In Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Alien Clay, prisoners live on a hostile alien world Gremlin/Getty Images
Adrian Tchaikovsky (Tor)
Adrian Tchaikovsky (Tor, out 6 June)
British writer Adrian Tchaikovsky has not one, but two new novels out in the first half of this year. That may be due to the vagaries of publishing, rather than evidence of exceptional productivity. However, Tchaikovsky is certainly prolific: his backlist is as long as your arm. He is also a huge talent, writing at the peak of his powers.
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The first of these two new novels, published last month, is Alien Clay. Sometimes, I question whether a book really counts as science fiction or not, but this is a story of alien life on a faraway planet and the colony of humans plonked down on it – it is hard to think how it could be more sci-fi.
The novel underlines one of Tchaikovsky’s many strengths. Other writers rely on flashy physics. Tchaikovsky is brilliant at sci-fi rooted in biology, as his Hugo award-winning Children of Time series exemplified. That explored the endpoint of spiders (and later octopuses) achieving cognitive “uplift”, and the science of it was sensationally well handled.
In Alien Clay, the local flora/fauna (it is hard to say which really) is an infectious, confusing mess. The planet is also studded with long-abandoned buildings, adding mysterious archaeology to the mix.
Our scientist hero has fallen foul of Earth’s repressive ruling regime and been shipped out to this world as a prisoner. He will have to quickly learn the ropes of the colony and the planet itself… or he won’t be alive for long.
It is possible that, with less politics and backstory, this book could have been a stone-cold classic rather than just an excellent stand-alone novel, but that is nit-picking. The last third of Alien Clay, especially, is heart-in-the-mouth fantastic.
Tchaikovsky’s second offering of 2024 (so far) is Service Model, out in June. This is a tonally lighter book, despite its dystopian setting. It is the story of a robot named Uncharles. He was originally Charles and worked as a gentleman’s valet, but after an unfortunate incident with a razor, he finds himself jobless, renamed and on the road.
Uncharles is a wonderful companion, as is his unusual robot friend, The Wonk, who he meets along the way. We spend the whole book in Uncharles’s head as he carefully follows his programming decision trees to make sense of what to do next.
He is buoyantly optimistic about his career prospects, despite his murder tally unfortunately being “non zero”, as he puts it. Uncharles hopes that if he can keep his murder rate low enough, his indiscretions will be forgiven. After all, think how good he is at organising travel itineraries! Finding a new job as a high-end valet proves extremely difficult, though, in a world going to hell in a handcart.
Service Model would make a delightful and very funny buddy movie. You find yourself rooting strongly for Uncharles and wanting him to be sentient. But is he? Then again, is The Wonk (a very different creature) really free to make its own decisions?
I think it is fair to say that these novels are minor works when set against Children of Time. (My ×îÐÂÂ鶹ÊÓƵ colleague Michael Marshall recently described that as “one of the best series in modern science fiction and fantasy”, and I heartily agree.) But even so, they are both vibrant novels bursting with life (be it artificial or alien) and I am glad to recommend them to you.
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Adam Roberts (Gollancz)
The politics in Alien Clay and the remoteness of the planet at the heart of it reminded me of Salt, first published in 2000. They are very different novels, but both use the prism of colonists settling on an alien world to explore what it means to be human.
Emily H. Wilson is a former editor of ×îÐÂÂ鶹ÊÓƵ. Gilgamesh, the second novel in her Sumerians trilogy, is out later this year. You can find her at emilyhwilson.com, or follow her on X at @emilyhwilson and on Instagram at @emilyhwilson1
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