Featuring: Jean Becker & Tom Collamore, Kit Chellel, Mahmud el Sayed, Jill Lepore, Megan Kate Nelson, Keith O’Brien, Stephan Talty, Molly Tanzer, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Craig Thomas, Martha Wells
Adrian Tchaikovsky
Upcoming: CHILDREN OF STRIFE and GREEN CITY WARS by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Adrian Tchaikovsky has to be one of the hardest-working authors in SFF. Not only that, his novels are consistently excellent and varied — he writes across seemingly all speculative genres, offering up many twists and original takes on classic and new tropes. I wanted to quickly spotlight two of his novels coming out in 2026, highlighting just a bit of this breadth of interest and imagination.
CHILDREN OF STRIFE (Tor UK / Orbit)
The far-future. After Earth fell, ark ships had hunted for a new home. They sought lost worlds terraformed in Earth’s forgotten past. A ship crewed by maverick humans, spiders and a spectacularly punchy mantis shrimp captain is about to rediscover one such world, and an ark.
Then human crewmate Alis wakes to discover that she, her captain and the ship’s intelligence are the only ones left on their ship. But what happened to those who left to explore the ark . . . and the world below?
This is the fourth novel in the Children series, which started with the Clarke Award-winning Children of Time. I’ve read the first two books in the series, and loved both. Hopefully, I’ll manage to get around to reading Children of Memory before Strife is published. Really looking forward to this. Children of Strife is due to be published by Tor Books in the UK (March 12th) and Orbit in North America (March 17th)
Also on CR: Review of Children of Ruin
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GREEN CITY WARS (Tor Books)
Down these mean streets a beast must walk…
Meet Skotch. Racoon, P.I.―Yours for a few buttons as long as the job isn’t too illegal, whatever that means.
A mouse has gone missing. Normally this wouldn’t raise any hackles, nor any alarms, but this mouse has something that everyone seems to want, though nobody appears particularly eager to say what that something is.
The fee is good―perhaps too good. Certainly not something Skotch can easily turn down.
If only Skotch can work out where the mouse is hiding, what he’s hiding, and why his secrets are upsetting a lot of animals caught up in the Green City wars.
This upcoming noir novel has a fantastic pitch: “Philip Marlowe meets Redwall.” The cover for the North American edition, featured above, is pretty great, but it’s that pitch that cemented my interest in reading this. Really looking forward to this one. Green City Wars is due to be published by Tor Books in North America (June 23rd, 2026) and in the UK (June 25th).
New Books (August 2025)
Featuring: Anthony Bourdain, Elaine Castillo, Jade Chang, Sam Guthrie, Jochen Hellbeck, Van Jensen, Elizabeth McCracken, Olivier Norek, Lauren Rothery, Andrew Rowe, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Lavie Tidhar
New Books (June-July)
Another nice mix of new books received. I’ve already read a couple of these, and hope to get the rest read ASAP — the summer months are always good for catching up, because I generally don’t like to go outside when it’s gross, hot, and humid. (Best laid plans, and all…)
Featuring: Stacey Abrams, Lee Cole, S. A. Cosby, Mark Lee Gardner, Sophie Gilbert, Travis Kennedy, Melissa O’Connor, Riley Sager, John Seabrook, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Christopher J. Yates
New Books (April)
An insanely busy first quarter (well, first third really), this year. This means I’ve fallen behind (again) on my New Books posts, so I’ll be posting another next week in an attempt to get caught up. A great selection came in. Any on your radar? Read any already?
Featuring: Charles Beaumont, Nicholas Binge, Amran Gowani, Gareth Hanrahan, Christina Kovac, Mark A. Latham, Winnie M. Li, Jessa Maxwell, Leigh Radford, John Sandford, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Ben Weissenbach
New Books (December 2024-January 2025)
There was another flurry of new books over the holiday period (review copies, purchases, and Christmas presents), so I actually have enough books already for two of these posts… I’ll publish the second one in a week or so.
Did you get any good books over the holidays? Anything in particular on your radar for 2025? Feel free to share in the comments.
Featuring: Harlan Coben, Jonathan Coe, Kevin Evers, Teresa Frohock, Rachel Howell Hall, Artis Henderson, David Litt, Tim MacMahon, Laura McCluskey, Amy Shearn, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Odd Arne Westad & Chen Jian
New Books (April-May 2024)
Featuring: Leigh Bardugo, Charlotte Bond, Sergio de la Pava, Jeremy Egner, K. M. Enright, Matthew Ferrence, Siang Lu, Howard Megdal, Marissa Stapley, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Nghi Vo, Carvell Wallace
New Books (November-December)
Featuring: Charlotte Bond, Stephen Breyer, Rex Chapman, Anna Dorn, Jesse David Fox, Eugenie Montague, Robin Peguero, Alexis Soloski, Richard Swan, Kara Swisher, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Teddy Wayne, Hugh Wilford
Upcoming: ALIEN CLAY by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Tor UK)
I stumbled across Alien Clay while looking for a different book by Adrian Tchaikovsky, but it should come as no surprise to anyone who’s been following CR for even a short while that I am a big fan of the author’s work, so it is always nice to learn of another upcoming book! This is obviously now on my Most Anticipated in 2024 list. Due to be published next year in the UK by Tor Books, here’s the synopsis for this “thrilling far-future adventure”:
The planet of Kiln is where the tyrannical Mandate keeps its prison colony, and for inmates the journey there is always a one-way trip. One such prisoner is Professor Arton Daghdev, xeno-ecologist and political dissident. Soon after arrival he discovers that Kiln has a secret. Humanity is not the first intelligent life to set foot there.
In the midst a ravenous, chaotic ecosystem are the ruins of a civilization, but who were the vanished builders and where did they go? If he can survive both the harsh rule of the camp commandant and the alien horrors of the world around him, then Arton has a chance at making a discovery that might just transform not only Kiln but distant Earth as well.
Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Alien Clay is due to be published by Tor Books in the UK, on March 28th, 2024. No information about a North American publisher, at time of writing, but many of the author’s previous novels have been published across the Pond by Orbit Books.
Also on CR: Interview with Adrian Tchaikovsky (2012); Guest Posts on “Nine Books, Six Years, One Stenwold Maker”, “The Art of Gunsmithing — Writing Guns of the Dawn“, “Looking for God in Melnibone Places: Fantasy and Religion”, and “Eye of the Spider”; Excerpt from Guns of the Dawn; Reviews of Empire of Black & Gold, Guns of the Dawn, Children of Ruin, Spiderlight, Ironclads, Made Things, Shards of Earth, One Day All This Will Be Yours, and Ogres
New Books (January-February 2023)
Nicely varied selection, from thrillers to history. In an unusual twist, I’ve already read a few of them, too. Any of these upcoming titles catch your eye?
Featuring: David Baldacci, Sarah Clegg, Gareth Hanrahan, Nash Jenkins, Cassandra Khaw, Hannah Kaner, Ian McDonald, Aimee Ogden, Megan E. O’Keefe, Adrian Tchaikovsky, David Wellington
Civilian Reader 