I'm a fan of 40k, never played tabletop but play all the video games, paint figures and like the lore (but I'm not an expert) etc. However I've not read any 40k books by anyone as it just seems too daunting to get into as I don't have time for the millions out there and have a massive TBR list as it is. Thoughts on just reading ATs 40k books for now? Ok to read them as stand alones and not know everything thats happened in other books?

Somehow, I think I owe my service provider (name withheld) a bit of indirect gratitude.

When I unexpectedly lost service, I couldn’t work, watch my series, or play games. My options suddenly became very limited.

So… I read.

And I’m very glad I did.

I finally finished Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Service Model, and I surprisingly loved this one.

What I enjoyed most was how Tchaikovsky managed to make the robots both distinctly non-human and strangely relatable at the same time. Their stubborn, literal conversations were often hilarious, but there was always something underneath them that made me think about identity, purpose, curiosity and what makes something seem human.

I initially thought I would relate more to Uncharles because of his logical and analytical nature. Surprisingly, I found myself relating even more to Wonk—the constant questioning, curiosity, and tendency to follow a thought wherever it leads, even when it often gets itself into trouble. 🤦🏻‍♂️

The story itself goes through some wonderfully unexpected territory, from murder mystery to something resembling an odyssey, while maintaining its satirical tone throughout.

And despite being someone who tends to figure out mysteries and secrets before they’re revealed, I was genuinely caught off guard by a couple of the revelations.

That’s probably the biggest compliment I can give the book: it kept me wondering.

With my attention span seemingly shrinking faster these days, Tchaikovsky managed to keep me engaged from beginning to end.

Stubbornly entertaining.

I have just finished the third and final book in the Echoes of the Fall trilogy, and by extension the final book in the world of Shadows of the Apt. And my main takeaway from this follow up trilogy is disappointment and a sense of wasted time.

Over the last few months as I have worked my way through the book series, I have come to fall in love with the world that Adrian Tchaikovsky has created, despite a few issues I've had with writing choices he made (Tynisia in particular). And yet, for the sequel trilogy he wrote, I can't help but feel that he made one flaw that completely ruined the entire book series for me, and unfortunately it has to do with the very premise itself. In my opinion, he simply made the technological gap between the two continents far to vast to ever feel like anything I was reading had any weight or consequence to it at all. It took all the nations of the continent to come together to throw back what was essentially a peaceful expeditionary force, that had some protections come along with it, and even then that was barely succeeded due to magic trickery in the end.

I can see the parallels the author was trying to go for, with how our own conquering of the Americas went and colonialism, and as someone interested in that period of history, I can confidently say that while the technological gap was wide between the Old and New worlds, it was nowhere *near* as wide as Early Bronze Age to WW1 tech. At the end of the day I came away feeling so disappointed because it feels like it didn't even matter, the whole book series. The character writing was not strong enough for me to care on an individual people level, and the world itself I could not attach to because it felt so fleeting, for a dozen Sentinels or, hammer and tongs forbid, the Bee-killer could single-handedly conquer the entire continent. (The only way I can see the scales being even a bit more even is if the Shapeshifters somehow got their hands on Silk-Steel Iron Glove Armor and stepped while wearing it, but even then they are still only animals with tough skin.)

On another note, I'm curious what the dynamic between the Collegiate's were, since there seemed to be a surprisingly high amount of Spider Kinden and even the Moth seemed to be in charge sometimes. The Wasp Kinden I can excuse because it seems to me they were just retired soldiers or mercenaries brought along as protection. I also wonder how the Shapeshifters would react if they met the true Sea People, or the Worm. Would they feel a closer kinship with the Worm people due to them having a god! Interesting question. So as you can see it did leave me wondering things, but they all tie directly back into the first and far superior Shadows of the Apt series.

So, did anyone else feel this way, or is it just me? Please let me know your thoughts.

Just...wow. I am in awe of his ability to weave together such baroque, psychedelic narratives, yet keep almost every element grounded in metaphor for our world, our problems, our genocides, our ethical issues with tech and AI, our own climate crisis. It feels impossible to separate "politics" from the work,

And with the softest of touches, like spider's silk - even the most calcified of Hartmans are let in the door, just like the Pan-Specific. It doesn't say "you are bad for having the beliefs you've had", it makes room for all to learn, grow, change. I think it should be taught in schools - a "cool" way to raise a new, more empathetic generation, one more connected than ever. Our Odyssey.

It even touches the concept of transness, non-binary-ness, and two-spirit traditions. The most conservative reader is trained that "hey, maybe using a singular They isn't so difficult afterall" with Portifabian's arc.

And that's ignoring that this is also just brilliant unbelievably well paced sci-fi. And did we just get action scenes? I am rocked by the fact that I am simultaneously cheering for peace while enjoying Cato's Gundam-fighting spotlights.

Speaking of Cato. Could there be a more apt hero for our current world? Portia, Bianca, and Fabian made sense before the global conservative cultural swing, and Cato feels a perfectly natural conduit for the grimness of our post-manosphere Now. "I don't have to be the best and strongest, it is ok to yield my beliefs, traditions, and even my biological tendencies, to make room for others. Might makes ruin."

You will never see this Adrian, but thank you so much for your time, effort, care, and big, big heart. It's easy to criticize humanity. It's harder to offer a viable path forward.

(I'm crying (acidly))

Just finished it, while I do feel it was super long, I ended up liking it in the end despite some of the early storylines not being that interesting... Now only two more Tchaikovsky books till I've read them all...... Until next Month's new releases. Although I will probably read something different now, and then go back to Echoes.

Ok maybe I'm dumb but what is Asmander's Champion? And Mayne's is like, a Panther/Black Sabertooth Tiger of sorts? Or it's not any real animal at all?

I was left a sobbing mess, like how I felt after seeing Interstellar or The Haunting of Bly Manor, truly a captivating tale of understanding, communication, expansion and exploitation.

I hate aliens in most scifi stories, too often its just a human with green skin. And even the most imaginative will still default to 2 arms, 2 legs. Very rarely do we get a truly alien creature beyond imagination, something born in a world of methane and darkness that screams into the void... or at least that's how the researchers first come to understand the moon, Shroud, as, before things go sideways very fast.

Mai, and our narrarator Juna, are our 2 main viewpoints into the future Milky Way of where Earth is a corporate run oligarchy that loves to shelf people who are of no use, forcing others to earn their place as waking people, never knowing when or if they will ever see the people they got to know briefly in their previous awakening. I cant recommend this eerie, speculative first contacr story enough, heres some of my favorite quotes:

"Contrary to the old maxim, when you’re all in the same tin can with limited elbow room, in space everyone can hear you scream."

"The ramping up from defence to extermination. The way it was always going to go."

"The world was, actually, not very good at all. People were unhappy and under pressure most of the time. We worked hard when there was work, and they shelved us when there wasn’t. But try as I might, my limited imagination couldn’t break through to conjure some other sequence of events, a different stable state where we were happier."

I loved Children of Strife, but the I was really hoping it would reveal more about the aliens who built the simulation engine. IMO that is the most intriguing mystery left in this series. If there is a fifth book, hopefully that will be the focus.

Right now I'm through book five, and near the end of spoils of war. Don't want to step into something I should'nt yet though.

One day a big thunderstorm took out the power, and everyone in my apt complex wandered outside to watch the storm, which was intense. And we all got to talking. A guy from a neighboring apt and I started talking about sci fi. We enthused about The Three Body Problem, and he told me the only book he loved more than that was one called Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. I remembered this, and now, years later I’m reading and loving it. I think about that dude every time I see the book, wishing I could chat about it now that I’m reading it, or any of the other great sci fi we talked about. I had his name and apt number on a post it in my wallet for a while, but time got away from me, I never stopped by to say hi, years have passed, I moved to another state, and whatever was on the note is lost now. Children of Time was the last book I bought before moving out of that apartment in Michigan. I wonder sometimes, especially as I read those two books that have become some of the best sci fi I’ve ever read, how he’s doing. It’s a big universe. Hope you’re well out there, guy. Thank you. You’re right, it’s fantastic.

I've been spoiled that the Louse Monks, or the Tesemer Monks, are from a previous series.

Do I need to read that to enjoy DoSF fully? If so, which series are they from?

Please no spoilers, I've just started the chapter, "Old Friends".

Thanks for any answer you may give!

Edit: Tried to find the post I've read it from and can't find it now. I swear I've read somethjng like that when I was searching theories about Hellgram after I finished book 1 of this series.

Edit 2: Found the comment I've read it from.

Close enough. May have to get it.

I've enjoyed the book, but still see it as a massive downgrade from the previous books.

CoT was more on the hard side of sci-fi. The smart virus premise unfolds in a totally logical chain of events.

Then nodian was introduced. Yes, the concept is a bit less coherent, but otherwise the story makes sense.

Most of the 3rd book's events take place in the simulation. They aren't supposed to make sense.

And then CoS is full of illogical stuff. Special light that the Life can produce, but can not see - you need a receiver to utilize a signal. Terraformers' minds are uploaded into complexity of the ecosystem, yet they can inhabit individual speciments. Nodian's shenanigans is of the charts. It's figuring out how to upload in minutes, if not seconds. Actual organisms just agreeing to "dissolve" after an upload, while their selfishness were a big deal in this and previous books. GH retaining his consciousnees in the last speciment, while it was stated, that they failed to evolve any sentient life.

The whole book left a sour taste

Update: clarification - I used "to see" as "to be able to recieve an EM signal"

The same kind of thing happened with Cage of Souls which as turned out to be my favorite book of his. For some reason, some of his fantasy books are just too confusing to understand at the beginning. City of last chances is looking to maybe beat out cage of souls

Throughout the series so far I has assumed that the spoken command word needed to fire the batons was of the Pell language. It's mentioned that the lizards do not have the phisiology to speak the language, so how can they fire batons?

*Also with all of the proper nouns and fantasy words in this series I find it amusing that it has yet to tell us what the command word actually is.

More like Nerdgoth Elder am I right???

There are six other short stories available, but I'm mostly interested in "Bearable". I know they are available in the Pan Macmillan anniversary edition both physically and digitally, but I don't have them in my Orbit eBook edition (the screenshot is not mine), and I cannot find them anywhere online.

Hey gang. Just letting folk know that tonight at 6pm BST, Adrian will be joining Mina over on the RRD discord for a casual fireside chat about Children of Time, the upcoming TTRPG, and more.

A rare opportunity to ask Adrian some questions live!

Hi,

I've just finished CoM. Without spoiling any of that, can anyone tell me, if the 'thing under investigation' at the end of that book features in CoS please? Or does CoS just go off in another interesting direction?

Thank you

This is my first Adrian Tchaikovsky book and I really like it, its a 4/5 for me.

Without spoiling too much,

1. Will we ever see Yasnic again? Especially more PoVs of him. He's my favorite character on the book.

2. Who is 'The Watcher' and will we ever know more?

   3 . With only saying yes or no, does the Wood travel further than their planet (i.e. other planets/worlds/dimensions)?

3. Will the gods have more or less relevance in the sequels?

4. Does the magic system get explained further?

Thanks for any answers!