submitted 9 months ago by AFKBRBChocolate@lemmy.ca to c/sciencefiction@lemmy.world

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Just finished my first book of the year, Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky. I think he's now my favorite author, at least currently writing. He's so good at so many things, from hard SF to fantasy. He's created some really interesting worlds, and populated them with interesting characters.

So far, I've read these books of his (order I read them, not order published):

Children of Time
Children of Ruin
Children of Memory
Made Things
Walking to Aldebaran
Service Model
Shroud
City of Last Chances
Alien Clay

Each of these is a gem. The children of time series has to be an all-time great SF trilogy. If you want my little paragraph of spoiler-free notes on why of them, let me know.

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[-] Papanca@lemmy.world 8 points 9 months ago

He was one of the first writers that imho was able to create truly alien species and really bring them to life. I've read and watched SF for decades and almost always the aliens were like humans in a humanoid body, with human emotions and desires. But the spiders and the octopus species were truly alien, while he was able to create them as wonderful species in their own right.

So far i've only read the first two 'Children of...'

[-] AFKBRBChocolate@lemmy.ca 4 points 9 months ago

You're exactly right - he's got a knack for creating really novel aliens, and for me that's one of the joys of SF. I was really thinking that while reading Shroud was well.

this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2026

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