Elder Race

Paperback, 198 pages

English language

Published Nov. 15, 2021 by Tordotcom.

ISBN:
978-1-250-76872-8
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4 stars (78 reviews)

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) 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.

2 editions

Review of 'Elder Race' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

”The road to the Tower of Nyrgoth Elder is long and hard because he decreed it so, that it not be trodden lightly by fools, but only by earnest heroes when the kingdom is threatened by dire sorcery.”

Lynesse’s kingdom has problems only a sorcerer can solve. Unfortunately the sorcerer in question has been asleep for thousands of years, and Lynesse is only a fourth daughter and decidedly not someone entrusted with saving a kingdom. Nevertheless, Lynesse recognizes the danger her people are in, heads off to Nyrgoth’s tower, and manages to wake up the sleeping sorcerer that saved her kingdom so very long ago. Unfortunately the sorcerer….isn’t exactly a sorcerer.Nyrgoth (or, Nyr for short) is an anthropologist sent to a remote planet to study an emerging civilization. Initially sent with two others, his companions eventually return to their homeworld, leaving Nyr alone to stand vigil on this remote planet. …

Started with an interesting premise, ended deeply satisfying

5 stars

She is a fourth daughter of royalty with no hope of advancement in station, determined to invoke the promise of aid given to her ancestor generations ago by a powerful wizard when her mother refuses to engage a demon threatening the kingdom.

He is a long-lived exo-socialogist, sent to observe these people but not interfere. He broke that directive once before, many years ago, and now another of them has shown up at his outpost door...

I've never seen a story play with Clarke's Third Law ("Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.") like this before. Each chapter alternates POV between the two main characters, so it is half science fiction and half fantasy. Sometimes the same events are told both ways. The story is interesting on its own, but told this way it also becomes a lesson on empathy and understanding.

It surprisingly also became a story about …

A short a humorous take on Tchaikovsky's theme of humanity spanning incomprehensible lengths of time

4 stars

In Tchaikovsky's "Children of Time" we saw his remarkable story of humanity's folly and brilliance as it spread across the galaxy, attempting to be it's own kind of god  – succeeding in unexpected ways while also failing spectacularly. In Elder Race he shows us a shorter and more humorous version of this failure as a holdover of an advanced form of humanity loses their ability to relate to humanity's successor, but really all they want is to feel connected to others and to belong.

Technology *is* magic, but it can't solve all your problems

4 stars

Arthur C Clarke famously once wrote that "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic", and this story is the living embodiment of that, presenting the idea from both perspectives. I enjoyed how the book regularly switched between those perspectives, showing how conversations were perceived differently by the protagonist who controls the technology and his more primitive, magic-fearing counterpart. The struggle to communicate is one of the themes of the book.

Besides that, this is a book that also tries to deal with the concepts of loneliness and isolation, and the profound depression that can spring from this. I found it interesting that the book depicts a technological solution to these human problems, but one that is deeply flawed.

Overall, I enjoyed the book a lot. It's not action-packed, nor is it full of intrigue or plot twists; it prefers to focus instead on the thoughts and feelings of the …

Review of 'Elder Race' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Stop me if you've heard this synopsis before: a young and neglected princess seeks the approval of her family and dreams of fame by enlisting the help of a mythical wizard to vanquish evil from their land.

And then you enter chapter two and realize that Tchaikovsky has put a fun twist on this common tale.

...now I'm on a fucking quest with a couple of women who don't understand things like germs or fusion power or anthropological theories of value.

I had no idea what to expect going into Elder Race. I have to give credit to the posters on r/fantasy who recommended it as one of their best reads of the year. This is a short (200 pages) story that took a trope and made it highly engaging and enjoyable.

I am unfamiliar with Tchaikovsky's work and found this a great way to take notice of his …

Review of 'Elder Race' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

I think this is the first time I tag a book as both fantasy and science fiction. For me both are completely separate genres, however in this case Tchaikosvky makes a good blend of both, depending on who is the character that is presented. Clearly the idea of this book comes from Clarke's dictum "A sufficiently advance technology is undistinguishable from magic". That phrase is the base of this book. Special attention is deserved for the inner struggle of Nyr, in terms of his own depression and solitude.

This book was definitely a nice surprise, especially since I wasn't amused by Children of Time.

Review of 'Elder Race' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

A fast, fun, rewarding read.

This kept me reading from the first page to the last. What's happening isn't at all a puzzle, unlike some other books that use the same general concept (some of which I now want to go back and re-read). The way the high-tech protagonist's depression was dealt with was fascinating to me, and not one I've seen before; and having clinical depression myself, I found it plausible and relatable. And the relationship(s) between the high-tech protagonist and the indigenes who see him as a wizard were done well, feeling genuine on both sides.

Very recommended!

Review of 'Elder Race' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

This short novel is a fun cross between science fiction - junior anthropologist Nyr who is the only remaining member of a research expedition to observe a long-ago established and then lost colony - and a fairy tale fantasy - fourth-eldest princess Lynnesse sets off on a quest to win the help of the mythical wizard in order to save the land. The story is told from both viewpoints, so we alternately see Nyr as a depressed, despairing, second-class anthropologist and an incomprehensible, immortal, powerful wizard of legend; and the world they are on and the monsters they battle alternately as the stuff of fairy tales and the stuff of science. Even the language they use to communicate translates unexactly, so Nyr has literally no way to describe himself that doesn't translate into Lyn's language as "magician" or "sorceror" even though he is trying to say "scientist" or "academic" or …

Interesting mix of SF and fantasy that works.

4 stars

An interesting tale that starts out like a fantasy story of a lowly Princess asking for the aid of a wizard to fight a demon. But when the viewpoint switches to that of the wizard, we learn that he's actually a very lonely off-world anthropologist studying the culture on a colony world and despairing at getting contact with his own home world.

In a collision of culture and world-views about magic and technology indistinguishable from magic, they (and a few others) would forge a bond as they confront the demon, which the wizard assumes is 'just' a local bully with advanced tools scavenged from the colony's initial technological days. But both would learn that the demon is more than it seems and some magic may be that: magic and not just advanced technology.

Resolving the problem of the demon may be anticipated by attentive readers, but the ending is still …

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