| Title | : | Elder Race |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1250768721 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781250768728 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 201 |
| Publication | : | First published November 16, 2021 |
| Awards | : | Hugo Award Best Novella (2022), Ursula K. Le Guin Prize (2022) |
Lynesse is the lowly Fourth Daughter of the queen, and always getting in the way.
But a demon is terrorizing the land, and now she’s an adult (albeit barely) and although she still gets in the way, she understands that the only way to save her people is to invoke the pact between her family and the Elder sorcerer who has inhabited the local tower for as long as her people have lived here (though none in living memory has approached it).
But Elder Nyr isn’t a sorcerer, and he is forbidden to help, for his knowledge of science tells him the threat cannot possibly be a demon…
Elder Race Reviews
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Elder Race, or, a post on which I muse about feelings, productivity, and the futility of blurbing.
Goodreads lists over thirty books written by Tchaikovsky, and that's not including another seventy plus short stories he lists on his website. This is one prolific author. After joining Nataliya on buddy reads of a number of novellas, I've come to the conclusion that he has a lot of strengths when it comes to the style of sci-fi I enjoy, but lacks a certain attention to detail to move most of his works into the stratosphere. The first work I read by him was the memorable and undoubtedly to-be-classic
Children of Time, and nothing has quite stood up to that mind-blowing arachnophilic experience.
Elder Races is no different. As an aside, I'll note that the Goodreads blurb is close to useless at clues to contents and experience. This is a modern remake of Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover series, anthropologist and all. In fact, if you want an interesting and more profound female-centric and complicated love relationship, I highly recommend The Rununciate trilogy, particularly
Thendara House. It also reminded me of Andre Norton's The Witch World saga. Both have their roots in a culture clash of a space-faring sexually egalitarian civilization that was almost absent, and a more feudal and gender-unequal one. Both also play with the idea of Clarke's Third Law, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic," adding a fascinating corollary: even technology can't explain everything.
Elder Races sticks to this cultural disconnect and tech-magic heritage, alternating viewpoints between the last anthropologist of a space-faring empire and the young and free-spirited woman who wants to lead the fight against a demon. The anthropologist from the Earth Explorer Corps, Nyr, has been in cold-sleep for decades, waiting for contact from his team while he intermittently collects information on the locals. His work is aided by a Dissociative Cognition System, a 'mod' that allows him to shut away feelings and function only with the 'reason' part of his brain. "Descending in the elevator, I am very aware of all the sad I am not feeling, how lonely and lost I don't care that I am, and how trivial it is that I am utterly cut off from the civilization that gave rise to me, and anyone who might now or care who Nyr Illim Tevitch is."
Lynesse, the headstrong local, is the proverbial fourth child of the Queen, mildly indulged but mostly considered unimportant in a matriarchal lineage of a feudal, status-conscious society. When she learns of a demon devouring people and even villages, she decides to seek the help of Elder Nyr to vanquish it. Nyr, in turn, is haunted by memories of Lynesse's great-grand from the last time he went against his anthropological training.
Clearly, a lot of fascinating ideas to play with, and one of Tchaikovsky's strengths is the way he throws in teasers that give the reader the idea there's more to learn. He delivers just enough to make for a happy ending, but not really enough for a satisfactory and fulfilling one. There's a side bit about Esha, one of the 'marsh-people' that accompanies them that sounds interesting, as well as teasers about the disappearance of the other Earth anthropologists, and the impact of corporal punishment in the local society, but these aren't really germane. In fact, it's the kind of detail that argues for a longer book instead of novella, so that these inclusions can get the development their inclusion warrants.
The plot is easily the least-interesting thing about this novella. Despite the dual narrative, and Tchaikovsky's attempts to make me care about Lynesse's emotional journey, the internal struggles of Nyr have center stage. Deservedly so; the ideas of cultural competence, language, and feelings are timeless and pertinent. Unfortunately, there's too much here, so everything but character development feels a little shorted, with the bit about the DCI the most fascinating. It's a pleasant enough read, but if I want impactful, I'd rather re-read Thendara House--although I read it enough times as a young adult that it's probably not necessary.
As always, the blog has a bunch of linky-links for references.
https://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2021/...
Nataliya is on a Tchaikovsky buddy-read binge, and I am completely unable to deny her. This time, Dylan also joined in for the ride. His note that it seemed like a light version of
Rocannon's World by LeGuin is particularly interesting, and merits a placement of it on my TBR list. -
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
- Arthur C. Clarke
“There is no magic, merely the proper application of universal forces.”
- Adrian Tchaikovsky
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Adrian Tchaikovsky and I are a good writer/reader match. He’s yet to disappoint me — and I hope he never does. He’s prolific and versatile and a very competent writer, above all. With most writers it’s either quality or quantity, but Mr. T manages both, seemingly effortlessly. I can only assume that he has so much fun doing what he does that he just keeps churning out these tight clever stories at quite a snappy pace.“It’s also possible that I’m just resigned to being a very bad anthropologist. Which is a shame. I might be the last one left.”
In Elder Race Tchaikovsky brings together fantasy and science fiction (normally quite distinct genre despite being usually mashed up under the same umbrella) —which works seamlessly because, really, “I am nothing but a scientist of sufficiently advanced technology, which is to say a magician.” To a post-technology civilization that developed on an Earth colony planet advanced technology may as well be magic, and the sole remaining Earth man - Nyr, anthropologist second class, equipped with knowledge, gadgets and cryosleep - is the legendary Nyrgoth Elder, a mighty sorcerer who may be the only hope to end a demon infestation - or so hopes Lynesse the Fourth Daughter, a young warrior of royal blood and a dreamer.
And he does it better than you’d expect from a swords and sorcery and starships mash-up.“The fact that bringing a sorcerer into a neighbouring land was probably not in accordance with her mother’s foreign policy had since crossed her mind, but at speed because she had actively chased it to the borders and watched until she was sure it wasn’t coming back any time soon.”
A job of an anthropologist as Nyr sees it is to study a culture, a civilization. It’s not to interfere with events and the course of civilization. But it’s been centuries alone, with rare resurfacing from suspended animation, and Nyr is starting to question the ethics of reducing yourself to observer role, letting life pass by. It’s a struggle between being a bad anthropologist and a decent person, and it’s clear which side we land.“I am only now, at the wrong end of three centuries after loss of contact, beginning to realise just how broken my own *superior* culture actually was. They set us here to make exhaustive anthropological notes on the fall of every sparrow. But not to catch a single one of them. To *know*, but very emphatically not to *care*.”
It’s a story built on the contrast of dual perspectives, the different ways of seeing the same world, the culture clashes that are unavoidable and hard to resolve because the frame of reference for one of you just doesn’t exist for the other. In a language where there’s no difference between the concept of a scientist and a wizard how do you even distinguish the two? How do you explain yourself when the language itself - or your linguistic device - turns your science fiction into fantasy? There is actually an entire chapter where one story is told side-by-side in a science fiction way and a fantasy way, and it’s lovely.“Is that not what magic is? Every wise man, every scholar I have met who pretended to the title of magician, that was their study. They sought to learn how the world worked, so that they could control and master it. That is magic.”
Tchaikovsky is really good at novellas. He perfectly balances the relative brevity of the story with just a perfect amount of worldbuilding and character development and plot. He avoids the pitfalls of writing an overlong short story or an abbreviated novel, and instead writes a story just perfect for its length. And that’s a skill indeed.
And I’m very glad there are still many books by him that I haven’t read yet. That means many more exciting reading hours for me.
Solid 4 stars — and swords.“How much worse to think yourself wise, and still be as ignorant as one who knew themselves a fool?”
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Buddy read with Dylan and Carol.
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My Hugo and Nebula Awards Reading Project 2022 -
‘Stories, myths, contradictory parables. True without being real. But this was real.’
Who hasn’t had bold fantasies of epic quests, marching forward with your action team simply bursting with impetuous idealism and storybook heroism? The tragedy is that, when we grow older, the stories sometimes fade as we become jaded with the harshness of reality. Which is why Elder Race by acclaimed author Adrian Tchaikovksy is such a wonderful reminder that those stories are still alive inside us and can still hold power. A blissful blend of boisterous fantasy and grim sci fi, Elder Race launches on a collection of enticing premises that orchestrate into a truly insightful novel that may just be the most fun I’ve had with a book all year. The story rotates between two perspectives, one as a fantasy quest seen through Princess Lynesse Fourth Daughter as she calls upon an ancient oath with a sorcerer to fight a demon plaguing the lands. The other is from the ‘sorcerer’, revealed as a lonely anthropologist struggling with depression who was sent to study their planet and might need a bit of the magic he knows does not exist. With an insightful look at language and storytelling, Elder Race is a fantastic book that critiques examining other cultures through a colonialist lens while also functioning as an empowering lesson on coping with depression and finding a way to truly live in the world and not merely go through the motions of a life.
Elder Race reads as a dark comedy of perspectives, one that reminds me of the old maxim about seeing a glass half full or half empty. Tchaikovsky pulls this off quite expertly here, and he has a brilliant balance of humor and seriousness to his writing that drives this story home in a comforting way despite addressing some pretty heavy issues. The primary one being the struggle to either see the world as full of magic or simply a cold chaos navigated with academic insights and scientific aid. When you feel you are being pulled into some unthinkably horrifying void and struggling with just basic living, the idea of magic is a comforting hand to hold and a doorway into hopeful thoughts through which you can cling to a larger purpose. Yet, with the knowledge that this is merely fantasy, does it become a distraction or nothing more than an escape from harsh truths of reality? Tchaikovsky shows the pros and cons of both perspectives, yet at the end of the day it seems that there is one that may seem more conducive to a fulfilling life.
Lynesse is seen as ‘still clinging to her childhood,’ (she is a young teen) and has been a disappointment to her more serious parents and siblings due to her recklessness and fantastical mythmaking. She is full of conviction and willpower that make the perfect catalyst for a storybook heroine, though she sometimes fears ‘grand storybook gestures were perhaps not the most efficacious way to help the world. ’On the other hand is Nygroth Elder the sorcerer —or is it Nyr Illim Tevitch, anthropologist—in all his science and academic truthmaking that sees through the myths:‘Lynesse Fourth Daughter….off to do something that is What Princesses Do when there are monsters and demons and wizards in the world. Something that was surely not actually what they did, back in the days her myth-cycles originated in. Because myths miss out all the sordid realities and preserve only What we wish we’d done, rather than How we actually did it.’
This passage is the perfect conversation between their two perspectives, and the misalignment is an underlying tension for Nyr throughout the book. He is afflicted with terrible depression and only carries on by turning his emotions off. Equipped with the personal computer installed in his head (which looks like a wicked set of horns) is the Dissociated Cognition System (DCS), which quite literally blocks out his emotions and provides him with the technical readouts about them while turned on. The intent is for logical reasoning and observation undisturbed by emotions for his anthropological work. ‘It’s for writing cooly academic papers, DCS engaged for maximum objectivity,’ he says of his writings.
‘I am, frankly, not only the last but the worst anthropologist.’
Nyr is full of guilt and sadness this whole book. He knows he is failing in his mission as an anthropologist as he is meant to not interfere with the locals, only watch them, but he once let emotions interfere and fought in a war and made an oath that he will return if ever the Queen’s lineage needs him. 300 years later, he is called (he’s been in sleep cycles). ‘I did stupid, stupid things, unbecoming of a serious academic, and rode to war at the side of a warrior queen whom, despite absurd differences in age and culture and genetic makeup, I loved.’ Crushed by depression, knowing the woman he loved is centuries dead and Lynesse is not her despite looking exactly like her, and also lonely as his people have not contacted him for hundreds of years and may not even exist anymore, he begrudgingly sets out on the quest.
Nyr’s narration becomes a critique on the history of anthropology, reminding us that much of our early studies of other cultures came from white men viewing the world through a Eurocentric perspective. Though tasked to be objective, Nyr’s grounding in our academics often makes him think of himself as above the people of the planet he is studying. This is certainly symbolized in his anthropologist outpost which is a massive tower from which he looks down at the people below. ‘Now I’m on a fucking quest,’ he complains, ‘with a couple of women who don’t understand things like germs or fusion power or anthropological theories of value.’ Even with DCS fully engaged he cannot help but think of himself as ‘better than’ for his knowledge.
Which is a clever tactic to form an unreliable narrator, or at least one with a different perspective on the world around him than the perspectives held by everyone else. Nyr has studied these people but still only can infer much (they use the brand logo from Earth as a symbol in their death rituals, which he does not understand but the connection between marketing and death is pretty amusing). ‘A lot of their codes here revolve around obligation, both to and from power,’ he tells us, but the reader slowly begins to see this is not as rigid as he assumed. The language barriers become important and there is a lot of stumbles over how to appropriately address one another or how Nyr and Lynesse tend to talk past each other over misalignments of terminology (‘demon’ and ‘monster’, for instance, have different highly-specific meanings and sometimes Nyr cannot comprehend the connotations to certain words like “outside”.) There is plenty of commentary to be made here about colonialism and engaging with other cultures on their own terms, which only becomes more pronounced when the ‘demon’ is addressed and motives are questioned.
‘They think I’m a fucking wizard…and I literally do not have the language to tell them otherwise. I say, “scientist,” “Scholar,” but when I speak to them in their language, these are both cognates for “wizard.”’
Arthur C. Clarke once wrote that ‘any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,’ which seems to be the major theme at play here. When Nyr tries to explain how things ‘really are’ they tend to nod and say, yes that is what we think too, which is a fun comedy of frustration for the reader. When Nyr assets that ‘There is no magic, merely the proper application of universal forces,’ Esha, who is Lynesse’s companion retorts ‘Is that not what magic is? [Scholars] sought to learn how the world worked, so that they could control and master it. That is magic.’ Perhaps this is a duality of perspectives that one can learn from and embrace magic in everyday life. Personally I find this to be kind of beautiful.
Which is why storytelling is so important. Even if the myths don’t tell the exact truth, there is a lesson inside it that can be more valuable than merely reciting facts. Storytelling is also how cultures pass down their values and beliefs, and without a proper understanding of the myths or a people can an anthropologist truly understand them? While Lynesse is chided for being overly engrossed in myths, it is also her greatest strength and something I, as a reader, truly loved about this book. It is about turning off the DCS and letting the emotions in, even the difficult ones.
Of course the book about depression and regrettable decisions vibed with me so well. This is such a fun pairing of fantasy and sci-fi elements with plenty of wit and charm that allows it to address darker themes without necessarily “feeling” overly dark. Which is a gift Tchaikovsky has, as well as his sense of story that keeps this feeling tight and sharp without becoming overly long or bloated. For a short book this still has tons of world building, and not just for the sake of world building but as part of the thematic commentary. Honestly, this book is such a joy to read and a lot of people are now getting this as a holiday gift from me so that’s about as high of a recommendation I can give.
4.5/5 -
On sale now! 4+ stars for this great fantasy/SF mashup.
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” - Arthur C. Clarke.
This short novel is about the intersection between highly advanced technology and a society that views it as magic, along with the linguistic difficulties that prevent the local society's people from understanding the difference even when the anthropologist who's been studying them for years tries to explain it. Also it's about a quest to destroy a Lovecraftian demon/monstrous entity of some unfamiliar kind, and juggling non-interference rules (Prime Directive, anyone?) with less technologically advanced societies (and where those rules maybe should be tossed out the window). And emotional problems, and friendship. And did I mention the fascinating linguistic aspects?
Adrian Tchaikovsky is such a brilliant, versatile author - I never know what he's going to come up with next, but I know it'll be good. And I love these short stand-alone novels and novellas that he's been writing lately.
Full review to come (I'm working on it...). Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC! -
At first, I had the impression that I was reading something from Steven Brust, which, I should mention, is not a bad thing at all.
But this tale was much more about Clarke's First Law and with a cool anthropology twist and an old school sword and sorcery couched firmly, and formally, in a transhumanist long-term space-colony context.
Most of those older fantasies I read usually started on the fantasy side and gradually let in the SF. This one started from the opposite direction. So that's cool.
And another interesting addition is the whole technological correction of depression. :) I'm a big fan of certain kinds of representation, and this one kicks it. -
4.5 stars!
My first Tchaikovsky novella and my first of his sci-fi. Loved it.
My full review:
https://youtu.be/zY_J8xsGR0U -
This was a very interesting and unique science-fiction book about science, magic, cultural differences and social issues. This book follows Lynesse who is the Fourth Daughter of the Queen and she is always getting in the way. When a demon starts creating havoc on the land Lynesse makes a pact with the Elder sorcerer who has lived in the local tower since her people have lived. Elder Nyr is not a sorcerer and he is not allowed to help. Nyr does not believe that the threat is actually a demon because of his knowledge of science.
This book was very good! The characters were really unique especially Lynesse and Nyr. I really liked Lynesse, she is brave, helpful and selfless. I also liked Nyr, he is smart, interesting and helpful. I wished we learned more about Lynesse’s life and past. Nyr’s inner-monologues were a little long. There were some parts of the book that was a little confusing and I wished the author provided a clearer explanation. The communication and cultural differences between the characters was very interesting and it showed how people can interpret language in different ways. I enjoyed learning about the events from both Lynesse’s and Nyr’s perspective. The author is a very good storyteller and I enjoyed learning about this unique world and interesting characters. -
A very clever riff on the Arthur C Clarke like that sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. In that we have a long-lost planetary colony of people that has evolved into something very like your classic medieval fantasy society, and a 'wizard' who is in fact the junior anthropologist sent to study them. It's a lovely story that's really about communication from different mindsets, and also about how you can have all the technology in the world, but what people need to live rather than survive is stories (legends, inspiration, ideals, hope).
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This novella is an entertaining scifi twist on a traditional fairytale trope. Lynette, fourth daughter of the queen, and her trusted companion journey to the high tower of the legendary sorcerer to wake him and request his help in slaying the demon tormenting her people. After all the sorcerer did help her great grandmother do just that and promised to come to her aid again when called. The princess and the sorcerer have differing views of the history of the world in which she lives, making for entertaining and often humorous exchanges as they travel to the demon's lair. The sorcerer also has his own demons to fight along the way, as he battles the depression and loneliness he feels after centuries alone. It might only be a short novella, but with its engaging characters brilliantly portrays the clash of cultures and is a delightful meld of fantasy and scifi.
With thanks to Macmillan-Tor/Forge and Netgalley for a copy to read -
There are definitely recognizable elements here from Tchaikovsky's
Spiderlight as well as
The Expert System's Brother. The former for the fantasy trope of a band of characters on a quest to destroy the evil wizard/demon, the latter for the SFnal setting on a lost colony planet where the population has been biologically modified to fit the ecology and has lost all its technology and scientific knowledge after being cutoff for generations. There's also some
Annihilation type weirdness that kind of fits somewhere in between.
But all of this cool stuff really takes a back seat so Tchaikovsky can focus on the two protagonists - the "Elder" anthropologist/sorcerer and the princess - which he does by bouncing the narrative perspective between the two. Their journey becomes an opportunity for introspection, as each struggles to overcome deeply held feelings of inadequacy and a loss of purpose and connection. The elder has some nifty technology to help him deal with his troubling emotions, but it really only amounts to kicking the can down the road. Each has difficulty truly comprehending the other, in terms of language as well as vastly differing socio-cultural contexts. The sorcerer being shrouded in centuries of myth and legend, and the princess a member of a primitive native race which was intended as a subject of scientific study. Each character is developed well individually, yet their relationship never seems to gain much substance.
This may also be the first Tchaikovsky book I've read that I had a good idea how things might end. Not because I'm super clever, but rather due to the lack of a major twist, which he often employs to Earth shattering effect. There is a mystery at the heart of the story, but it's revelation and even ultimate resolution doesn't feel central to the story's main focus on the personal journeys of the sorcerer and the princess. And so, in the final analysis, the pieces of the story feel hung together rather loosely. -
I keep teasing myself with these short novels by Adrian Tchaikovsky before I embark on the quest to read his massive space opera books. The premise of this book gives a sneak peak of a clever little story told from different point of views that interpret things so vastly different. It addresses the age-old question of where to draw the line at magic and science. These standalone novels are such a joy to read.
The novel contains two POVs in the form of Nyr and Lynesse. Lynesse is the black sheep of her royal family and is only the fourth daughter to the queen. She is a curious character who jumps first and asks questions later in a medieval type of society. Lyn wants to enlist the help of the Elder Sorcerer to defeat a demon. The only problems are that she came to him without the authority to do so, and the demon problem might not actually exist at all. We follow her on her journey full of perils to vanquish the demon with the help of the sorcerer, Nyr.
Nyr is not a sorcerer. He is a scientist from a futuristic earth left with the duty to observe the inhabitants of this foreign planet. The inhabitants are all colonists who departed earth in a wave earlier than Nyr and have regressed back to the dark ages. Nyr has a secret weapon that the rest of world doesn’t have, technology.
Nyr violated his protocols of no interference years ago when helping an ancestor of Lynesse which comes to bite him in the back when she asks for his help to get to the bottom of this demon nonsense. Forced to embark on this quest while battling depression is tough especially with not knowing if any one back on earth is alive since his last communication from there was hundreds of years ago.
I loved the whole science versus fantasy shtick that this book employed. The two POVs truly felt different with a science fiction POV filled with futuristic jargon, and Lynesse’s POV which felt like the classical trope of going on a journey to defeat the evil monster. The misunderstandings between the two due to language limitations were great and funny. There is a point in the book where Nyr tried to explain that his depression was his greatest adversary, and Lyn believed it to be a physical monster he had to battle.
Another example is Lynesse describing this vicious monster which turns out to be just a mining robot that the first colonists used. My favorite part of the book utilizes the POVs in a chapter where Nyr explains the origin story of the inhabitants and his own story. There is a side-by-side comparison on what he is saying with which what Lynesse is hearing due to the local language limitations such as the word for scientist comes out as wizard.
The story was quite interesting with the two POVs. The characters were also written nicely with some character development to boot. The big mystery overarching the plot was surprising to read about where our sorcerer finds that the inhabitants aren’t quite as ignorant as he thought. The brief introduction to the customs and politics of this planet was fun to read about considering the timeline of the planet. Theorizing what a demon could be in the eyes of an inhabitant such as a plague was a joy to read as well.
Overall, I enjoyed this book a lot. The fantasy versus science POVs and being a quick read with a satisfactory ending made this book an enjoyable experience. Just like with the author’s previous standalone novels, this book has some unexplored mysteries that could maybe be the setting of future books even though the main plot was resolved. This book is just further evidence that I need to stop putting of reading the giant space operas written by the author.
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I knew I needed this pretty much as soon as I heard what was it about, doubly so when I saw the cover. And after a long string of sub-par reads, a book that actually lived up to its promise was more than welcome.
Lynesse is the fourth daughter of the queen. When a strange monster threatens the land, and nobody seems to want to do anything to help, she goes out to seek the wizard who made a promise to her grandmother. Except the wizard, Nyr, isn’t a wizard at all, but an anthropologist, the last of a technologically advanced civilisation.
Since this is my most common complaint lately, the plot structure was masterful. The two POVs intertwine and contrast each other perfectly, and there is nothing extraneous, but at the same time, it avoids the common pitfalls of most novellas. There’s just enough story and worldbuilding so it doesn’t feel crammed in or stretched out in any way. Novellas are, in my experience, the hardest length to get the balance right, but Tchaikovsky did it.
Besides, I like stories that play with multi-POV (
cough), so the whole “sci-fi from one POV but fantasy from another” gimmick was exactly up my alley. I especially liked the way Tchaikovsky plays with language and language evolution, how the word that, for example, means “science” to Nyr (and its synonyms) are “magic” for Lynesse. It was a thoughtful little touch and solved a few potential plot issues nicely.
The characters…aside from Nyr’s struggles with chronic depression (who of us wouldn’t like DCS?), there wasn’t much to them, but at this short of a length, with this good of a concept, it didn’t bother me at all.
The one thing I wasn’t a fan of was the body horror. I’m sensitive to it in the first place, it was on the worse end, and took me completely by surprise. But, all in all, this is more a matter of taste and appropriate warnings, and does not detract from the book much.
Most highly recommended.
Enjoyment: 4.5/5
Execution: 5/5
Recommended to: those who want a story that takes “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable for magic” to its logical extremes, language nerds, anyone who wants to see a premise that would usually take an epic trilogy masterfully executed in the span of a novella, those looking for a protagonist with mental health issues
Not recommended to: those very sensitive to body horror
Content warning: body horror, bad
More reviews on my blog,
To Other Worlds. -
Some authors are excellent in the field of Science Fiction. Some excel in writing Fantasy. Author Adrian Tchaikovsky excels in the two divergent genres, yet he is also gifted in combining the two. In what has variously been termed "Science Fiction Fantasy" or "Science Fantasia," he seamlessly blends the two seemingly disparate genres. ELDER RACE is an exciting example. Side by side we have a space-traveling anthropologist from Earth, hundreds of years old thanks to cryo-suspension, a man of science and intellect, prone unfortunately to depression and despair and hopelessness, an augmented human; and the "natives" of the diasporic planet on which he ekes out a solitary existence. Nyr's role was to study the natives through their generations. They, on the other hand, live as one might find in a medieval fantasy: nobles and citizens, towns and forest-dwellers, legends and "fact," society and politics. When the two aspects almost unintentionally collide, the consequences are both dire and amazing, providing incredibly delineated character arcs and evolution.
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Another hit from A.Tchaikovsky. Sci-fi and sometimes fantasy depending on who is telling the story and then horror. Slow start but once it hooks you in - unputdownable. Loved it!
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4.5 Stars
What a brilliant novella! At first this read more like fantasy, but don't be deceived… this is definitely science fiction! I encourage readers to go into this one without knowing too much because the surprise is half the fun.
If you enjoy Star Trek, particularly The Next Generation, then you will love this one! This one gave me serious Trekie vibes and I strongly suspect the author is fan himself.
I absolutely loved this novella. It was smart and well plotted with just a touch of humor. The ending was brilliant. If you want a sci-fi story focused on the anthropological side of the sciences then I highly recommend this one.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher, Tor.com. -
This started out as a fantasy story might with royal bloodlines and twoers and quests. But there was always the underlying feel of it being a scifi story and it was indeed. However, I can't shake that feeling of a blend. And a nice one at that.
Lyn is the 4th daughter of a female regent in these strange lands. Nearby is a tower that belongs to a "sorcerer" and it's this last member of an ancient race that Lyn is asking for help to defeat a kind of evil.
Remember Arthur C. Clarke's quote that "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."? Yeah ... that.
So the "sorcerer" is actually a scientist from Earth. An anthropoligist, to be precise. What he's doing here and what the "magic" is that Lyn needs help for, I shall not spoiler though. Suffice it to say that Nyr's (the anthropologist's) story is even more fascinating that that of Lyn and her people, in my opinion at least.
I'm still not used to Tchaikovsky writing short(er) stories though I've read quite a number of them by now. This, however, might be my favourite of them to date. No, not as groundbreaking as some of his novels (especially the newest one that I have just finished), but still fantastic!
There is mystery, there is exploration, there is quirky character development, very nicely addressed mental health issues stemming from exploration, and rich worldbuilding despite the limited number of pages. And yes, of course the tech was why I was reading this and it was as awesome as I had hoped. -
Beautiful! In parts poetic, in parts deeply human, in parts wonderful situational humour. And that all with great representation of us folks suffering from depression. I even had a tear in my eye at the end.
If I could only read one author for the rest of my life, I wouldn't have to think for a second: it would be Adrian Tchaikovsky. -
4.5*
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
- Arthur C. Clarke.
Another excellent story from the very prolific Tchaikovsky. I particularly loved how through the two narrators, we get the same events but seen from very different angles - one from a technological advanced person, the other not. This became quickly fascinating, and often very funny. The story however is not a comical one, but rather a search for meaning and identity while dealing with a pretty horrific foe. Brilliant! -
As I am currently inundated with various new releases by a bunch of my favorite authors, combined with other books I have wanted to read but am putting off because they aren't as shiny and new, I am grateful for how short this work was.
But shortness isn't a very high compliment, is it? So, fine-- I enjoyed it. The protagonist is a futuristic anthropologist studying a planet that has been seeded with human colonists. The human colonists of this world lost all understanding of futuristic technology, so to their primitive understanding it is more on the order of magic. The female protagonist, a fourth daughter princess of this newly medieval culture, comes to fetch the futuristic anthropologist to help save her people from a strange threat she doesn't understand.
The author wasn't particularly subtle about making sure the reader understood that he was contrasting a high fantasy setting against a futuristic sci-fi setting. When the protagonist tried to explain how his "magic" really works, the princess interpreted everything he said as supporting her worldview of demons and magic. So the reader understands that the protagonist is a cyborg wearing some elaborate advanced technology and he is in mental contact with a satellite, but the princess just sees a Gandalf/Merlin figure with horns being inscrutable.
It is pleasant. The protagonist spends an inordinate amount of time describing his clinical depression. Which, for readers who maybe struggle with depression themselves, feels pretty normal.
Spoilery questions upon finishing: -
4.5 stars
This is a great novella, fun and thoughtful, with strong ideas and engaging characters and a good story and themes worth pondering, all wrapped up in a bite-sized package. The rating is a bit awkward because I’ve given all the Murderbot novellas so far 4 stars, and those have been far more emotionally engaging for me, while for this book my reaction is a lot of appreciation. In the end I think genre fans should absolutely try both.
Elder Race is a story told from two wildly different perspectives. For Lynesse, the reckless youngest princess of a small feudal country, it’s an epic fantasy tale of a quest to defeat a demon, with the help of a legendary sorcerer, and very much against the wishes of her mother the queen. But for the “sorcerer,” Nyr, it’s a science fiction story of an anthropologist from Earth abandoned on a far-flung planet that was once a colony, trying to figure out what to make of his life when all connection to his home world has gone dark.
The interplay between these two versions of the story is what makes the book stand out most: there’s a resilience to the characters’ worldviews, so that far from being shattered upon contact with someone whose understanding is different, they simply interpret everything in a way that makes sense to them. In a particularly fun chapter in side-by-side columns, Nyr explains the colonization of her world to Lynesse, who nods along to what sounds like to her like an ordinary and familiar creation myth. While the plot is engaging in its own right, the biggest thing that kept pulling me forward was wanting to see how the other character understood whatever had just happened!
And the book engages respectfully with both points-of-view: I think the natural tendency would be to privilege the science fiction one, for being closer to our own understanding of the world (even if technologically, Nyr’s world is eons away from ours), but Tchaikovsky never does that. People are people, whatever their origins and technology levels. And as it turns out, there are things out there beyond Nyr’s comprehension too.
While it’s a short book and so has a limited number of characters, they’re also very well portrayed. Nyr’s sections are told in the first person, in a convincing voice, and his struggle with depression seems to have resonated with a lot of readers. Lynesse—whose sections are in third person—is just a lot of fun, as she’s wild and impulsive and actually treated as such by the narrative. Their stories are both engaging, the writing is strong and suits both versions of the story, and the ending is excellent. It provides an emotionally satisfying conclusion for both protagonists (and it’s not a romantic one!), while still maintaining surprising realism, particularly in Lynesse’s relationship to her mother’s court.
I do have a few quibbles. What the book presents through Nyr is a caricature of anthropology: not without relation to real themes and concerns in the field, but in the real world it’s a discipline that has long understood participant-observation as a valid research method and that some level of emotional involvement will happen and isn’t the end of the world. Also, both Tchaikovsky books I’ve read have featured worldbuilding that’s fun on the surface but doesn’t stand up to scrutiny: there’s a long list of reasons that, particularly in a society where fighting is done with swords, it make no sense as the sole province of women—and this is a book engaging with anthropology, after all! I also don’t love the recent trend—though most prominent in novellas, which have limited space for worldbuilding—of creating societies so matriarchal that royal families appear to contain no men, and then acting like they don’t have an inequality problem. Power does matter, after all.
However, my quibbles are very much around the margins of a truly excellent novella. It fully deserves the Hugo, and is an excellent choice for readers of fantasy and science fiction both. -
Lynesse Fourth Daughter seeks the help of a sorcerer to combat a curious demon plaguing the forest lands neighbouring her mother's kingdom. The only problem is that Nyr, the sorcerer in question, is a centuries-old modified human who suffers from crippling depression. Alternating between these two viewpoints, Tchaikovsky intelligently prods at the idea that fantasy and science fiction are mutually exclusive from one another and questions how the genres might move in directions typically not assigned to them.
I thought this novella was smart and regularly quite hilarious. Lyn's earnest quest contrasts quite nicely with Nyr's modern verbiage and dour worldview, often to POV-changing laughs. There's a particularly neat chapter in which two columns are presented explaining the same concept from both characters' worldview. I loved the contrast between typical hard sci-fi writing and more typically fantastical explanations. The demon also ends up being an interesting foe and had me wishing for a longer page count, or even hoping for a sequel.
This was quite different from Children of Time, but shares an atmosphere where ideas explode off the page. Tchaikovsky has impressed me twice over and I can't wait to read one of the other books of his I have in reserve. Look forward to a little compare and contrast in a few months once I get around to it! Until then, do check this one out! -
I have no guarantee that there will ever be word from home. Three centuries of silence says there won’t be, and that I am a remnant of a culture whose second flowering into space, that seemed unstoppable and glorious, was actually just brief and doomed. I am more a relic worthy of study than those I was placed to observe.
Rocannon's World by Ursula Le GuinElder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky is a fantasy story with some sci-fi wrapping. On a world that was colonized by humans from Earth many centuries ago, life has returned to a medieval technology level as the population has forgotten the technology and knowledge that it once came with. As a strange demon runs rampant through a nearby Kingdom, the princess Lynesse travels to the tower of the wizard Nyr to awaken him and ask for his help in defeating the demon.
The worldbuilding around this novella is painfully similar to that of Le Guin's Hainish cycle and it shares a fair few story beats with Rocannon's World. For comparison, here is a quote from Elder Race followed by a quote from Wikipedia about Le Guin's Hainish cycle:“Humanity seeded the stars with its generation ships over the best part of a thousand year, and those colonies had been developing on their own for a thousand more…..everyone had been keen to find the colonies and see how our lost relatives had got on.”
The Hainish Cycle consists of a number of science fiction novels and stories by Ursula K. Le Guin. It is set in an alternate history/future history in which civilizations of human beings on planets orbiting a number of nearby stars, including Terra ("Earth"), are contacting each other for the first time and establishing diplomatic relations, setting up a confederacy under the guidance of the oldest of the human worlds, peaceful Hain. In this history, human beings did not evolve on Earth but were the result of interstellar colonies planted by Hain long ago, which was followed by a long period when interstellar travel ceased
The inspiration behind Elder Race couldn't be more evident than with this passage. There's nothing wrong with taking inspiration from those who have come before but I think Tchaikovsky flew a little too close to the sun on this one. The similarities were particularly obvious to me as I was reading them both during the same period of time, and that also made the weaknesses with Tchaikovsky's writing more evident.
To be fair, I did have other issues with the novella. One is that Nyr, anthropologist turned wizard, has a device in him that is used to dampen his emotions. It can be turned on or off as the situation calls for it and can aid his pragmatism but the concept of this device just didn't gel with me. Nyr's narration isn't free of emotion when it is on and he still has awareness of his emotions, he just isn't feeling them, which didn't really make sense to me and any time the novella was directly addressing this device it was spoiling my immersion.
Next issue is with the 'language barrier' in the book. We have chapters from Lyn and Nyr's point of view and since they speak different languages and come from very different cultures they have a very different understanding of the world around them and this is shown through they way their narration is written. In all fairness, Tchaikovsky did a good job of making them have very different narrative voices. However, the weakness comes with the fact that Nyr uses an automatic translator implant (or something along those lines) to communicate with Lyn and what he says is often understood in a different way. For example, Nyr uses a bunch of different works to try and explain to Lyn that he's a kind of scientist, but all of those words translate as wizard to her. Things like that just felt over-the-top and it's used a little too often so it just became irritating and hard to believe. There's also a really gimmicky chapter where it's just a table with a story being told in both their voices and boy did I not enjoy reading that!
My last issue was with the conclusion of their mission to defeat the demon. I don't want to get too far into spoiler territory, so I'll just say I was extremely underwhelmed with how everything was resolved and at no point is it really made clear what the demon actually is, so it's just this kind of shapeless evil and that doesn't really work for me. -
4.5 So, I’m not someone who has read a lot of science fiction. First off, science has never been my thing and I always struggled to visualize the concepts, especially if they were too…well…science-y. But, I grew up on Star Trek and Lost in Space, so the seed of love was planted, just not with books. But a couple of years back I had read a list of best of the year sci-fi and Children of Time was on it and the idea of spiders evolving was intriguing. And so began a new love with a genre I was completely unfamiliar with. Now earlier sci-fi seems pretty intimidating, but what I appreciate about Tchaikovsky’s writing is how accessible it is for me, and Elder’s Race was no different. I loved the story and the characters and I loved how he wove together the two genres of fantasy and science fiction.
I thought the idea of language and communication was interestingly explored with its limitations and cross purposes. I was especially intrigued by Nyr’s depression and the program used to abate the worst of the symptoms for him. I thought that the very use of the program likely worsened the depression, much as any coping strategy that takes us away from what we feel, does. That really resonated for me. So altogether, a very solid read for me and I think, while I’m in the groove of Tchaikovsky’s writing, perhaps I’ll read another. -
Elder Race is a glorious specimen of the Scientia Ficta species; it is a Platonic Ideal of the Science Fiction novella.
So I’m a sort of sci-fi alchemist, seeking in my reviews to distill science fiction down to its purest essence. A frivolous pursuit perhaps, but I believe that seeking and understanding ground truths is the foundation for all personal and cultural growth. So, if I’m going to read and review sci-fi, then I want to know, What is science fiction? What is its essence?
In general, sci-fi has a huge emphasis on technology, such that in many people’s minds, the essence of science fiction is laser swords and rocket ships, much like the essence of fantasy is knights and wizards and dragons, while books without either are something else.
But - and this is a major theme of the Elder Race - technology is really just nature, captured in some cultural framework. Is the sun a piece of technology? Probably not. But a fusion reactor is. Why? Because a fusion reactor is controlled to serve some cultural purpose. So science fiction - even hard sci-fi - isn’t really about technology or science. It’s about the relationship between technology and culture. What types of cultures create what technologies? And then, once created, how does that technology change that culture? Which is why Harry Potter - which often explores the relationship between magic and magician culture - is more sci-fi than Star Wars, which focuses more on the heroic adventure.
So I consider Elder Race the ideal science-fiction story because this technology-culture relationship forms the very core of the protagonists' interactions:
It’s a split narrative, told from two perspectives, the first of Lynesse the princess from a human colony that’s technologically and culturally regressed into a medieval state. The second perspective is that of Elder Nyr, an anthropologist from a second-wave of space exploration sent out to study the first-wave of human colonization. The two meet because the princess seeks the help of Elder Nyr (a “sorcerer” in her mind) in dealing with the threat of a “demon” invasion.
The princess’s narrative is fine, but it’s the anthropologist’s perspective that makes this tale. It’s so rich, with so many wonderful layers.
Nyr’s primary conflict is that, as an anthropologist, he doesn’t want to interfere with the culture that he’s observing. That he did so in the past (and that he does so now) is a huge regret for him. So he tries to play his role as a “sorcerer” without contaminating the culture with his own perspectives. But he’s incredibly depressed and lonely and often wonders why he even bothers. Who will even read his anthropological reports? From what he can tell, everyone on the original Earth is dead. They haven’t contacted him in centuries. So he’s constantly activating a mental system called DCS that allows him to distance himself from his own feelings, to avoid being paralyzed by anxiety and depression.
But - and this is a minor spoiler - he does eventually reach a point at which he’s had enough and just wants to tell Lynesse the truth of it all. And the chapter that follows is simply awesome. It offers side-by-side paragraphs. One is in Elder Nyr’s “language” while the other is Lynesse’s “language.” Both English of course but, for example, Elder Nyr’s “Your ancestors came from outer space on generation arks” gets translated into “Your people came from boats that sailed the sea of stars.”
And that’s the cultural framework I’m talking about. It’s like Arthur C. Clarke’s “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” but I now find that misses the mark. It’s not about ‘sufficiently advanced’ but rather ‘sufficiently inexplicable.’
If I use that definition of magic, then Elder Race contains not just the joys of linguistics and psychology, but even a bit of magic too. Unequivocal recommendation. Simply a delightful reading experience. -
My second Adrian Tchaikovsky outing didn't go as well as my first (I guess they can't all be
campy stories about time-travelling sociopaths), but there was the something of the same audacity and creativity at work.
Elder Race is, on one hand, the story of a depressed anthropologist who doubts his life's work is meaningful and is stuck on a backwater planet. On the other, it's simultaneously the story of a youngest princess who dares to take on demons in her world with the help of an otherworldly sorcerer (said anthropologist, who comes from a civilization with technological advancements).
My very favorite thing in here is anthropologist Nyr's augment, a Dissociative Cognition System:I manage to give my systems the OK and immediately I can step back from the crushing burden of misery, cut off from certain aspects of my own biochemistry so that I can function and make rational decisions. [...] My emotions are still out there, and I can get fascinating readouts about what that locked-away part of me is actually feeling, good, indifferent, bad, worse, but it doesn't touch me unless I choose to open the door again. It's a fine line, I suspect, between useful logic and that pathological numbness that true depression can often lead to, where doing or wanting anything seems like climbing uphill.
I WANT A DCS. I'm not even particularly depressed (relatively speaking, given that I work in ecological restoration on a planet that humans are busy screwing up); it just really, really annoys me when I make irrational decisions.
The story itself is...fine. It reminds me of Sylvia Engdahl's Enchantress from the Stars, similarly positing that a technologically advanced person could be perceived as magical by a civilization unfamiliar with such things. The malign force our mismatched heroes are up against is pleasantly horrific (if you like Hieronymous Bosch, especially), and there are interesting thoughts about how language circumscribes the ability to communicate across cultures."It's not magic," he insisted, against all reason. "I am just made this way. I am just of a people who understand how the world works."
"Nyrgoth Elder," Esha said slowly. "Is that not what magic is? Every wise man, every scholar I have met who pretended to the title of magician, that was their study. They sought to learn how the world worked, so that they could control and master it. That is magic."
I finished Elder Race a few days ago and am already forgetting the details, so it's clearly not a keeper for me. I suspect Nyr's depression is well-portrayed, but I didn't dwell on these sections because his ruminations felt like they would be tempting paths for my brain to start treading. So there, have my first trigger warning ever. -
I read the blurb before release, and thought "I really want to read about that" and so I put it firmly on the want to read list. The cover made it even more "want", it is figurative, wondrous, kind of classic sf, wonder evoking.
And it lived up to all my expectations (this is rare): it was just so good, the contrast between the sf perspective of Nyr and his existential angst (which makes perfect sense) and Lynesse's low tech fantasy world heroism (and Esha, who I was thinking the real hero of the story but they all kind of are honestly) and all this about depression and anthropology and language.
Just stopping me from me loving it totally, unexpectedly we never find out much about what the demon is, or at least Nyr with all his tech tools, does not spend much time speculating about it - I expected more about it, even if only in the last chapter/epilogue.
New note April 2022 - meanwhile I have read Gene Wolfe's
Trip, Trap which is explicitly one of the inspirations for Elder Race "Dedicated to the memory of Gene Wolfe, one of the great masters, whose story “Trip, Trap” was a major inspiration for this book" and I think I appreciate ER even more post Trip Trap. Apparently Wolfe meant to write TT
experimental story in which a series of reports by an astronaut and a series of letters from a knight on the medieval planet he was exploring ran in parallel columns -- the left column being science fiction, the right fantasy though Damon Knight made Gene Wolfe change it. And much as I enjoyed TT (the unexpected villainy of that ending!), it was a 1960s story with an underlying prevailing sexism throughout it (only men did things, smarmy reference to "few semiprofessional undergraduate beauties on floats") which makes the gender reversal in Elder Race so much fun. Trip Trap was fantastic on its (1960s) way though, but I appreciate even more Elder Race as a response to it, 50 years past. And we get a story in columns, finally. -
This is a SF novella eligible for awards. I read it as a part of monthly reading for March 2022 at
SFF Hot from Printers: New Releases group.
The story takes a usual trope of high-tech person in a (pseudo-)medieval world, used from
Hard to Be a God to “Trip, Trap” story by
Gene Wolfe, the latter is mentioned in dedication to this work. In this case, there is Lynesse Fourth Daughter, a noble from a royal family that had a blood pact with a mighty wizard Nyrgoth Elder goes to his ‘castle’ to ask for his help against “a demon who steals minds, whom the strongest cannot face with a blade”. Generations before he helped her ancestor against another evil force. Nyr Illim Tevitch (known as Nyrgoth Elder) is an anthropologist second class of Earth’s Explorer Corps, centuries-old and light-years from the Old Earth. He was left of this planet to observe locals, who are from Earth colonists, who lost most of high-tech and knowledge, but it seems that something has happened and no one will ever read his reports. Such a situation of course pressures him, and to fight bouts of depression he has a Dissociative Cognition System (DCS), which allows him to ‘turn off’ emotions, a great feature of the story.
One of the more interesting features of the story is a problem of communication when listeners ‘heard’ not exactly what is said due to the differences in the world picture:
I say, “scientist,” “scholar,” but when I speak to them, in their language, these are both cognates for “wizard.” I imagine myself standing there speaking to Lyn and saying, “I’m not a wizard; I’m a wizard, or at best a wizard.”
An excellent novella, concise, with an unexpected twist or two, worthy of an award like Hugo. -
This one opens with a head-fake: a Princess visits a Wizard's tower to beg a boon for her mother's kingdom. It quickly morphs into a version of a lost-colony story, and proceeds as straight science fiction, albeit with persistent misunderstandings on both sides. The Demon is eventually slain with a blast from the Wizard's satellite, and the tale ends happily. It's nicely done, and I was happy. Recommended reading, and blessedly short. It's been well-received here.
I've had mixed luck with Tchaikovsky, just as my GR friend Carol. has had. See her review at
https://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2021/...
The best off-site review I saw was Russ Allbery's,
https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/reviews/...
-- which you should read prior to taking this one on. And a quote:
"One of the best parts of novellas is that they don't wear out their welcome. This is a fun spin on well-trodden ground that tells a complete story in under 200 pages. I wish the ending had been a bit more satisfying and the linguistics had been more believable, but I enjoyed the time I spent in this world." -
3.5 stars Presently a few people that I care deeply about are suffering. Serious things. I felt myself bending in empathy and thought I needed a detour, I needed a field guide for being a bad anthropologist. And just like that I found one.
I liked this but similar to the other Tchaikovsky I read over Labor Day this lacks in terms of denouement. There’s almost a YA feel to the conclusion. Otherwise it is an intriguing survey of technology, hybrid species and misused loan words. It is difficult review without slipping into spoilers so trust in the idea that this is a worthy diversion, one which plumbs the implications of scientific objectivity and the garland of emotions we bring to our sense data. -
This is everything I never knew I needed in a book. A delightful sci-fi/fantasy blend? Check. That deals with difficult communication across cultures that share neither language or similar scientific development? And where one of the leads suffers clinical depression? It’s farther up my alley than I would’ve ever expected to find.
Anyways, we alternate perspectives each chapter. The third-person chapters feature a Princess who has grown up hearing tales of a powerful sorcerer who can stand against incomparably powerful magics. And then the first-person chapters star the sorcerer himself, who isn’t actually magical, but has a wealth of scientific tools that he’s not supposed to share with the locals that he’s here to study and a whole mess of emotions after having been abandoned by his fellows for hundreds of years. The Princess has heard of a demon terrorizing a neighboring land, and she seeks the sorcerer’s help in defeating it.
Essentially, every other chapter switches between a fantasy perspective and a sci-fi perspective, for all that they’re telling the same story. And the prose changes accordingly, with an ornamented, epic style for the Princess’ and a straightforward, contemporary narration for the sorcerer. There’s even one (short) chapter told in two columns, with the left being the words the sorcerer speaks and the right being the translation the Princess hears. It’s outstanding.
I really love sufficiently advanced technology cast as magic, and I love stories about cross-cultural communication, and every element of the narrative just perfectly supports those ends. And meanwhile, the main characters have their own internal struggles to fight, with the sorcerer feeling abandoned and feeling a failure in his assigned role and the Princess fearing the consequences of invoking such a great power. It’s only novella length, but you really get to know the leads, and their stories are powerful.
I’m just gushing right now, I’ll try to settle down and write a more cogent review later, but this is a tremendous novella and I highly recommend to anyone who enjoys these sorts of stories.
First impression: 20/20. Full review to come at
www.tarvolon.com
