Adrian Czajkowski (spelled as Adrian Tchaikovsky for his books) is a British

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

and

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

author. He is known best for his series ''Shadows of the Apt'', and for his novel '' Children of Time''. ''Children of Time'' was awarded the 30th

Arthur C. Clarke Award The Arthur C. Clarke Award is a British award given for the best science fiction novel first published in the United Kingdom during the previous year. It is named after British author Arthur C. Clarke, who gave a grant to establish the award i ...

in 2016. Author

James Lovegrove James M. H. Lovegrove (born 1965) is a British writer of speculative fiction. Early life Lovegrove was educated at Radley College, Oxfordshire, and was one of the subjects of a 1979 BBC television series, ''Public School''. A follow-up progr ...

described it as "superior stuff, tackling big themes – gods, messiahs, artificial intelligence, alienness – with brio".

Biography

Adrian Czajkowski was born in

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

Woodhall Spa Woodhall Spa is a former spa Village and civil parish in Lincolnshire, England, on the southern edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds, south-west of Horncastle, west of Skegness, east-south-east of Lincoln and north-west of Boston. It is noted for ...

on 4 June 1972. He is of Polish descent. He studied

zoology Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

and

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

at the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...

. He then qualified as a

legal executive Legal executives are a form of trained legal professional in certain jurisdictions. They often specialise in a particular area of law. The training that a Legal Executive undertakes usually includes both vocational training (a minimum of 3 years ...

. He was employed as a legal executive for the Commercial Dispute Department of Blacks,

Solicitors A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally-defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and ...

, of

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

. In late 2018 he became a full time writer. He lives in Leeds with his wife and son. In 2008, after Tchaikovsky had spent fifteen years trying to get published, his novel ''Empire in Black and Gold'' was published by

Tor Books Tor Books is the primary imprint of Tor Publishing Group (previously Tom Doherty Associates), a publishing company based in New York City. It primarily publishes science fiction and fantasy titles, and is the largest publisher of Chinese scien ...

(UK)an imprint of

Pan Macmillan Pan Books is a publishing imprint (trade name), imprint that first became active in the 1940s and is now part of the United Kingdom, British-based Macmillan Publishers, owned by the Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group of Germany. Pan Books b ...

in the United Kingdom. The series was later published in America by Pyr Books. Tchaikovsky expressed desire that the

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

editions of his novels feature the original Polish spelling of his surname, but these too used "Tchaikovsky". On 23 January 2019, Tchaikovsky was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of the Arts by the

University of Lincoln , mottoeng = Freedom through wisdom , established = 1861 – Hull School of Art1905 – Endsleigh College1976 – Hull College1992 – University of Humberside1996 – University of Lincolnshire and Humberside2001 � ...

Career

Tchaikovsky revealed the basis of ''Shadows of the Apt'' in an online essay entitled "Entering the Shadows" at Upcoming4.me. Whilst studying at the

he managed a

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within ...

named ''Bugworld''. The game concerned the story of the insect-people of the Lowlands, threatened by the encroaching Wasp Empire. From this original scenario the entire series of books grew. Tchaikovsky still uses role-playing games to help develop his stories, but now also uses

live action role-playing A live action role-playing game (LARP) is a form of role-playing game where the participants physically portray their characters.(Tychsen et al. 2006:255) "LARPs can be viewed as forming a distinct category of RPG because of two unique feature ...

, which assists in describing the numerous action and battle sequences in his books. He is currently involved with the

LARP A live action role-playing game (LARP) is a form of role-playing game where the participants physically portray their characters.(Tychsen et al. 2006:255) "LARPs can be viewed as forming a distinct category of RPG because of two unique feature ...

game ''Empire''. Tchaikovsky has regularly expressed his intention regarding the ''Shadows of the Apt'' series not to make

science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

better than magic, or vice versa: "This is another key element, really: the magic/tech divide is a concept that turns up here and there in fantasy, but usually one side is good (mostly magic) and the other (dirty polluting tech) is bad. With the world of the kinden, they’re basically both as bad as the people who use them, whether it’s blood sacrifice in a Mantis-kinden grove or the Wasp Empire’s city-levelling weaponry."

Awards and nominations

Tchaikovsky has received the following literary awards and nominations: *2016:

for '' Children of Time'' (winner). *2017:

British Fantasy Award The British Fantasy Awards (BFA) are awarded annually by the British Fantasy Society (BFS), first in 1976. Prior to that they were known as The August Derleth Fantasy Awards (see August Derleth Award). First awarded in 1972 (to ''The Knight of S ...

– Best Fantasy Novel for ''The Tiger and the Wolf'' (winner). *2019:

BSFA Award for Best Novel The BSFA Awards are given every year by the British Science Fiction Association. The Best Novel award is open to any novel-length work of science fiction or fantasy that has been published in the UK for the first time in the previous year. Serial ...

for '' Children of Ruin'' (winner). *2020:

Sidewise Award for Alternate History The Sidewise Awards for Alternate History were established in 1995 to recognize the best alternate history stories and novels of the year. Overview The awards take their name from the 1934 short story "Sidewise in Time" by Murray Leinster, in wh ...

- Long-form for ''The Doors of Eden'' (winner). *2020:

Philip K. Dick Award The Philip K. Dick Award is an American science fiction award given annually at Norwescon and sponsored by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society and (since 2005) the Philip K. Dick Trust. Named after science fiction writer Philip K. Dick, ...

for ''The Doors of Eden'' (nominee). *2021:

for ''Shards of Earth'' (winner). *2022:

Hugo Award for Best Novella The Hugo Award for Best Novella is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published or translated into English during the previous calendar year. The novella award is available for works of fiction of between ...

nomination for ''Elder Race''.

Bibliography

Novels

''Shadows of the Apt''
Main novels * ''Empire in Black and Gold'' (2008), * ''Dragonfly Falling'' (2009), * ''Blood of the Mantis'' (2009), * ''Salute the Dark'' (2010), * ''The Scarab Path'' (2010), * ''The Sea Watch'' (2011), * ''Heirs of the Blade'' (2011), * ''The Air War'' (2012), * ''War Master's Gate'' (2013), * ''Seal of the Worm'' (2014), ''Tales of the Apt'' (short story collections in the Apt universe) * ''Spoils of War'' (2016), ISBN 978-1910935217 * ''A Time for Grief'' (2017), ISBN 978-1910935217 * ''For Love of Distant Shores'' (2018), ISBN 978-1910935712 * ''The Scent of Tears'' (2018), ISBN 978-1910935712 ''Children of Time'' * '' Children of Time'' (2015), * '' Children of Ruin'' (2019), * ''Children of Memory'' (2022), ''Echoes of the Fall'' * ''The Tiger and the Wolf'' (2016), * ''The Bear and the Serpent'' (2017), * ''The Hyena and the Hawk'' (2018), ''Bioforms'' * ''Dogs of War'' (Head of Zeus, 2017), * ''Bear Head'' (Head of Zeus, 2021), '' The Final Architecture'' * ''Shards of Earth'' (Tor, 2021), * ''Eyes of the Void'' (Tor, 2022), * ''Lords of Uncreation'' (Tor, expected 2023), Standalone novels * ''Guns of the Dawn'' (2015), * ''Spiderlight'' (Tor.com, 2016), * ''Cage of Souls'' (Head of Zeus, 2019), * ''The Doors of Eden'' (2020), . * ''City of Last Chances'' (2022), . ''After the War'' series ''Redemption's Blade'' (Solaris Books, 2018), , is the first book in a multi-author series. The series was continued with ''Salvation's Fire'' by

Justina Robson Justina Robson (born 11 June 1968 in Leeds, England) is a science fiction author from Leeds, England. Biography and publishing history Justina Robson was born in Leeds on 11 June 1968, and studied philosophy and linguistics at the University o ...

and published on 4 September 2018. ''

Warhammer 40,000 ''Warhammer 40,000'' is a miniature wargame produced by Games Workshop. It is the most popular miniature wargame in the world, and is particularly popular in the United Kingdom. The first edition of the rulebook was published in September 1987, ...

'' Tchaikovsky's first ''Warhammer 40,000'' novel ''Day of Ascension'' (2022), like his short story "Raised in Darkness" from ''Inferno! Volume 6'' (2021), concerns the insidious Genestealer Cults.

Novellas

* ''Ironclads'' (Solaris Books, 2017), * ''The Expert System's Brother'' (Tor.com, 2018), * ''Walking to Aldebaran'' (Solaris Books, 2019), * ''Made Things'' (Tor.com, 2019), * ''Firewalkers'' (Solaris Books, 2020), * ''The Expert System's Champion'' (Tor.com, 2021), * ''One Day All This Will Be Yours'' (Solaris Books, 2021), * ''Elder Race'' (Tor.com, 2021), * ''Ogres'' (Solaris Books, 2022), * ''And Put Away Childish Things'' (Solaris Books, 2023), .

Short stories

*"The Final Conjuration" in ''Two Hundred and Twenty-One Baker Streets: An Anthology of Holmesian Tales Across Time and Space'' (

Abaddon Books Abaddon Books is a British publishing imprint, founded in 2006. It is part of the Rebellion group of companies, along with publishing companies Solaris Books, ''2000 AD'', 2000 AD Graphic Novels, and Cubicle 7. Abaddon publishes "shared worl ...

, 2014) , a collection of

Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...

short stories *"Where the Brass Band Plays" in ''Urban Mythic 2'' (Alchemy Press, 2014), *"Shadow Hunter" in ''Grimdark Magazine'', issue #1

Other collections

*''Feast and Famine'' (New Con Press, 2013), . This collection contains the stories "Feast and Famine", "The Artificial Man", "The Roar of the Crowd", "Good Taste", "The Dissipation Club", "Rapture", "Care", "2144 and All That", "The God Shark" and "The Sun in the Morning". * ''The Private Life of Elder Things'' (2016), ISBN 978-1911034025. Co-authored by Keris McDonald and Adam Gauntlett. A collection of new Lovecraftian fiction about confronting, discovering and living alongside the creatures of the Mythos.

Critical studies and reviews of Tchaikovsky's work

;''The Doors of Eden'' *

References

External links

Adrian Tchaikovsky official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tchaikovsky, Adrian British fantasy writers Living people Alumni of the University of Reading British science fiction writers British people of Polish descent People from Woodhall Spa British male novelists Sidewise Award winners 1972 births