A short life of the author
Adrian Tchaikovsky (b. 1972) — born Adrian Czajkowski — was born in Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire. He studied zoology and psychology at the University of Reading, which informs the biological imagination that distinguishes his science fiction.
Life and Career
Tchaikovsky published the ten-volume Shadows of the Apt fantasy series (2008–2014) before Children of Time (2015) transformed his career. The novel — about a terraforming project gone wrong, in which a species of jumping spiders inherits a world intended for humans — won the Arthur C. Clarke Award. Its sequels, Children of Ruin (2019) and Children of Memory (2022), expand the scope.
His productivity is extraordinary — he publishes multiple novels per year across science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Shards of Earth (2021), Eyes of the Void (2022), and Lords of Uncreation (2023) form the Final Architecture trilogy. Elder Race (2021) is a virtuosic novella about the gap between science and magic.
Major Works and Themes
Tchaikovsky’s signature is his biological imagination — his ability to envision non-human consciousness and to make alien cognition genuinely alien while remaining comprehensible to the reader. His spiders, octopi, and corvids think in ways that are plausibly derived from their biology.
Key Works
- Children of Time (2015) — Arthur C. Clarke Award
- Shards of Earth (2021)
- Elder Race (2021)
Collecting Tchaikovsky
Empire in Black and Gold (2008, Tor UK) — the debut — brings $15–$40. Children of Time (2015, Tor UK) brings $15–$35. Tchaikovsky signs at conventions and book events.