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Elder Race

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Elder Race

By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
Narrated by: John Lee
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About this listen

In Adrian Tchaikovsky's Elder Race, a junior anthropologist on a distant planet must help the locals he has sworn to study to save a planet from an unbeatable foe.

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) with responsibilities (she tells herself). 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, and his knowledge of science tells him the threat cannot possibly be a demon . . .

©2021 Adrian Czajkowski (P)2023 Tantor Adventure First Contact Science Fiction Fiction
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surely adrian tchaikovsky is the greatest living science fiction author. I especially love the short stories that could be part of the children of time universe if you squint slightly.

truely wonderful

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It's another brilliant science fiction novel by Adrian. Keeps up to the same standard and quality you've come to expert from him.

It's a short story of course, a brief little adventure, a short glimpse into a potential future for one tired old man.

I really love, how Adrian is able to setup such epic backdrops and then bring out the human side of it, the point of view of solitary individuals within it all.

If you've read his previous sci-fi books you know the quality to expect, if you haven't, go start with Children of Time, you're in for a treat. Adrian is just brilliant and this is another one of his brilliant Sci-Fi works.

I firmly believe Adrian's books will be considered classics in the future.

Adrian is rapidly becoming my favorite author

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Some authors might have stretched this out this novella to a full novel or even a trilogy, Adrian Tchaikovsky resists this and the result is a gripping story that chips along at a fair pace. Its a clever subversion of the classic fantasy quest trope exploring Arthur C Clarke's third law "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". I'm not a massive fan of John Lee, I find his delivery unsubtle and he has a tendency to place excessive emphasis on certain words and syllables. He's also not very good with comedy, the novella is quite funny in places and this is completely missed in his narration. Overall the quality of the writing and storytelling shine through.

Interesting subversion of the classic fantasy tale

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Over the years I've become a huge fanboy of Adrian's works. I've had this book on preorder for months, reading it was one thing but it felt like it was brought to life incredibly well in this by the narrator. I'm very fussy with narrators and at first I was sceptical of this one. However as the book progresses I really couldn't imagine anyone else voicing the Elder, with his aged and grumpy demeanor.

As with a lot of Adrian's books this one includes lots of futuristic and plausible human technologies, intertwined with biology and nature which is where Adrian really shines.

Yet another masterpiece

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Tchaikovsky manages to churn out gem after gem, and here is another. Hugely rich world-building, a marriage of old & new, hints of fantasy with high tech SF and the truly alien. Characters to care about. The story does not necessarily surprise but it certainly delights. Reading (or listening) to Tchaikovsky’s books I have the goosebumpy feeling of enjoying raw SF talent I’ve only really had elsewhere from Banks at his finest. All compressed into less than 5 hours. Masterfully read too. I cannot recommend highly enough.

Masterpiece

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