ELDER RACE by Adrian Tchaikovsky – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Published by Tordotcom on November 16 2021
Genres: Adult, Science fiction
Pages: 176
Format: Finished paperback
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: A clever mix of fantasy and science fiction that explores the different ways stories are told and interpreted, Elder Race was a joy to read.

Something within the foundation of the tower groaned, deep and tormented. In the next moment Lyn changed her mind: not a living thing at all, but as though the tower contained vast moving parts only now stirring into motion.

How do a princess battling a demon and an ancient anthropologist from the stars share the same story? It’s actually not that hard to imagine if you’re reading something by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Elder Race is just as good as everyone’s saying. This is a very weird but inventive tale, a perfect mash-up of fantasy and science fiction that left me in awe of the author’s ability to not only create an intriguing mystery, but to write a fairly short story with an epic scope and interesting characters. Fans of both genres are going to want to get their hands on this one, trust me.

The story unfolds in alternating chapters between two main characters. First we have Lynesse Fourth Daughter, a disgraced princess who is desperate to rid her kingdom of an insidious demon. Lyn decides to break the rules of the kingdom and journey up the mountain to the Tower where the last Elder has lived for hundreds of years, and ask him to use his magic to help her. Nyr Illim Tevitch is an anthropologist, sent from Earth to observe Lyn’s race. Nyr has been cut off from the rest of the Explorer Corps, and his communications with the satellite above the planet suggest that he’s all alone, yet he continues to carry out his duties: observing but never interacting.

Until the day that Lyn knocks on his door and the two meet for the first time.

Tchaikovsky uses language and storytelling to show how two people can see the same thing but describe it in completely different ways. The beauty of his story is that it’s literally a face-off between a fantasy world and a science fiction world, and I don’t think I’ve ever read anything quite like it. I hesitate to go into too much detail in this review, because experiencing the way the story and its mysteries unfold is one of the joys of reading Elder Race. Let’s just say that Lyn’s world appears to be a medieval one, with kingdoms and swords and monsters, while Nyr’s is clearly set in the future. The conversations between the two are wonderful, full of arguments about magic versus science (in Lyn’s world, science doesn’t really exist). Lyn calls Nyr a magician, but Nyr scoffs at that and proclaims that “magic isn’t real.” There is one chapter in particular that illustrates this beautifully—and if you’ve read the book I’m sure you know which one I’m talking about—and I thought the execution was simply brilliant. The author isn’t afraid to play with language and nuance, and that playful quality added a lovely layer to the story.

Nyr in particular is a fascinating character. He admits that he has clinical depression, and he can access a program called Dissociative Cognition System, or DCS, which locks down his ability to feel emotions. I love the way he describes his depression to Lyn as a “beast,” which is a word she can relate to (she certainly can’t relate to the word “depression”). Not only is he lonely—and frankly peeved—at being left alone on the planet, but he’s lived his life by a strict code of ethics, never to interfere with Lyn’s culture in any way. This idea might sound familiar to Star Trek fans—Prime Directive, anyone?—and I could be mistaken, but I believe this element was a nod to the beloved TV show. The fact that Nyr’s decided to finally break this rule says a lot about his state of mind.

The demon itself is very creepy, or I should say the manifestation of the demon. Some of the scenes where they’re hunting the monster in the forest have an eldritch feel to them, and at this point in the story it seems as if the author has switched over to the horror genre. The ending is very strange, and maybe a little too weird and over-the-top for my taste, but it actually worked really well within the framework of the plot.

I would recommend Elder Race to Tchaikovsky fans for sure, and if you’ve always been curious about his work and you aren’t afraid of a challenge, this is the perfect place to start.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.