Elder Race

by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Paperback, 198 pages

English language

Published Nov. 15, 2021 by Tordotcom.

ISBN:: 978-1-250-76872-8
Goodreads:: 50663055

(98 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

Pentapod reviewed Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky

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 …

Will reviewed Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky

The POV Switches Make This Book

4 stars

The story overall isn't all that great, but the contrasting worldview of the two POV characters gives it something special.

Soh Kam Yung reviewed Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky

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 …

Resolving the problem of the demon may be anticipated by attentive readers, but the ending is still a nice touch as the relationship between the Princess, the wizard and the culture he is studying would change.

Mollarom reviewed Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Review of 'Elder Race' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Good. Short, but it's a tightly written tale. Two narrators from completely different worlds attempting to communicate with each other to tackle a quest.

Books That Burn reviewed Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Review of 'Elder Race' on 'Storygraph'

5 stars

The worldbuilding blew me away. There’s a well-described communication gap between the main characters. It’s beautifully executed, and is such a wonderful way to portray artificially-assisted translation in real time. This means that for everything that’s happening, the two main characters have unique vocabulary for describing the scene and different understandings of what’s relevant. It generates depth and meaning in the narrative through something that sci-fi often handwaves away.

The narration is asymmetric, Nyr narrates in first person but Lynesse narrates in third person. This could mean anything from slightly favoring Nyr’s version of events to indicating that …

Lynesse braves her mother’s wrath to beg help from the sorcerer in his tower to fight demons invading the land. Nyr awakens after 200 years asleep to discover that his one big adventure is now history, and he must decide whether to help once more, or to retreat into his anthropologist’s detachment. The worldbuilding blew me away. There’s a well-described communication gap between the main characters. It’s beautifully executed, and is such a wonderful way to portray artificially-assisted translation in real time. This means that for everything that’s happening, the two main characters have unique vocabulary for describing the scene and different understandings of what’s relevant. It generates depth and meaning in the narrative through something that sci-fi often handwaves away. The narration is asymmetric, Nyr narrates in first person but Lynesse narrates in third person. This could mean anything from slightly favoring Nyr’s version of events to indicating that whatever Lynesse is speaking doesn’t translate into first person the way Nyr’s thoughts do. Nyr deals with technologically-assisted disassociation, meant to help him cope with stress in the moment and then exacting a heavy toll later. Narratively, this works to show the level of technological entanglement Nyr has on a moment-to-moment basis, distancing himself from the locals even while he’s helping them. This is excellent, a story which uses the genre entanglement of sci-fi and fantasy to its utmost, creating something that couldn’t happen with either alone.

norm reviewed Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Good, almost great

4 stars

This was a good, quick read that had some interesting ideas. I wish it had explored some of those ideas a little more deeply, but then it may have overstayed its welcome.

Obvious comparisons to LeGuin's Rocannon's World , but it's different enough I didn't find myself thinking I should've just reread that instead.

robphippen reviewed Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Review of 'Elder Race' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

A lyrical and exciting masterpiece

I’m mean with five star ratings, but this book deserves it. A rare and beautiful melding of sci-fi with grand fantasy.

joachim@lire.boitam.eu reviewed Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Short and good!

4 stars

A nice little read with interesting ideas. I’ve been reading loooong books these last months, so it’s a good reprieve from the big-plot-storage mindset.

I especially liked how the setting is fully compréhensible as a Fantasy and as a sci-fi setting. The world works as both, the characters become more aware of the other side's point of view, as the plot works well in both ways.