Book Review: Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Alpha Centauri: Alien Clay
And on a planet like Kiln, where the alien life is incompatible with human life…but the alien life is extremely good at trying to bridge that gap, this is a slow death sentence…or is it? Daghdev is a classic protagonist in the Tchaikovsky model, often isolated from his fellows and only slowly coming to bridge those gaps as well…
Book Review: Spiderlight by Adrian Tchaikovsky
A band of heroes, a priestess determined to defeat the evil that threatens the land, and a prophecy that is the necessary fulfillment of conditions to defeat the Dark Lord all sounds like your bog-standard epic fantasy. The typical sort of epic fantasy that has been around since the 1980s and probably written in three or more volumes. Perhaps even one of those interminable series that just keeps going on and on. Almost certainly there would be your typical map, maybe a glossary, or a dramatis personae. In the hands of Adrian Tchaikovsky, however, Spiderlight is a lean short novel. It takes the epic fantasy formula template and in the midst of executing that formula, ruthlessly and entertainingly interrogates and examines it.
