Elder Race (2021)
Adrian Tchaikovsky (1972)
201 pages
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”Arthur C. Clarke
As writer Adrian Tchaikovsky’s science fiction novel Elder Race opens, Lynesse, the Fourth Daughter of the Queen, has come of age, yet remains entranced by the myths of her childhood – stories of heroes, monsters and magic. And so, when refugees begin streaming into the kingdom from distant lands telling of a demon that steals minds, and her mother downplays the danger, Lynesse decides that she has a duty to find a way to defeat this advancing evil. Recalling stories of a sorcerer named Nyrgoth Elder, who had once helped her great-grandmother defeat another threat to the kingdom, she journeys with a trusted companion to his home, a massive tower high in the mountains, to plead for his aid.
Nyr, as he refers to himself, reluctantly agrees to accompany Lynesse and her friend on their quest. As the three set out however, it quickly becomes clear that before they can face down the threat beyond the horizon, they must first overcome the vast gulf in understanding that lies between them. Tchaikovsky deftly develops the relationship between the young, impassioned, and headstrong Lyn and the older, world-weary and ambivalent Nyr; by alternating chapters between the two as narrators, he allows readers into the mind of each, revealing their wildly disparate views of the world around them, the situations they face, and one another.
Tchaikovsky’s portrayal of Lynesse and Nyr, allowing them their frailties and insecurities along with their strengths and fundamental dignity, leads us to care deeply about them. And by having them only cautiously and haltingly build their relationship as they travel ever closer to the unknown danger, when Nyr suddenly comes to deeply appreciate Lyn for the first time – her mindset and motivations – and reveals “I feel my heart break, in a way that I would never be able to fix, not even if I took it out right now and tinkered with it” (149), my heart broke too, as a reader, at the power of his moment of clarity.
Along with brilliant character development, Tchaikovsky does a wonderfully convincing job of world building. And he does this without padding the story with action and events to fill in the backstory, instead distilling Elder Race into a tightly-crafted, powerful tale of the mysterious intersection between myth and reality, legend and history. And, in the end, we find that Clarke’s maxim about technology and magic has no end, no matter how much we learn. Somehow both a frightening and thrilling realization.
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Have you read this book, others by this author, or even similar ones by other authors? I’d enjoy hearing your thoughts.
Other of my book reviews: FICTION Bookshelf and NON-FICTION Bookshelf
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