Janice's Reviews > Elder Race

I've been recommending this book as a place to start with Adrian Tchaikovsky. But someone asked me questions about it that I couldn't answer, so i figured I'd better read it again.

It's still good. I still like the tension between what the locals see as magic, and what the Elder knows is silence. What I didn't remember was how hard the whole thing was on the Elder. Bless him, he really struggled, for Reasons. Good reason, IMHO.

I still liked it though.
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I think I'm almost at the point of buying anything Adrian Tchaikovsky writes as it comes out. He has a REALLY interesting way of looking at things and writing about them. I've been reading SF/F for decades. It's difficult any more to find something fresh and new. Tchaikovsky delivers this pretty reliably.

This story contrasts science/technology -- in the person of a junior anthropologist who's been left behind, probably forever, by his colleagues -- and fantasy, in the person of Lynesse Fourth Daughter, who lives in a very sword/sorcery sort of semi-medieval world. There are reports of problems in the woodland communities. Lynesse's mother, the ruler of her kingdom, thinks the problems are exaggerated, and really doesn't care that much about the woodland kingdoms anyway.

But Lynesse is worried. She's the headstrong and unruly Fourth Daughter, and thus expendable anyway. She decides to seek the help of the Sorcerer in the Tower (actually the aforementioned junior anthropologist). Little do they know that Cosmic Horror awaits them.

The contrasting viewpoints of the anthropologist (scientific/technological) and the daughter (Magic!!) are interesting. Clarke's Third Law comes into play. It's fun, and ultimately fairly hopeful.

I liked it.