Just finished my first book of the year, Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky. I think he’s now my favorite author, at least currently writing. He’s so good at so many things, from hard SF to fantasy. He’s created some really interesting worlds, and populated them with interesting characters.
So far, I’ve read these books of his (order I read them, not order published):
- Children of Time
- Children of Ruin
- Children of Memory
- Made Things
- Walking to Aldebaran
- Service Model
- Shroud
- City of Last Chances
- Alien Clay
Each of these is a gem. The children of time series has to be an all-time great SF trilogy. If you want my little paragraph of spoiler-free notes on why of them, let me know.
I love Tchaikovsky, but sometimes I wonder if he’d be better off spending a bit more time with each book instead of cranking out so many of them.
Like… each of his books seems to accomplish exactly what he wants it to, and as soon as it does he sends it to the publisher and starts the next one. But I feel like most of them have room for an extra layer of subtext, if he were to set them aside for a few months and reflect on them and come back to them with fresh eyes.
But that’s probably more on the genre expectations for speculative vs literary fiction than on Tchaikovsky as a writer.
I get that with some of them. It’s not true of the Children of Time series, but probably a fair criticism of City of Last Chances, which I liked, but not as much as others.
A few of the titles I listed are novellas, so intentionally briefer than the novels.
I agree completely. Shroud in particular suffers for this; I found myself wishing it was double the length but containing the same story, just so the world-building could feel a bit more, I don’t know, inhabited.