FanFiAddict
A gaggle of nerds talking about Fantasy, Science Fiction, and everything in-between. They also occasionally write reviews about said books. 2x Stabby Award-Nominated and home to the Stabby Award-Winning TBRCon.
Every Friday, we’re highlighting a panel from the TBRCon2024 all-virtual SF/F/H convention, looking back on the incredible variety of discussions that we had the honor of hosting.
This week, join moderator/author Frasier Armitage and panelists Christopher Paolini, Adrian Tchaikovsky, J.S. Dewes, Ada Hoffmann and K.B. Wagers for a TBRCon2024 panel on “Developing Alien Races.”
Adrian Tchaikovsky can do no wrong. Service Model is an utter triumph of fun sci-fi with an added edge of things being a liiiiittle too close to home. Told entirely from the perspective of Charles, a personal valet robot who embarks on quite the journey.
Charles at the start of the book is a very unintentionally humorous robot, and his observations of the world around him are so very naive. I really enjoyed the first quarter of the book where he’s interacting with other robots who are following their routines, and the lack of human interaction is messing with their systems. A particular favourite was the detective and doctor robots, it was for me the first realisation of just how funny this book can be.
Alien Clay provides further evidence of Adrian Tchaikovsky’s unparalleled and unfathomable imagination. A master storyteller and world builder, Tchaikovsky delivers another fascinating speculative vision of an alien ecology, that is innovative and immersive.
Cage of Souls is a captivating work of speculative fiction of the highest order. A standalone that felt like an entire series in scope and imagination. Adrian Tchaikovsky’s world building and storytelling is off the charts in this outrageously entertaining story.
Every week, we are highlighting a panel from TBRCon2023, looking back on the amazing variety of panels that we had the honor of hosting.
This week, join moderator/podcaster Adrian M. Gibson and authors Adrian Tchaikovsky, Paul McAuley, Aliette de Bodard, N.E. Davenport and Jonathan Nevair for a TBRCon2023 author panel on “A New Golden Age of Space Opera.”
Join host Adrian M. Gibson and podcasters Dylan Marsh and Charles M.C. (co-hosts of Friends Talking Fantasy Podcast) as they reminisce on the year that was. During the panel they share their top picks for favorite SFF reads of the year (3 each for a total of 9), reflect on their reading habits in 2022, offer some honorable mentions, officially dub Adrian the ‘Bad Boy of SFF’ and more.
The City of Last Chances, was carved out of granite by an industrial literary automaton. Everything has been precisely placed to full effect. Its demon-powered factories belch black infernal smoke to power the prose as burn you through the pages.
Tchaikovsky’s City of Last Chances weaves complex family structures, pantheons, and warring factions into a gloomy, occupied city-scape – Ilmar has long been without hope, long been a city of divided beliefs and downright debauchery and crime, now occupied by the perfectionist Pals. This work wore its inspirations on its sleeves, heavily reminiscent of the Black Iron Legacy and The Last War. Immediately, I was transported back to Jia and Guerdon in these pages, but it was only a passing whiff of their scents because Ilmar itself was a blend of something in itself.
I’m happy to announce that Children of Memory exceeded my expectations and was a wild ride from the front to back. It may not be perfect, but it is a great science fiction novel with signature Tchaikovsky creativity all wrapped in a great philosophical question.
I’m a big Adrian Tchaikovsky fan. Children of Time is a modern classic and stands as my favorite sci-fi novel of all time while Cage of Souls is a vastly underrated and incredible novel. Tchaikovsky’s works are always incredibly innovative and creative. From Elder Race (a fun novella which mixes fantasy and sci-fi) to his Shadows of the Apt series (a fantasy book with insect type races which I need to read more of) there’s always some interesting worldbuilding and fascinating ideas going on – and Shards of the Earth is no exception.
Many sci-fi fans speak of the Golden Age of Science Fiction as something that has long since passed. Whether it’s the 1930’s, ‘40s or ‘50s, the days of Asimovs, Heinleins, “Doc” Smiths, Bradburys and more are a forlorn memory… right? From my perspective, the answer is “Hell no!” The last decade or two has seen a stunning resurgence of sci-fi and space opera that recaptures the magic of far-flung galaxies, grand ideas, scientific marvels, strange aliens and more, but at the same time delivering fast-paced, engaging narratives and characters who are actually relatable. One author who stands at the forefront of this modern movement is Adrian Tchaikovsky.
Tchaikovsky showed his natural talent for the genre with the 2015 novel Children of Time. Since then, he has honed his craft with every release (and he releases a lot of books with unbelievable frequency), and his new series The Final Architecture, starting with last year’s Shards of Earth, is space opera at its very best.
Join FanFiAddict’s Adrian M. Gibson and author Adrian Tchaikovsky for a chat about his long writing journey, the galactic worldbuilding, politics and characters of The Final Architecture series, his personal history with biology and zoology, creating strange alien races and writing empathetic aliens, the contrast between writing fantasy and science fiction, how he approaches research and much more.
