Adrian Tchaikovsky
Adrian Tchaikovsky
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Adrian Tchaikovsky is an award-winning and highly acclaimed science fiction and fantasy author with works published at home in the UK and internationally.
Find Adrian as @Aptshadow on Bluesky
Adrian Tchaikovsky is an award-winning and highly acclaimed science fiction and fantasy author with works published at home in the UK and internationally.
Find Adrian as @Aptshadow on Bluesky
It has 'been a year', as we say. I’m going to be talking about good things and highlights, but at the same time it has been a rough one, for me and for a great many people, and so I’ll kick off by saying let’s hope 2026 turns a corner somehow.
Purely on a professional level, then, 2025 saw a great deal come into print. For novels, Shroud was the big standalone SF release, whilst Bee Speaker extended the Dogs of War series, and Starseer’s Ruin was my first full length offering for Black Library and the Warhammer setting (fantasy this time).
For novellas, we had the first shorter excursion in the Tyrant Philosophers series, Lives of Bitter Rain, a series of linked stories about Angilly, introduced in 2024’s Days of Shattered Faith. We also had the 8th Terrible Worlds novella, The Hungry Gods, which was also the first in the ‘Innovations’ set.
I’ve also had some more narration out this year, as I read around a third of the Bee Speaker audiobook, which was nominated for the inaugural Speakies awards.
Perhaps the biggest change was that I took to the vice of podcasting, as Emma Newman and I launched Starship Alexandria, a book (and other media) recommendation podcast, which has had a delightfully positive response. We’re two episodes off finishing our first series right now, and we’ve just finished our special Advent run of short episodes over December, which I hope you’ve enjoyed. Emma and I will be continuing the podcast, and our second season should follow fairly seamlessly on from the first.
So what’s up for next year? As usual I can’t talk about what I’m actually writing now (and it’s stuff that won’t be seen until 2027 or even later, so wildly irrelevant), but scheduled for a 2026 release are:
Salvation’s Child is my first ever graphic novel, set in the universe of the Final Architecture back when the original Architects war was at its height, with amazing art by Mike Collins, colours by Pippa Bowland and lettering by Simon Bowland.
Pretenders to the Throne of God (February UK) is the fourth main novel in the Tyrant Philosophers series, taking us to the brutal siege of the City on the Back of a Crab.
The Best of Adrian Tchaikovsky (March US) comes next. It's a limited edition hardback collection of most of my loose short fiction published by Subterranean Press.
Children of Strife (March UK) is book 4 in the Children series, including a hostile world, impossible plantlife and very punchy mantis shrimps.
Terrible Worlds: Destinations (May UK) is the omnibus collection including Walking to Aldebaran, One Day All This Will Be Yours and And Put Away Childish Things
(All dates are for the territory of initial release, other English language territories hopefully either at the same time or soon after)
Green City Wars (June US) is a standalone solarpunk noir detective novel starring a raccoon.
Preaching to the Choir (August UK) is the second Terrible Worlds: Transformations book, a gothic horror/SF set in the modern day. What is the Enderby family’s secret power and secret shame?
And finally, Engines of Reason (September US) is the sequel to Elder Race, what Nyr and Lyn did next and where their world went.
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my work in 2025, and here’s hoping for the best in 2026.
Adrian talks to David Perrell about writing on the How I Write podcast.
If you wanted to know all about how Adrian does his writing, how he plans a novel, what makes a good idea for him, and his approaches to fantasy and science fiction writing, then have a look at his in-depth interview on writing with David Perrell.
David is a writer, teacher and well-known podcaster on the How I Write podcast. He has analysed and interviewed some of the greatest literary figures on how to write and teaches the Write of Passage course.
Clicking the image opens the video in YouTube
The sequel to Hugo nominated novella,
Elder Race II: Engines of Reason
Time has moved on for Lynesse Fourth Daughter, now sister to the new regent and a magician in her own right. Meaning that she understands the ancient technology her world is based on.
Time has not moved on for Nyr Illim Tevitch, court magician of Lannesite, tutor to Lyn’s children, a man from another age and civilization left behind by a world that is constantly changing.
The two of them, estranged, are brought back together by a brigand uprising led by a new sorcerer commanding ancient machines. But when Lyn and Nyr investigate, they find he has unearthed worse things than a few decaying engines.
Pre-order for US only early 2026.
UK release planned later in the year.
Green City Wars
A new Adrian Tchaikovsky novel
In a city of sunshine and secrets, the shadows belong to the animals. Private Investigator, Scotch, a genetically engineered racoon races to expose a deadly conspiracy – before it tears his whole world apart!
Green City Wars is a solarpunk noir science fiction novel filled with crime and mystery. It's a dynamic action-filled story guaranteed to have you guessing right until the end.
Released into the wild on 25 June 2026
Exciting news as Pan Macmillan have revealed the new Children of Strife cover
This is the highly anticipated fourth book in the multi-award winning and multi-award nominated Children of Time series and will be released from 12 March 2026.
In this epic adventure, we visit a far-future after earth fell, where ark ships had hunted for a new home. They sought lost worlds terraformed in earth’s forgotten past. We follow a ship crewed by maverick humans, spiders and a spectacularly punchy mantis shrimp captain as they rediscover one such world, and an ark.
Then human crewmate Alis wakes to discover that she, her captain and the ship’s intelligence are the only ones left on their ship. But what happened to those who left to explore the ark . . . and the world below?
Exciting news as Universal Pictures announces it will be developing Adrian's novella Saturation Point (2024 Winner of the British Science Fiction Award) for the big screen.
The deal includes script writer, Minnie Schedeen, and will be produced in collaboration between Cynthia Erivo and Solome Williams (Edith's Daughter) and Michael Bay and Brad Fuller (Platinum Dunes) with the executive producer being Alex Ginno.
Adrian says, "I'm absolutely over the moon that this has come about. I feel that Saturation Point is one of my most grounded and film-able works and I'm intrigued to see how the project develops."
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