Novella Review: Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Well – I finally read my first A-Tchai work. Elder Race seems like a popular place to start, probably because it is 1) free on KU 2) short 3) a 2022 Hugo nominee for best novella. I finished it last month and found an interesting mix of sci-fi and fantasy based on perspective. I’m bringing it back today for the Wyrd & Wonder short fiction prompt bite sized islands – because the mental health theme is so real in this story.

Let’s take a quick look at the novella and I’ll share my thoughts

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Bookish Quick Facts

• Title: Elder Race
• Series: N/A
• Author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
• Published: TorDotCom, 2021
• Length: 204 pages
• Rating & Recommend: ⭐⭐⭐✨ for a quick intro to his work, for sci-fantasy fans

Here’s the Synopsis:

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…

_{-From Am*zon}

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My Thoughts

So a scientist (a wizard) lives in the mountains in his crashed spaceship (castle) and the people in the nearby village need his magic (science) to help save the region from a demon or monster (a what)?

I love this whole idea of telling the same story from two utterly separate points of view. Nyr is an anthropologist seeing everything with a scientific mind while Lynesse can only see fantasy, magic, like her new companion is Gandalf or Merlin. The language throughout as each tries to each the other of science vs magic is wonderful. Each tries to find the right words and it only convinces the other more deeply into their own perspective.

There is even a whole chapter telling the scifi and fantasy viewpoints side by side.

I think I was a little blindsided at first by Tchaikovsky’s lofty prose and over the top analogies in this novella. Then I got used to it – plus aren’t one’s trapped emotions kind of like caged tigers gnashing at their enclosure? Or is it a more quiet and sad thing?

This is a great book for the Wyrd & Wonder comfort theme because a huge topic in Elder Race is depression and how the scientists manage it. Nyr can erect an actual shield around his feelings so that it’s all just cold, hard logic in his mind, but eventually the fear and feelings boil over and he has to experience everything, all at once, and come back to himself naturally. It’s a long night when he finally chooses to confront it and I thought this whole exploration was a lovely theme.

I loved the setting and descriptive language too. There isn’t purple prose but A-Tchai does a good job putting images in my head, which is useful for the comic horror part. What would it be if there wasn’t a little true mysticism somewhere? The novella got a little dark at the end but I loved the journey and reading the dual perspectives along the way. I’m all about unlikely friendships and was rooting for Lynesse to be accepted by her village and Nyr to find a balance between his teachings and his heart.

Would definitely recommend for fans of mental health themes and novellas that compare science to fantasy! I haven’t read the 2022 Hugo Novella winner (by Becky Chambers) but this one could have deserved the win.

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Have you read it? What did you think? What A-Tchai should I read next?