books, she does go on quite a journey through the story in terms of character development.

I just finished this one and I see your point about the world-building. Emily's journey is compelling. It took awhile to get moving but in retrospect it was best that he not rush it. Everything was earned, especially the ending. Although if there was a denouement where Alice got some sense knocked into her (not literally) that would have been sweet. What a twit! 

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