Adrian Tchaikovsky


Adrian Czajkowski is a British fantasy and science fiction author. He is best known for his series Shadows of the Apt, and for his novel Children of Time.
Tchaikovsky's novel Children of Time won the 30th Arthur C. Clarke Award on 24 August 2016 at a ceremony in London and was described by author James Lovegrove as "superior stuff, tackling big themes – gods, messiahs, artificial intelligence, alienness – with brio".

Biography

Adrian Tchaikovsky was born in Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire. He studied zoology and psychology at the University of Reading. He then qualified as a legal executive. He was employed as a legal executive in the Commercial Dispute Department of Blacks, Solicitors, Leeds. In December 2018 he became a full time writer. He lives in Leeds with his wife and son.
In 2008, after fifteen years of trying to get published, Tchaikovsky's novel Empire in Black and Gold was published by Tor Books an imprint of Pan Macmillanin the United Kingdom. The series was later picked up for publication in America by Pyr Books. He chose to publish under the name Tchaikovsky, as the spelling of his family name could have caused potential difficulties for American and British readers in both spelling and pronunciation. This is a common marketing approach in both UK and US publishing industries, where the publishers feel a name should be altered to help sales. Subsequently, the American and German editions of the book and its sequels were published under the same name. Tchaikovsky expressed desire that the Polish editions of his novels be printed under his real name, but these too used "Tchaikovsky". On 23 January 2019, Tchaikovsky was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of the Arts from the University of Lincoln.

Awards and nominations

Adrian Tchaikovsky received the following literary awards and nominations:

Setting

The series is set in a fictional universe populated by different "kinden". Each kinden is a fictional race of humans, named after an insect. Kinden are typically divided into two categories: "Apt" and "Inapt". The Apt do not have magical abilities, but are able to understand, use and design mechanical devices. The Inapt have varying amounts of magical abilities, but cannot use mechanical devices, even those as simple as latches. The series focuses on the attempted conquest of the Lowlands by the Wasp-kinden empire.

Genesis of the Apt

Tchaikovsky revealed the story behind the Shadows of the Apt in an online essay entitled Entering the Shadows at Upcoming4.me. Whilst studying at the University of Reading he ran a role-playing game called Bugworld. Bugworld told the story of the insect-people of the Lowlands, under threat from the encroaching Wasp Empire. From this original scenario the entire series of books grew.
Tchaikovsky still uses role-playing games to help construct his stories, but now also uses live action role-playing, which assists in describing the numerous action and battle sequences in his books. Adrian is currently involved with the LARP game Empire.

Novels

The list of novels in the series is as follows:
Tchaikovsky has regularly expressed his intention in this fantasy series not to make science better than magic, or vice versa: "This is another key element, really: the magic/tech divide is a concept that turns up here and there in fantasy, but usually one side is good and the other is bad. With the world of the kinden, they’re basically both as bad as the people who use them, whether it’s blood sacrifice in a Mantis-kinden grove or the Wasp Empire’s city-levelling weaponry."

''Children of Time'' series

''Children of Time''

Children of Time is a science fiction novel., Children of Time describes a human expedition to a distant, terraformed planet. The expedition seeks to introduce a species of monkey into this new world, along with a nanovirus designed to raise these monkeys to human levels of sentience and intelligence within a few hundred years. This plan having gone wrong, a future generation of humans interact with a super species of sentient spiders; the story follows the spider Portia and her species while they grow.

''Children of Ruin''

A sequel of Children of Time, titled Children of Ruin, was published in 2019. In it, a terraforming mission similar to the one portrayed in Children of Time encounters alien life in a newly-discovered planetary system.

Standalone novels

''Guns of the Dawn''

Guns of the Dawn is the story of a common soldier at war, set in a world with the technology of muskets plus a smidgen of magic.,

''Spiderlight''

Spiderlight is a fantasy novel published by Tor.com in 2016.

''Dogs of War''

Dogs of War is a speculative sci-fi action novel.,

''Cage of Souls''

Cage of Souls is a science fiction novel., In this book, Stefan Advani - one of the last remaining humans - describes his dangerous journey across the varied landscapes of an ancient, dying Earth.

''The Doors of Eden''

The Doors of Eden is a forthcoming science fiction novel about parallel Earths,.

''After the War'' series

Redemption's Blade is the first book in a multi-author series. The series was continued with Salvation's Fire by Justina Robson and published on 4 September 2018.

''Echoes of the Fall'' series

Iron-age fantasy series in a world populated by various clans of shapeshifters.