Publisher - Tor.com

Published - Out Now

Price - £2.08 kindle eBook £9.99 paperback

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) and 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, for his knowledge of science tells him the threat cannot possibly be a demon…

Arthur C Clarke’s old say that advanced science is indistinguishable from magic has highlighted a rich stream of stories. From Gene Wolfe to Star Wars the merging of fantasy and science fiction has been explored but please just do not mention the midichlorians. Fortunately in the brilliant novella Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky we are in the hands of an excellent storyteller who delivers a fascinating story with two brilliant lead characters.

Lynesse Fourth Daughter is regarded as a royal yet to grow up. Adventurous, fascinated by legends and rarely does what she is told she is not held in esteem but as parts of her world are being invaded by what appears to be a particularly evil demon she knows exactly what to do. She and her very capable aide and former spy Esha Free Mark need to find an ancient legend - the wizard Nyrgoth Elder who came to her family’s aid centuries ago.

But the wizard is actually an anthropologist named Nyr Illim Tevitch. Last member of a survey team who has not heard from his home world or former crew members in centuries. Kept most of the time in suspended animation he is increasingly in despair and then finds an opportunity with Lynesse to finally go on an adventure perhaps his final one.

This is a great story exploring how two very different civilisations would see each other. For Lynesse Nyr is a Merlin like figure of legend and his various body modifications such as great height and horns on his head show he is a magical being. He is the last hope for a world finding something so extremely weird destroying people and animals. But we get Nyr’s point of view too and we see here a man very much out of his time and even culture. Some of this is funny - Lynesse sees Nyr’s use of her name as a sign she will have to start a relationship with him but there is also exploration of Nyr seeing himself as a man out of time - the culture has moved on and everyone he knew well is now dead. A male character who is exhibiting depression is rare in fantasy and I loved the way Tchaikovsky makes the reader realise this is what Nyr is feeling and how he captures the sense of the black dog being on someone’s back. Those scenes are exceptionally well written.

The adventure these three characters go on tests all of them. Without too many stories it is a story that tests both their understanding of the universe. Expect some body horror, horrible creatures, characters putting it on the line and sacrifices. Thank hat I loved was the depth we get in this novella as both characters explain their world and in one interesting development we see the words Nyr uses just can’t translate to a culture where those words don’t exist except in a magical sense. It was a delight for this idea of cultural experiences defining language to be delivered as well as a rather tense adventure.

I can highly recommend Elder Race as a joy for science fiction and fantasy fans. I hope one day we revisit this world to see what happens next but it’s a whole lot of fun!