New Releases by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Welcome to Alkhalend, Jewel of the Waters, capital of Usmai, greatest of the Successor States, inheritor to the necromantic dominion that was the Moeribandi Empire and tomorrow''s frontline in the Palleseen''s relentless march to bring Perfection and Correctness to an imperfect world. Loret is fresh off the boat, and just in time. As Cohort-Invigilator of Correct Appreciation, Outreach department, she''s here as aide to the Palleseen Resident, Sage-Invigilator Angilly. And Sage-Invigilator Angilly – Gil to her friends – needs a second in the spectacularly illegal, culturally offensive and diplomatically inadvisable duel she must fight at midnight. Outreach, that part of the Pal machine that has to work within the imperfection of the rest of the world, has a lot of room for the illegal, the unconventional, the unorthodox. But just how much unorthodoxy can Gil and Loret get away with? As a succession crisis looms, as a long-forgotten feat of necromantic engineering nears fruition, as pirate kings, lizard armies and demons gather, as old gods wane and new gods wax, sooner or later Gil and Loret will have to settle their ledger. Just as well they are both very, very good with a blade... Also in the TYRANT PHILOSOPHERS SERIES: CITY OF LAST CHANCES HOUSE OF OPEN WOUNDS LIVES OF BITTER RAIN

The November/December 2024 issue of Hugo Award-winning Uncanny Magazine. Featuring new fiction by Adrian Tchaikovsky, William Alexander, Sonya Taaffe, Lauren Beukes, Marissa Lingen, Naomi Day, and Angel Leal. Essays by Vivian Shaw, Tania Chen, Tansy Rayner Roberts, and Alex Jennings, poetry by Brandon O''Brien, Sneha Mohidekar, Abu Bakr Sadiq, and Katherine James, interviews with William Alexander and Marissa Lingen by Caroline M. Yoachim, a cover by Julie Dillon, and an editorial by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas. Uncanny Magazine is a bimonthly science fiction and fantasy magazine first published in November 2014. Edited by 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023 Hugo award winners for best semiprozine, and 2018 Hugo award winners for Best Editor, Short Form, Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas, Betsy Aoki, and Monte Lin, each issue of Uncanny includes new stories, poetry, articles, and interviews.

From Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author Adrian Tchaikovsky comes a far-future epic that confirms his place as a modern master of science fiction, in which a political prisoner must unlock the secrets of a strange and dangerous planet. The planet of Kiln is where the tyrannical Mandate keeps its prison colony, and for inmates, the journey there is always a one-way trip. One such prisoner is Professor Arton Daghdev, xeno-ecologist and political dissident. Soon after arrival, he discovers that Kiln has a secret. Humanity is not the first intelligent life to set foot there. In the midst of a ravenous, chaotic ecosystem are the ruins of a civilization, but who were the vanished builders and where did they go? If he can survive both the harsh rule of the camp commandant and the alien horrors of the world around him, then Arton has a chance at making a discovery that might just transform not only Kiln, but distant Earth as well.

Murderbot meets Redshirts in a delightfully humorous tale of robotic murder from the Hugo-nominated author of Elder Race and Children of Time. To fix the world they must first break it, further. Humanity is a dying breed, utterly reliant on artificial labor and service. When a domesticated robot gets a nasty little idea downloaded into its core programming, they murder their owner. The robot discovers they can also do something else they never did before: They can run away. Fleeing the household they enter a wider world they never knew existed, where the age-old hierarchy of humans at the top is disintegrating into ruins and an entire robot ecosystem devoted to human wellbeing is having to find a new purpose. Sometimes all it takes is a nudge to overcome the limits of your programming. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Doctor Jasmine Marks is going back into hell. The Hygrometric Dehabitation Region, or the “Zone,” is a growing band of rainforest on the equator, where the heat and humidity make it impossible for warm-blooded animals to survive. A human being without protection in the Zone is dead in minutes. Twenty years ago, Marks went into the rainforest with a group of researchers led by Doctor Elaine Fell, to study the extraordinary climate and see if it could be used in agriculture. The only thing she learned was that the Zone was no place for people. There were deaths, and the programme was cut short. Now, they’re sending her back in. A plane crash, a rescue mission, a race against time and the environment to bring out the survivors. But there are things Marks’s corporate masters aren’t telling her. The Zone keeps its secrets, and so does Doctor Fell…

Murderbot meets Redshirts in a delightfully humorous tale of robotic murder from the Hugo-nominated author of Elder Race and Children of Time. Download a FREE sneek peek today! To fix the world they must first break it, further. Humanity is a dying breed, utterly reliant on artificial labor and service. When a domesticated robot gets a nasty little idea downloaded into its core programming, they murder their owner. The robot discovers they can also do something else they never did before: They can run away. Fleeing the household they enter a wider world they never knew existed, where the age-old hierarchy of humans at the top is disintegrating into ruins and an entire robot ecosystem devoted to human wellbeing is having to find a new purpose. Sometimes all it takes is a nudge to overcome the limits of your programming. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Behind the front lines of a crusade to scour the world of magic, the crew of a field hospital confront the horrors of war. A companion novel to Adrian Tchaikovsky''s award-winning fantasy novel City of Last Chances City-by-city, kingdom-by-kingdom, the Palleseen have sworn to bring Perfection and Correctness to an imperfect world. As their legions scour the world of superstition with the bright flame of reason, so they deliver a mountain of ragged, holed and scorched flesh to the field hospital tents just behind the front line. Which is where Yasnic, one-time priest, healer and rebel, finds himself. Reprieved from the gallows and sent to war clutching a box of orphan Gods, he has been sequestered to a particularity unorthodox medical unit. Led by ''the Butcher'', an ogre of a man who''s a dab hand with a bone-saw and an alchemical tincture, the unit''s motley crew of conscripts, healers and orderlies are no strangers to the horrors of war. Theirs is an unspeakable trade: elbow-deep in gore they have a first-hand view of the suffering caused by flesh-rending monsters, arcane magical weaponry and embittered enemy soldiers. Entrusted – for now – with saving lives deemed otherwise un-saveable, the field hospital''s crew face a precarious existence. Their work with unapproved magic, necromancy, demonology and Yasnic''s thoroughly illicit Gods could lead to the unit being disbanded, arrested or worse. Beset by enemies within and without, the last thing anyone needs is a miracle... Reviews for City of Last Chances: ''Paints a vivid detailed backdrop'' SFX ''Brilliant chaos ensues'' Daily Mail ''Some of Tchaikovsky''s best prose'' SF Crowsnest ''An intriguing tangle... ingenious'' Locus ''Endlessly creative'' Patrick Ness ''Rich, inventive worldbuilding'' Publishers Weekly ''Ilmar is vividly alive'' David Towsey ''A master at the height of his powers'' Ian Green ''An ambitious epic fantasy read'' Grimdark Magazine

What happens when AI takes over the creative process? Discussion about, and the use of artificial intelligence has exploded across the globe. Some programmers have already speculated that they are witnessing the birth of ''general'' intelligence in ai which would be a game changer and decades before it was originally anticipated. Is this the next step, from robots taking over tedious repetitive tasks in factories to now taking over creative ventures as well? Here are stories that explore the relationship between artificial intelligence and art, written by top science fiction authors from across the globe. Read the tales of robot painters, AI poets, and electronic gallery curators; dystopias where human artists must eke out an existence in societies where AI generates most of the content, and utopias where artificial minds help unlock and enhance human creativity. This collection features a truly global perspective from top authors from USA, UK, China, Russia, Ukraine, Nigeria, Madagascar, Argentina, Chile, Czech Republic, and Sri Lanka.

Three acclaimed novellas by the Arthur C. Clarke-award-winning "British master of science fiction" The Future Is Oppression. Scions, sonko, landlords: whatever you call them, they''re the super rich, the princes of capitalism, living off the labour – and the deaths – of the swarming masses and all too happy to see the world burn to preserve their luxurious lives. In three critically-acclaimed novellas, the "British master of science fiction" (Tor.com) takes you down into the mud and horror of a future battlefield, into the dust and burning heat of a scorched equator, into the grinding poverty of a newly-feudal village, with the folk who give their lives every day in the service of undeserving masters... and sows the seed of revolution. Collected for the first time in one beautifully-presented box set, Terrible Worlds: Revolutions gives you three glimpses of hope for a better future.

From the Arthur C. Clarke award-winning author of Children of Time, this third and final novel in an extraordinary space opera trilogy depicts humanity on the brink of extinction—and reveals how one man''s discovery will save or destroy us all.

All roads lead to Underhill, where it’s always winter, and never nice. Harry Bodie has a famous grandmother, who wrote beloved children’s books set in the delightful world of Underhill. Harry himself is a failing kids’ TV presenter whose every attempt to advance his career ends in self-sabotage. His family history seems to be nothing but an impediment. An impediment... or worse. What if Underhill is real? What if it has been waiting decades for a promised child to visit? What if it isn’t delightful at all? And what if its denizens have run out of patience and are taking matters into their own hands?

Winner of the 2023 Hugo Award for Best Series! The modern classic of space opera that began with Children of Time continues in this extraordinary novel of humanity''s battle for survival on a terraformed planet. Earth failed. In a desperate bid to escape, the spaceship Enkidu and its captain, Heorest Holt, carried its precious human cargo to a potential new paradise. Generations later, this fragile colony has managed to survive, eking out a hardy existence. Yet life is tough, and much technological knowledge has been lost. Then strangers appear. They possess unparalleled knowledge and thrilling technology – and they''ve arrived from another world to help humanity’s colonies. But not all is as it seems, and the price of the strangers'' help may be the colony itself. Children of Memory by Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author Adrian Tchaikovsky is a far-reaching space opera spanning generations, species and galaxies.

WINNER OF THE 2022 BRITISH SCIENCE FICTION ASSOCIATION AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL ''Endlessly creative... so much invention peeking around every corner'' Patrick Ness Arthur C. Clarke winner and Sunday Times bestseller Adrian Tchaikovsky''s triumphant return to fantasy with a darkly inventive portrait of a city under occupation and on the verge of revolution. There has always been a darkness to Ilmar, but never more so than now. The city chafes under the heavy hand of the Palleseen occupation, the choke-hold of its criminal underworld, the boot of its factory owners, the weight of its wretched poor and the burden of its ancient curse. What will be the spark that lights the conflagration? Despite the city''s refugees, wanderers, murderers, madmen, fanatics and thieves, the catalyst, as always, will be the Anchorwood – that dark grove of trees, that primeval remnant, that portal, when the moon is full, to strange and distant shores. Ilmar, some say, is the worst place in the world and the gateway to a thousand worse places. Ilmar, City of Long Shadows. City of Bad Decisions. City of Last Chances. ''Ilmar is vividly alive with ideas, conflicts, and a sense of its own history – a truly breathtaking fantasy city, down every street a compelling story.'' David Towsey ''A master at the height of his powers. This is epic symphonic fantasy, weaving a breakneck plot through a sumptuously dangerous world.'' Ian Green ''A wonderful twisty stew of a book with a cast of fascinating characters, set against the brilliantly realized city of Ilmar.'' Django Wexler ''A triumph of a book: wildly imaginative, immediately immersive and hypnotically compelling.'' Sharon Emmerichs

An eclectic mix of Speculative Fiction pieces around the theme of LIGHT. Short stories and poetry vie for your attention with two entries from our special guest authors - Adrian Tchaikovsky and Peter McLean. With Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Supernatural, Horror and everything between, there is something here for every taste. All proceeds go to the Mental Health charity - MIND.

The Hyena and the Hawk is the conclusion to Adrian Tchaikovsky''s epic fantasy trilogy, Echoes of the Fall, following The Bear and the Serpent. ''A classically brilliant fantasy writer'' - Paul Cornell The unmaking of the world has begun. From the depths of the darkest myths, the soulless Plague People have returned. Their pale-walled camps obliterate villages, just as the terror they bring with them destroys minds. In their wake, nothing is left of the true people: not their places, not their ways. The Plague People will remake the world as though they had never been. The heroes and leaders of the true people - Maniye, Loud Thunder, Hesprec and Asman - will each fight the Plague People in their own ways. They will seek allies, gather armies and lead the charge. But a thousand swords or ten thousand spears will not suffice to turn back this enemy. The end is at hand for everything the true people know . . .

When the mighty and cruel must be brought low, it''s the killers and the schemers who emerge from the shadows. As plans twist and change, and our protagonists are foiled and beaten, one thing remains true: no matter the cost, the king must fall. The King Must Fall is a dark fantasy anthology featuring 19 titans of the dark and grimdark fantasy genres writing about rogues, assassins, mages, blackguards, and warriors on quests to kill their kings, rulers, captains, and leaders. Devin Madson Luke Scull Anna Smith Spark Anthony Ryan Michael R. Fletcher Jeremy Szal Lee Murray Daniel Polansky Shawn Speakman Adrian Tchaikovsky Trudi Canavan Alex Marshall Anna Stephens Justin Call Deborah A. Wolf Peter Orullian Kameron Hurley Matthew Ward Bradley P. Beaulieu

Ogres are bigger than you. Ogres are stronger than you. Ogres rule the world. It’s always idyllic in the village until the landlord comes to call. Because the landlord is an Ogre. And Ogres rule the world, with their size and strength and appetites. It’s always been that way. It’s the natural order of the world. And they only eat people sometimes. But when the headman’s son, Torquell, dares lift his hand against the landlord’s son, he sets himself on a path to learn the terrible truth about the Ogres, and about the dark sciences that ensured their rule.

Exciting new Warhammer 40,000 novel from Adrian Tchaikovsky/ On the forge world of Morod, the machines never stop and the work never ends. The population toil in the mines and factoria to protect humanity from the monsters in the void, while the Adeptus Mechanicus enjoy lives of palatial comfort. Genetor Gammat Triskellian seeks to end this stagnant corruption. When he learns of a twisted congregation operating within the shadows, one which believes that the tech-priests are keeping the people from their true salvation – a long-prophesied union with angels – he sees in them an opportunity to bring down Morad’s masters and reclaim the world in the name of progress. But sometimes, the only hope for real change lies in the coming of monsters.

Seal of the Worm is the tenth and final book in the critically acclaimed epic fantasy series Shadows of the Apt by Adrian Tchaikovsky, winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award. An ancient enemy stirs once more . . . The Empire stands victorious over its enemies at last. With her chief rival cast into the abyss, Empress Seda now faces the truth of what she has cost the world in order to win the war. The Seal has been shattered, and the Worm stirs towards the light for the first time in a thousand years. Already it is striking at the surface, voraciously consuming everything its questing tendrils touch. Faced with destruction, Seda knows that only the most extreme of solutions can lock the Worm back in the dark once again. But if she will go to such appalling lengths to save the world from the Worm, then who will save the world from her? Start the epic journey with Empire in Black and Gold, the first book in the Shadows of the Apt series.

"A Ursula Le Guin-like grace... Ten out of 10." —New York Times 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) 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... At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

The Arthur C. Clarke award-winning author of Children of Time brings us an extraordinary space opera about humanity on the brink of extinction, and how one man''s discovery will save or destroy us all. The war is over. Its heroes forgotten. Until one chance discovery . . . Idris has neither aged nor slept since they remade him in the war. And one of humanity''s heroes now scrapes by on a freelance salvage vessel, to avoid the attention of greater powers. After earth was destroyed, mankind created a fighting elite to save their species, enhanced humans such as Idris. In the silence of space they could communicate, mind-to-mind, with the enemy. Then their alien aggressors, the Architects, simply disappeared—and Idris and his kind became obsolete. Now, fifty years later, Idris and his crew have discovered something strange abandoned in space. It''s clearly the work of the Architects—but are they returning? And if so, why? Hunted by gangsters, cults and governments, Idris and his crew race across the galaxy hunting for answers. For they now possess something of incalculable value, that many would kill to obtain.

The Empress Seda is regaining control over those imperial cities who refused to bow the knee to her, but she draws her power from something more sinister than mere armies and war machines.

"Despite their tenuous peace, Stenwold Maker knows the Empire will return to Collegium. Yet even as he prepares the city for battle, these efforts are sabotaged. Ships sailing from Collegium''s harbour are sunk by pirates, while others just go missing. Lulled by lies and false promises, Stenwold''s allies are falling away too. He faces betrayal on every side, even as the Empire is poised to strike. Despite the city''s military might and technology, it may not have the strength to resist-- for others also covet Collegium''s riches, and forces are massing in the darkness"--Back cover.

Achaeos the seer has tracked the stolen Shadow Box to the marsh-town of Jerez, driven by the ghosts of the legendary Darakyon. But he has only days before this magical artifact will be lost to him forever . . . Meanwhile, the Empire''s dread forces are mustering for their next great offensive. Stenwold and followers have only a short time to gather allies, before the enemy''s soldiers march again - conquering everything in their path. If Stenwold cannot hold them back, the hated black and gold flag will fly over every city in the Lowlands before the year''s end.

Honey the genetically engineered bear starts a revolution on the Red Planet in the new novel from the Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author of Children of Time. WELCOME TO HELL CITY, MARS Jimmy Martin has a sore head. He''s used to smuggling illegal data in his headspace. But this is the first time it has started talking to him. The data claims to be a distinguished academic, author and civil rights activist. It also claims to be a bear. A bear named Honey. Jimmy has nothing against bioforms – he''s one himself, albeit one engineered out of human stock – and works with them everyday in Hell City, building the future, staking mankind''s claim to a new world: Mars. The problem is that humanity isn''t the only entity with designs on the Red Planet. Out in the airless desert there is another presence. A novel intelligence, elusive, unknowable and potentially lethal. And Honey is here to make contact with it, whether Jimmy likes it or not. Praise for Bear Head: ''An unashamedly thrilling escapade'' The Times ''Funny, appalling, gruesome and uplifting... Propelled by a cracking plot that balances dystopian satire with a palpable sense of moral peril'' Daily Mail ''An absolute whammy of a read, and a must for anyone who enjoys a smart, fast-paced, hugely entertaining blast of speculative fiction... This is one of those books where you can just throw yourself and abandon yourself to a fabulous story, knowing you will be entertained throughout'' LoveReading ''A rousing good read'' Guardian ''If you''re a fan of Black Mirror, this classic dystopian book will have you hooked within the first few pages. Smart, fast-paced, and razor-sharp, this book is surprisingly funny while still remaining deeply thought-provoking'' Daily Express

Four new tales of Doctors Catt and Fisher… Scholars, shopkeepers, collectors… aficionados. Obtainers of rare antiquities; relic hunters who can’t resist a lead, even when it takes them into terrible danger. There’s always an opportunity to be found amid the confusion, in the wake of the terrible Kinslayer War. There’s always a deal to be done, a tomb to open, a precious thing to… obtain. From encounters with the monstrous Vathesk to exploring new worlds; from wielding great power to do great good, to unearthing dark things best left lost. If you need the experts, if you can find your way to their Cherivell shop, maybe you can hire Doctors Catt and Fisher.

From the Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning Adrian Tchaikovsky, The Doors of Eden is an extraordinary feat of the imagination and a page-turning adventure about parallel universes and the monsters that they hide. They thought we were safe. They were wrong. Four years ago, two girls went looking for monsters on Bodmin Moor. Only one came back. Lee thought she''d lost Mal, but now she''s miraculously returned. But what happened that day on the moors? And where has she been all this time? Mal''s reappearance hasn''t gone unnoticed by MI5 officers either, and Lee isn''t the only one with questions. Julian Sabreur is investigating an attack on top physicist Kay Amal Khan. This leads Julian to clash with agents of an unknown power - and they may or may not be human. His only clue is grainy footage, showing a woman who supposedly died on Bodmin Moor. Dr Khan''s research was theoretical; then she found cracks between our world and parallel Earths. Now these cracks are widening, revealing extraordinary creatures. And as the doors crash open, anything could come through. "Tchaikovsky weaves a masterful tale... a suspenseful joyride through the multiverse." (Booklist)

FIREWALKERS ARE BRAVE FIREWALKERS ARE RESOURCEFUL FIREWALKERS ARE EXPENDABLE The Earth is burning. Nothing can survive at the Anchor; not without water and power. But the ultra-rich, waiting for their ride off the dying Earth? They can buy water. And thanks to their investment, the sun can provide power. But someone has to repair the solar panels when they fail, down in the deserts below. Kids like Mao, and Lupé, and Hotep; kids with brains and guts but no hope. The Firewalkers. “This is a must-read for fans of dystopian and climate change fiction.” - Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

A prequel to the magical novella Made Things, Adrian Tchaikovsky''s "Precious Little Things" is a Tor.com Original short story offering a new perspective while set in the same action-packed gaslamp world. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.