When Adrian walks onto the stage at the Edinburgh International Book Festival he sports the most magnificent goatee I think I have ever seen. Thick, salt and pepper grey, in a way that would put to envy the most ardent of bio engineers.
He wears modest spectacles with deep thoughtful eyes, above them are a pair of eyebrows equally as impressive in their lusciousness, as his facial hair. He speaks with a low and confident volume. He looks every bit the Fantasy/ Sci-fi author you would expect. Reminds me ever-so-slightly of Terry Pratchett, but without the flamboyant hat and way more hair. Adrian’s works are vast and prolific. He writes with a dedication that perhaps only Steven King could match, the host Doug Johnstone quipsthat when he went to call on him for the interview, Adrian was busy writing!
The mind of Adrian must be a fascinating place. The subject matter he chooses to focus on are an extension of his zoology and psychology degree. His first novels, running to a total of 17 stories in his series, ‘Shadows of the Apt’, are works of extraordinary imagination. And has one of the best written duels in fantasy literature. My small claim to fame is that as his last novel was being released, he re-tweeted my excitement over this event.
His new novels, the ones which he is here today to talk about are ‘Bee Speaker’ and ‘Shroud’. These are works of Sci-fi. Adrian begins by explaining, ‘Shroud’. A world of total darkness, where creatures have evolved to communicate through electromagnetism.
He describes the effect; if you were to remove your helmet on this planet you would be deafened by a cacophony of ‘noise’ on every possible wavelength. He continues that he wanted to make the most ‘hostile to human-life’ world he could. He then sits two unfortunate humans in it, stranded on this hellish place. What ensues is a study of communication mishaps, as the local fauna try to help the two stranded humans with their efforts to get off the planet. Sounds almost Shakespearian with its comedy of failures of communication and misunderstandings.
‘Bee-Speaker’ is the third book in the ‘Dogs of War’ series. Once again comes with the theme of perspective and is a world populated with bio-engineered beings. The third book is set further in the future than that of the last two books and islocated on Earth. A fallen Earth. A world that has split into factions along the lines of species. One of the most interesting things the Adrian talks about in this book is the Bees. A hive-collective that has been engineered to emulate a single entity made of thousands of bees. A swarm that walks kind of thing.
It’s almost banal to mention this but…for all the deep thinking and staggering imagination on display in all Tchaikovsky’s work, his depth of political thought seems to be right inline with every other author that is given a stage to speak. And is, frankly, as boring and predictable as his novels are awe-inspiring and original. We are treated to, though nottoo overtly, his sprinkled in thoughts of Elon Musk, and his distaste for allowing a private company to colonise Mars.There is the obligatory anti-capitalist rhetoric. Colonialism is, of course, also mentioned. And structures of power are inherently corrupt and flawed. All lovely, safe opinions to spout at the Edinburgh Book festival.
See you next year!!
Image in article, below featured image is courtesy of David P Maynard, at MCM Comic Con London, May 2025, and used here as an image licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Scotland4me.co has edited the image under the terms of the license, consequently the edited image is covered under the same license.