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?
Find Adrian as @Aptshadow on Bluesky
Ilmar, City of Long Shadows.
City of Bad Decisions.
City of Last Chances.
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.
"In it, there’s a monster in a hole in the ground, which is like a centipede and has all these legs. When they dump somebody into the pit, it grabs them with all its legs, punches through the flesh and chews off their head. So that was really scary." Stephen King
British Science Fiction Award Winner 2023
Locus Award Novel Finalist 2024
Hugo Best Series Award Finalist 2025
Galaxy Award Best Translated Novel Shortlist 2025
Beset by enemies within and without, the last thing anyone needs is a miracle…
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 frontline.
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. Their’s 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 Yansic’s thoroughly illicit Gods could lead to the unit being disbanded, arrested or worse.
House of Open Wounds follows on from City of Last Chances in the world of the Tyrant Philosophers, charting the ruthless Palleseen quest to bring their perfection to the rest of the world. Although this is book 2 of the series, it can also be read on its own without City of Last Chances (although hopefully, if you do, you’ll be moved to go back and pick up the first!)
Reading from the beginning of “House of Open Wounds” by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Performed by his wife at EasterCon 2023, Birmingham (as Adrian had lost his voice).
Sometimes being a good person isn't enough, if you're working for the bad guys...
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.
Hugo Best Series Finalist 2025
Lives of Bitter Rain
An exciting novella in the world of the Tyrant Philosophers
Before the ruthless Palleseen send in their armies, they send their spies and diplomats -the rain before the storm. But the young Angilly will learn that the price of her nation’s success is paid in compromise and lost chances.
This novella follows Angilly’s life from childhood trauma, through her induction into the Palleseen espionage and diplomatic machine, all the way to Alkhalend. A cynical and pragmatic take on how the Pals do business behind closed doors, and the costs of their ambitions, both global and personal.
COMING SOON
COMING LATER
It's all about Eres Ffenegh -the City on the Back of a Crab
The Palleseen have their eyes on this new city but, with winter upon them, this siege won't be an easy task for anyone. Desperate for support from home, help finally arrivers for the invading army but it's not what really what they were hoping for.
New exciting characters make their debut including Devil Jack, a torn and beleaguered conjurors apprentice, and Kiffel ea Leachan, the city Champion now on harder times. How will life change for them and how will they meet the new challenges in Pretenders to the Throne of God?
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