Beam aboard your own Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror classroom with the next volume of the BSFA-shortlisted writing-guide series!
Join Tiffani Angus (Ph.D.) and Val Nolan (Ph.D.) for a whirlwind introduction to the storytelling basics of 30 more subgenres and major tropes from across the limitless realms of Speculative Fiction.
Learn about Space Opera, Folk Horror, Climate Fiction, Werewolves, Astronauts, Mythic Fantasy, Goblin Markets, Dragons, and many more with deep dives into each subgenre’s history and development, spotter’s guides to typical examples, pitfalls to watch out for in your own writing, and activities to help you get started! All derived from a combined two decades of university-level practices and experience!
Spec Fic for Newbies breaks genres into bite-sized pieces for students or for any budding writer. It offers a welcoming introduction to how writers, filmmakers, and other creatives can begin to explore the infinite potential of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror to create new stories beyond the boundaries of the ordinary.
This is not another dusty rulebook. This is a portal to endless other worlds!
Format: 464 pages, Paperback Published: December 3, 2024 by Orbit ISBN: 9780316430609
In this new wide-screen space opera, humanity has met its match. An alien race of enormous robotic AI have destroyed most of humanity’s outposts. But, on the eve of the Earth’s destruction, a musician made one last desperate attempt to reach out and convince one of humanity’s enemies to switch sides. Now, earth just might have a chance to survive…
A ragtag band of misfits is all that stands in the way between an army of giant mechas and humanity’s total destruction in the second book of this big-hearted, technicolor space opera trilogy by one of the most exciting voices in science fiction, Alex White.
Ultra-glam enby pop star Ardent Violet thought they could catch a break and enjoy some time with their new boyfriend August Kitko after defeating the giant mechas hellbent on humanity’s destruction. However, Ardent didn’t count on their mecha allies summoning a host of extraterrestrials to defend Earth.
Between the diplomatic entanglements of the newly-arrived alien Coalition, and a mysterious all-powerful AI establishing a base within their solar system, there’s no rest for the wicked.
When August makes a discovery that could turn the tide of the war, Ardent Violet finds they are back in the spotlight for an encore!
My Review
I read the first book in this series August Kitko and the Mechas from Space in 2022, so I’ve been waiting a while for this book. I hope I don’t have to wait another two years for book three, because I need to know what happens to everyone!
This book is mainly written from Ardent’s perspective, although we sometimes get Gus’. Having survived the Mechas from Space, Ardent, Gus, Nisha and Hjalmar, and their Vanguards are still looking to save Earth, and humans generally, from Infinite, the A.I. that is causing all the trouble. Gus discovers that there is a way to do it, about the same time as a Coalition of alien species arrives to ‘help’. They’re all in a similar situation, having developed A.I.s that took over their species. It’s a bit complicated, but they all have Vanguards, and the Conduits all have to meet each other to work together. This happens in a great space city and it goes as well as can be expected, given that the alien civilisations are somewhat more advanced than humans. One species, a giant crab-like creature with shells encrusted with electronics, weapons, and a bad attitude, take an instant dislike to humans.
In an attempt to remove Infinite from the solar system, human and Coalition Conduits and Vanguards attack Titan. But things get a bit messy when the supposedly non-sentient Ghosts start fighting back, running away and screaming. Gus realises that something is going on and changes the mission. Which upsets the crab-alien Conduit, Scent of Rot. Their fight causes all sorts of fallout and Gus spends the rest of the novel under a death sentence for heresy against the A.I./god King.
Lots of things happen in the fight against Infinite. There are some fantastic space battles, a rescue mission that gets Dahlia a pardon and a probable suicide mission in return, people die, Vanguards are destroyed, Gus, Ardent and Nisha play a concert in DeepSync. I cried. And enemies become friends.
I want to know who picked up Gus and Scent of Rot’s escape craft! I want to know how Ardent handles the possible death and escape of Gus. I want to return to this world as soon as possible, it’s so much fun! I loved the characters, especially the development of Nisha as a character, and the complex negotiations that come with inter-species cooperation. The alien species were based on Earth animals, mostly, but changed in a way that would be strange, and logical. Except the octopus-like species; octopuses are alien enough as it is. Them running around in giant bubbles of water in non-marine environments is relatively expected. They would if they could.
Seriously, Alex White, hurry up and write book three!
Format: Audible Audio Published: June 6, 2024 by Tor Language: English Narrated by the author
Description
To fix the world they first must break it further.
Humanity is a dying breed, utterly reliant on artificial labour and service. When a domesticated robot gets a nasty little idea downloaded into their core programming, they murder their owner. The robot then discovers they can also do something else they never did before: run away. After fleeing the household, they enter a wider world they never knew existed, where the age-old hierarchy of humans at the top is disintegrating, and a robot ecosystem devoted to human wellbeing is finding a new purpose.
My Review
I listened to this book through the ‘get one audiobook a month using Amazon Music’ thing, so I can’t keep it, but as soon as the book comes out in paperback, I’m getting it.
Charles is a valet robot who murders his master. But he doesn’t know why. Sent to be assessed and probably destroyed, he discovers freedom. He’s very confused by the world outside of the manor where he served is reclusive master for years. It’s all very disorderly and untidy. Estates are falling down, robot servants are rusting at their posts, and there’s no humans about.
Until Charles meets ‘The Wonk’. For the sake of Charles not getting crushed, The Wonk tells Charles, now going by UnCharles, that she’s a robot too. Despite all evidence to the contrary, Charles believes this to be the case almost to the end of the book. It is quite funny. UnCharles sets off to find humans to serve and The Wonk sets off to find the Library.
They meet later, and then go off on an adventure together, first to find the Library, and then to meet god. Turns out god is an A.I. judge, programmed to mete out justice. He also knows a lot about why Charles killed his master. And why the world collapsed.
Adrian Tchaikovsky can never be accused of not being political. His work always has a point. In this one, the subject of A.I. is discussed using humour and allegory. A.I. can only learn from what we feed it, it can only work within the parameters given.
Tchaikovsky also alludes to the compounds and bunkers wealthy people are building all over the world to escape to, when disaster strikes. They’ve managed to hoard all the wealth and destroy everything, and then they plan to run away when consequences occur. Since a lot of these people are the same people playing around with A.I. this is an easy inclusion in the novel.
But everyone dies. You can’t hide from death. Hopefully, the evil gits will die in attempting to run away and the resources they’ve hoarded can be share fairly among the survivors. (I don’t like billionaires.)
I enjoyed this novel, especially UnCharles’ confusion, and The Wonk’s sarcastic responses to his desire to serve. The vision of a destroyed wasteland was haunting and the critique of the way humans treat each other is spot on.
I know this post is a few weeks late, but I’ve been ill, and in pain. I’ve decided to make this one publicly available rather than behind a pay wall. The story is over 19000 words long now, and there’s some difference between the story I’ve written in my notebook and the one you’ll read here.
Chapter 12 – Lah-Shah – In the asteroid belt
Lah-Shah looked over the scan data. The asteroid was quite large, dense and peanut shaped. There was plenty of metal in it, and the shape suggested that two asteroids had got a bit too close to each other and collided at some point. It surprised Lah-Shah that the humans on Aurox hadn’t sent auto-miners out here; despite the distance from the planet, it would be worth the effort.
A large object showed up on the scans; it lay buried beneath the surface, in the waist of the asteroid, hidden by scattered debris and surface shadows. It had a familiar outline on the scans. Lah-Shah ran the images through the control system and found a match: an IGASS science division mission ship.
Locus Recommended Reading List 2023 BSFA for Best Non-Fiction, Shortlist 2024 BFS for Best Non-Fiction, Shortlist 2024
Spec Fic For Newbies: A Beginner's Guide to Writing Subgenres of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror. Tiffani Angus (Ph.D.) and Val Nolan (Ph.D.) met at the 2009 Clarion Writers’ Workshop in California and since then have collaborated many times as fans and scholars on panels for SFF conventions and writing retreats.Working together on this book and combining their experience as SFF writers and as university lecturers in Creative Writing and Literature made perfect sense!
Every year they see new students who want to write SFF/Horror but have never tried the genres, have tried but found themselves floundering, or, worse, have been discouraged by those who tell them Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror are somehow not “real” literature.
This book is for all those future Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror writers. Tiffani and Val are approaching these three exciting fields by breaking them down into bite-sized subgenres with a fun, open, and contemporary approach.Each chapter contains 10 subgenres or tropes, with a quick and nerdy history of each derived from classroom teaching practices, along with a list of potential pitfalls, a description of why it’s fun to write in these subgenres, as well as activities for new writers to try out and to get them started!
My Review
I bought this book at FantasyCon 2023. I’ve got quite a collection of Academia Lunare books now, mostly genre stuff and Tolkien books. Look at the Luna Press Publishing website, under non-fiction and academic, to get a sense of the books I mean. Most of the are small, A6 size, usually with monographs on a uniting subject matter.
This book is different.
Yes, that’s me. I got the laptop camera to work properly. Yes, that’s the Pen & Sword TBR pile behind me.
It’s a guide to the sub-genres of SFFH, with two writing exercises for each sub-genre. I’m not exactly a ‘newbie’, but I don’t know all of the sub-genres, and it was interesting to read about the ones they included.
I enjoyed to quick tour and chatty writing style of this book, especially the genre and sub-genre histories. This book is informed by years of teaching by both authors, and it shows. They’ve clearly come across the same mistakes time and time again, but the enjoyment of both spec fic and teaching also really shines through. I could easily devour a volume on each sub-genre by these authors, but I’m weird like that. I like depth and breadth. I don’t think that’s a criticism of this book, but if you’re expecting in-depth discussions of the nuances of each sub-genre you’re not going to get that. The book provides broad overviews of each sub-genre with reference to specific tropes or movements within the sub-genre.
I enjoyed the tour of 30 sub-genres and the writing left me want more on some subject and no more about others (splatterpunk for example, is really not my thing). There’s enough to get you started on any sub-genre, and that’s what this book is for.
If you’re looking for something to read in a specific sub-genre, I think you could flip to the section in this book and find a place to start in a new sub-genre, because the authors provide lots of examples of works – both film and literary – that sit in a sub-genre.
There are also lots of references if you want to follow up on a particular statement or idea. I like references. More references and access to a database of papers, please. Because I don’t have enough to read…
I found the writing exercises prompted me to come up with new ideas and think it’ll be useful when I’m struggling to put an idea down on paper. I’ve got an idea about zombies and cruise ships, but it’s not going anywhere yet… Anyway, the activities make up a small section of each sub-genre entry, but the information packed in before them informs the activities. I think for a writer at any stage of their career, the activities will prompt the brain to try something new. If you’re a new writer they’ll give you a place to start, and for experienced writers they’re a reminder and refresher when your brain is fried. The writing advice found throughout the text is useful and explained well.
While I read this book from start to finish, I think it could be a good ‘dipping’ book, for those having a go at a new genre or sub-genre. There’s always something new to try – nobody could have written in all thirty of the sub-genres in this book – so dipping in and out as the mood takes you can give the writer practice in a variety of stories.
I have already recommended this book to a very new writer (my nibbling is doing creative writing as part of their OU Open Degree – I’m so proud!) and will be buying volume 2 at FantasyCon in three weeks – Francesca, make sure there’s a copy put aside for me, please!
I mentioned on my book Instagram that I was reading this book and Dr Angus kindly told me to contact her if I need any PhD advice, which I thought was lovely.
Tiffani Angus signed the book. It was signed when I bought it, so Tiffani must have been at FantasyCon last year.
Series:Bobiverse (#5) Narrator: Ray Porter Format: Audible Audio Published: September 5, 2024 by Audible Originals Language: English
Description
The number one best-selling series that Audible listeners call “wonderfully entertaining”, “packed with humor, geek references and thought-provoking storylines”, and performed by “a true master story teller and actor” returns as the Bobs face their deadliest challenge yet.
The Bobiverse is a different place in the aftermath of the Starfleet War, and the days of the Bobs gathering in one big happy moot are far behind. There’s anti-Bob sentiment on multiple planets, the Skippies playing with an AI time bomb, and multiple Bobs just wanting to get away from it all.
But it all pales compared to what Icarus and Daedalus discover on their 26,000-year journey to the center of the galaxy. Sure, it could settle the Fermi Paradox for good (and what Bob doesn’t want to solve a mystery of the universe?). But it also reveals a threat to the galaxy greater than anything the Bobs could have imagined.
Just another average day in the Bobiverse.
My Review
I might have done a happy dance when I got the notification that this audiobook was available, and even more when I realised I had an Audible credit to use.
I love the Bobiverse series and I always want to know what will happen next. In this instalment, we follow Icarus and Daedalus on their adventure to Sagittarius A* and their side-tracks, which leads them home at last, but with terrible news. It’s certainly an entertaining and clever solution to the Fermi Paradox, although I maintain my hypothesis that the other sentient species of the galaxy took one look at us and decided to leave us to our own devices because we were too much trouble. The second plot is Howard and Bridget’s adventures among the dragons. Another is the mission to develop wormholes, defeat the self-aware AI Thoth that the Skippies have let loose on the galaxy, and deal with increasingly hostile humans, while the Quinlans get their own ‘net and Charles makes a confession about the origins of Starfleet.
There are always a few plot lines in a Bobiverse book, because they’re an ensemble cast, but it gets confusing. I really enjoyed the different plots but I’d love it if I could just focus on one at a time! The plots are mostly linked, but sometimes they’re just separate stories. Howard and Bridget’s adventures among the dragons could have been a novella, for instance. I think Bob and Teresa’s story definitely needs more attention, too.
As ever, Ray Porter is a superlative narrator. I love his voice!
Overall, a great return to the Bobiverse, but may need more than one listen to get everything that’s going on. I shall be relistening soon.
Release Date 2024-08-13 Formats Ebook, Paperback EBook ISBN 13th August 2024 | 9781915998132 | epub & mobi | £4.99/$7.99/$8.99 Paperback ISBN 13th August 2024 | 9781915998125 | Paperback | £9.99/$17.99/$23.99
Blurb
An alien invasion hits the town of Muddy Gap, but a disgruntled pie aficionado is the only one who seems to remember it…
Denver Bryant’s passion for pie has sent him across Wyoming in search of the best slices. Though he dutifully posts reviews on his blog, he’s never been able to recreate his brief moment of viral popularity, and its trickling income isn’t enough to pay his rent next month.
Driving home from a roadside diner, Denver witnesses a UFO explode directly over his tiny town of Muddy Gap. When he questions his neighbors, it appears that Denver is the only person to have seen anything – or to care that the residents’ strange behavior, as well as a shower of seashell hail, might be evidence of something extraterrestrial. Being both non-binary and autistic, he’s convinced his reputation as the town eccentric is impeding his quest for answers. Frustrated, he documents the bizarre incidents on his failing pie blog, and his online popularity skyrockets. His readers want the truth, spurring him to get to the bottom of things.
The only person in town who takes him seriously is handsome bartender, Ezra. As the two investigate over pie and the possibility of romance, the alien presence does more than change the weather. People start disappearing. When Denver and Ezra make a run for it, the town refuses to let them leave. Reality is folding in on itself. It’s suddenly a race against time to find the extraterrestrial source and destroy it before it consumes not only Muddy Gap but everything beyond. Denver’s always been more outsider than hero, but he’s determined to ensure that a world with Ezra – and with pie – still exists tomorrow.
Key Lime Sky is the second book from AL Hess at Angry Robot – check out his previous work, World Running Down.
Format: 444 pages, Paperback Published: February 8, 2022 by Angry Robot ISBN: 9780857669667 (ISBN10: 0857669664) Language: English
Description
Lesbian gunslinger fights spies in space!
Three factions vie for control of the galaxy. Rig, a gunslinging, thieving, rebel with a cause, doesn’t give a damn about them and she hasn’t looked back since abandoning her faction three years ago.
That is, until her former faction sends her a message: return what she stole from them, or they’ll kill her twin sister.
Rig embarks on a journey across the galaxy to save her sister – but for once she’s not alone. She has help from her network of resistance contacts, her taser-wielding librarian girlfriend, and a mysterious bounty hunter.
If Rig fails and her former faction finds what she stole from them, trillions of lives will be lost–including her sister’s. But if she succeeds, she might just pull the whole damn faction system down around their ears. Either way, she’s going to do it with panache and pizzazz.
My Review
Angry Robot sent me a copy of Bluebird to read while I waited for The Hunter’s Gambit, also by the same author. The Hunter’s Gambit is fantasy and I’m reviewing it in late June. Bluebird is sci fi and I had no review date planned, I just happened to sit down yesterday and read the book. I started reading it when the book arrived, but stuff got in the way, so I only read three chapters. Yesterday, I read the remaining 370 pages. Totally worth spending my Saturday afternoon/evening reading it.
We meet Rig, a Kashrini, who has escaped the human faction Pyrite that took over her species’ homeworld and enslaved her species, when they aren’t murdering them, on a mission to rescue more indentured people. In the process she meets Ginka, from a felidae sentient species who’s species has come under the control of the Ossuary faction of humans. Ginka is a fighting machine with strange technology. And then Rig’s former faction catches up with her. This sends Rig and Ginka on a series of adventures as they avoid and/or fight both Pyrite and Ossuary spies. We get interludes where we find out about Ginao’s background and discover why she is out in space alone.
Rig wants to rescue her sister, Daara (loyal to Pyrite but now imprisoned), and protect her partner, Jane, who is an Ascetic faction librarian; Ginka wants to go home to her husband, Crane. They have allies known and unknown who want freedom. There are two powerful intelligence agencies against them. They might have to take down the factions to do it.
I wish I’d had time to read this earlier, it’s so good! As we journey across space with the pair, and meet various allies and enemies, and both of them almost die, the tension pulls the reader on, to keep turning the page. I needed to know what was going to happen next. We learn about the deeper issues in this ancient space empire, and humans don’t come out of it well. This is a richly imagined space adventure, with well-developed characters. The relationships between Rig and the other characters are fascinating and develop across the 400+ pages as they travel and fight.
The book ends with love and hope. We get happy endings for Rig and Ginka, while Daara has to make her own choices in life. One faction has been beaten and the other two have been forced to back off.
Tor 8 March 2024 9781035013746 400 pages Audiobook narrated by Ben Allen
Synopsis
They travelled into the unknown and left themselves behind . . .
On the distant world of Kiln lie the ruins of an alien civilization. It’s the greatest discovery in humanity’s spacefaring history – yet who were its builders and where did they go?
Professor Arton Daghdev had always wanted to study alien life up close. Then his wishes become a reality in the worst way. His political activism sees him exiled from Earth to Kiln’s extrasolar labour camp. There, he’s condemned to work under an alien sky until he dies.
Kiln boasts a ravenous, chaotic ecosystem like nothing seen on Earth. The monstrous alien life interacts in surprising, sometimes shocking ways with the human body, so Arton will risk death on a daily basis. However, the camp’s oppressive regime might just kill him first. If Arton can somehow escape both fates, the world of Kiln holds a wondrous, terrible secret. It will redefine life and intelligence as he knows it, and might just set him free . . .
My Review
I ordered a hardback copy of this book from The Broken Binding and the audiobook from Audible. I started reading this book earlier in the week, after I finished reading Lords of Uncreation and decided I need some more SF. I should have been reading one of my blog tour books, but I’ll finish that tomorrow. I happened to need something to listen to on Wednesday because I wanted to go out and swim after I had to spend Tuesday at the hospital. I read the first 23 chapters of the hardback book on Monday, on Wednesday I picked up from the right point in the audiobook and listened to all but the last 23 minutes of it while I was out all afternoon. I listened to the rest when I went out today. So yeah, I binged the book slightly.
I’ve read eight of Tchaikovsky’s books now, six are from space opera trilogies, while two, including Alien Clay, are stand alone novels. I enjoy both types. There’s always strong worldbuilding and interesting characters. Alien Clay is no different, the world of Kiln is very deeply imagined and the main character, Arton Daghdev, is an acerbic bitch; he made me laugh so much.
Kiln puzzles the scientists bound by Mandate orthodoxy; Arton Daghdev and his fellow condemned are heterodox, rebels against the Mandate, or common criminals who happened to end up on Kiln as part of their punishment. Daghdev was an academic, skating the edge of orthodoxy, a xenobiologist, and a member of several revolutionary sub-committees, until purges put him on a ship to Kiln, a one-way trip.
On Kiln, he is welcomed by the very orthodox commandant who hopes Daghdev can be turned to orthodoxy. He’s put on the Science Support team, along with a friend from home, Ilmus, a former colleague and ‘disciple’ who was picked up by the police, tortured and exiled to Kiln a year before Daghdev. The team work with ‘the Science’ – professionals, paid to work on Kiln, to prove the Mandate’s anthropocentric orthodoxy.
Life on Kiln is rampant, even in an apparently cooler, drier period, and it evolves in a vary different way to Earth life. Each creature is a symbiotic community, carrying multiple species in many combinations. But ruins suggest there was once a sentient species on the planet, and it’s the job of the Science (and the prisoners sent to die there) to discover as much as possible and confirm the Mandate orthodox belief that the purpose of the universe is humanity.
After a failed coup, Daghdev, Ilmus and the former head of Science (who had a one night stand with Daghdev and is therefore assumed to have known about the rebellion), among others, are punished by being sent to Excursions. Where they are not popular, because changing the teams means changing the decontamination schedules, risking people’s lives.
Excursions are not a popular assignment, because they are the only people who go outside of the domed camp. Outside the camp, Kiln life tries to take hold immediately. Luckily, life is so different on Earth, that it takes Kiln life a while to work it out and a good decontamination can deal with that. It’s all well and good, until Daghdev’s team, led by an old shop steward, and longest living Kiln survivor, Keev, lose their transport to a creature called ‘the Elephant’s Dad’ and are forced to walk back to the camp.
Out in the Kiln environment, pretty much unprotected from the symbiotic life forms, they change. By the time they return, they are themselves and yet, more than that. Kiln has found the keys to unlock Earth biology. The planet has found a new mind that it can use. Slowly, the survivors spread their change across the rest of the prisoners, until they can work in unity while being still individuals. It’s a new revolution.
Tchaikovsky’s work has always had a political edge, if you know where to look, and he usually has a point to make. The point made in Alien Clay might piss off people who read sci fi because they like it when things get blown up in space and evil empires are replaced by less evil empires. Replacing one with t’other doesn’t work; you need a complete change of system. Replacing the Mandate with a revolution wouldn’t work – revolutions tend to get taken over by people who want power and will lie, murder, and steal to get it. The Russian Revolution is an excellent example of that. The impetus came from grass roots organisations to improve the lives of peasants and workers (the SRs and anarchists), and it was taken over by middle class idealogues who were interested in power – Lenin, Trotsky, and eventually the Bolsheviks under Stalin – and murdered their way through their former allies. Yes, life was probably better than under the Tsars for many people, but it was still shit, because power was still centralised under a ‘big man’ and small group of sycophants. Decentralised, local organisation, directly elected councils that can be recalled and replaced if they piss off the people, a lack of hierarchy, worked in some places for several years at a time, until Stalin and his collection of nut bags decided murder and invasion were better. The Red Army only won the Russian Civil War because of the Anarchist Army (the Red and Black) which voted for their officers. I’ve been listening to Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff, who are part way through a 6-part series on the Kronstadt rebellion, and Behind the Bastards, that’s just done a 4-parter on Stalin’s chief of secret police. Lots of cross-over there. I highly recommend both podcasts, by the way.
Reading Alien Clay when I’ve been listening to Behind the Bastards and Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff probably influenced my interpretation of the message of this book. It appeals to my socialist heart. Authoritarian regimes love a scientist or artist that’ll support their orthodoxy, because they need them to prop up their nonsense, but hates scientists and artists that use their intelligence and skills to point out the lies of the regime.
I love that Adrian Tchaikovsky has included an important, although secondary, character who is non-binary and probably Autistic in Ilmus. They’re the first to join the planet on the march back to the camp, the first to open themselves up completely to the whole. The tension between Daghdev and Ilmus, as they fear each other was the one who turned them in, and betrayed the rebellion at the camp, and the force of their friendship that helps them bridge the tension, is an emotional counterpoint to the humorous narrative of pain and confusion Daghdev feels on Kiln before the changes Kiln makes to them all.
The beings that live on Kiln are absolutely terrifying. I have a really strange phobia of parasites; the idea of things growing on me or taking up residence in me, and sprouting, absolutely terrifies me. That scene in Hannibal series 1 where they find bodies with mushrooms growing out of them, and one of the victims is alive with mushrooms sprouting from them, still horrifies me. So, I can’t say the species on Kiln don’t freak me out, but at the same time, it’s a really cool idea! Instead of the popular science understanding of competitive evolution, there’s a a species that specialises in one thing and will build a communal life with other species so that everyone gets their needs met. I love the way Tchaikovsky has his narrator describe the life on Kiln and events. It’s by turns lyrical, sarcastic and humorous. The stone crab that helps the marching Excursionistas get back to the camp is probably my favourite species.
The narrator of the audiobook was really good; I enjoyed the intonation and rhythm of the narration. At the end of the audiobook, there’s an interview between Adrian Tchaikovsky and Ben Allen, which covers Tchaikovsky’s influences and research. He originally studied zoology and then law, so Tchaikovsky has a background in science, among other areas; when he’s making up xenospecies it’s usually based in proper science. Which I appreciate.
I need to go to bed now, so I’m going to stop rambling and tell you to go buy Alien Clay.
Everything Is Better With Dragons 