Elder Race, by Adrian Tchaikovsky

[sophia_sol]

It's for moments like this that I work my way through the Hugo lists every year: that feeling when I pick up a book I probably would never have otherwise bothered with, and discover that it is actually 1000% my thing. This book! This book!!!!!!!!!!!

It is a book about the struggles to communicate between people of very different cultures and experiences and frameworks for understanding the world, and about what happens to a colonized planet that is no longer in contact with the rest of the universe, and about being haunted by your past, and about trying to do things and believe in things and make a difference, and about the importance of human connection and the stories we tell. It's beautiful and fascinating and emotional and so, so good.

Highly recommended!!

(also...the Dragonriders of Pern books were my first and most formative exposure to the notion of a planet colonized and then abandoned, and interacting with the technology left by the original colonizers without understanding it -- so throughout the book I kept on being inescapably reminded of how much I once loved the Pern books, except this book is uhhhhh actually good, unlike Pern, lol)

Comments

[lirazel]

WOW SOLD. (I have yet to try a Tchaikovsky book that really works for me--though I've only tried like 3--but I am sure that one will eventually, and this one definitely sounds like a contender!)

[sophia_sol]

Huh, this is my first Tchaikovsky and I was feeling very ready to dive into his other books as a result! What hasn't worked for you about the other ones of his you've read?

[lirazel]

I read the first third of the first book in the spider people series, and I admired it a lot, but I didn't get emotionally invested. Then I got distracted and never picked it back up.

And then a couple of weeks ago I read the first third of his shapeshifting pre-history series (The Tiger and the Wolf? The Wolf and the Tiger? Something like that?) and it was more my thing but it didn't grab me enough to keep reading it. I might still give it another try at another point because I thought the worldbuilding was pretty fun.

[sophia_sol]

Ah, that checks out. Still sounds worth it then for me to at least give his other books a try!

[lirazel]

Oh definitely! He's a good enough writer and has written so many different kinds of things that I'm certain I'll like something of his! Just haven't found it yet!

The spider books were one of those where I was like, "I am absolutely wild about this premise, nobody does anything this out-there in scifi anymore, yay for you for writing it!" but also "but it's really not the most enjoyable reading experience for me personally." If that makes any sense at all.

[sophia_sol]

oh that totally makes sense! I do love stumbling across authors like that, who are just fully dedicated to writing exactly the thing they are called to write, even if it's not the normal or popular thing within the genre. Living their best lives!

[luzula]

I loved the spider chapters but found the human chapters forgettable! Someday I am going to reread just the spider chapters.

[mific]

I really liked this one too - Clarke's Law embodied. It's up there with his other two faves of mine - Children of Time and Children of Ruin. Those two are a bit more sci-fi without the fantasy edge. Not that Elder Race is fantasy, but it feels a little that way because of how the scientist is perceived.

[sophia_sol]

yeah exactly, I get you! And I will have to take a look at your other two faves :)

[mific]

With the other two books, the way he pulled off marvellous endings when things seemed headed for tragedy was really excellent. Worth hanging in for, even if you don’t like them as much as Elder Race.

[sophia_sol]

ohh I LOVE that, that sounds amazing!

[chestnut_pod]

Okay, if someone had previously tried to sell my on Tchaikovsky by saying, "it's like Pern, but good," I would have been there with bells on ten years ago!!

This sounds fantastic and I'll have to try it out.

[sophia_sol]

lest I miscalibrate your expectations, there are also ways in which it is not like Pern; the dragon-human bond has no analogue here, among other things. But it IS really great and it IS doing a much better job than Pern at exploring the shared themes it is exploring!

[applenym]

so throughout the book I kept on being inescapably reminded of how much I once loved the Pern books, except this book is uhhhhh actually good, unlike Pern, lol

This might be what tips me over into actually picking up an Adrian Tchaikovsky book instead of vaguely thinking "I should check out his work; I'll get on that one of these days..." I loved the Pern novels when I first read them as a kid in the 80s. I don't think I could re-read them again now, but I'll always remember how much they meant to me then.

[sophia_sol]

Yeah, you and me both about Pern! I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did :)