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Every book Adrian Tchaikovsky recommended on podcasts
Adrian Tchaikovsky's book recommendations and discussions reveal a deeply imaginative science fiction and fantasy author who draws inspiration from complex world-building, historical mythologies, and philosophical explorations of humanity. Appearing on podcasts such as How I Write and The Ezra Klein Show, Tchaikovsky has pointed to several influential works that capture an elusive sense of the numinous or offer stark commentary on human societies. He recommended Joe Abercrombie's The Heroes for its immersive, visceral battle scenes and Robert Holdstock's Mythago Wood along with Susanna Clarke's Piranesi for inspiring a powerful sense of a hidden, very real world just out of sight. In the realm of science fiction and fantasy, Tchaikovsky highlighted Emma Newman's After Atlas for its bleakly plausible portrayal of human politics and R.F. Kuang's Babel for its sharp examination of imperialism, language, and appropriation. Furthermore, he has discussed classic foundational texts like J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit to illustrate how fantasy monsters can embody human vices like greed, and reflected on his own novel Children of Ruin to explain his process of combining multiple concepts into a complete narrative.
Books recommended by Adrian Tchaikovsky
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After atlas
After Atlas is a science fiction novel by Emma Newman set within her expansive Planetfall series, exploring complex societal structures and human politics.
Recommended“after Atlas by Emma Newman is when I'd throw out there that's a relatively recent science fiction book in her planetful series and I throw it in there mostly because it has some of the most sort of bleakly plausible bad human politics going on there”
Where to get it
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Babel
Babel by R.F.
Recommended“now another recent book is um RF quang's Babel which has the most astonishing examination of imperialism and language and appropriation as part of its uh fantasy plot”
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Mythago Wood
Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock is a landmark work of mythic fantasy that explores a British forest concealing ancient archetypes and mythical entities born from human collective consciousness.
Recommended“There are a couple of books I have read which have inspired me this incredible sense of the numinous. The numinous. Yes, of this kind of just the all of there being just a world that is just out of sight but is very very real and you can you get that I mean so Robert Holdstock's Mythago Wood is”
Where to get it
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Piranesi
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke is a fantasy novel set in a labyrinthine, statue-filled house with an ocean trapped inside its lower halls, following a lonely protagonist who documents the world's tides and architectural wonders.
Recommended“...and Susanna Clarke's Piranesi is another both of which are books I absolutely love and at some point I want to write a book that inspires a similar kind of sense...”
Where to get it
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The Heroes
The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie is a gritty grimdark fantasy novel that focuses on a single brutal three-day battle from the perspectives of various participants on both sides.
Recommended“He wrote a book called The Heroes. There is a very large battle in The Heroes which you are basically seeing through the slot in someone's visor...”
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Children of Ruin
Adrian Tchaikovsky’s ambitious science fiction novel, Children of Ruin, explores complex themes of first contact, evolutionary biology, and intelligence through the lens of an advanced civilization built by octopuses.
Discussed“So for example in Children of Ruin, which is the second of my kind of big sci-fi books in that series, I wanted to write about uplifted octopuses because they are very fascinating creatures, but that felt like half a book.”
Where to get it
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Children of Time
Children of Time is an acclaimed science fiction novel by Adrian Tchaikovsky that explores the rise of an advanced civilization engineered by intelligent spiders and a nanovirus.
Discussed“So for example, with the spiders in Children of Time, I turned out to have a very a really fluky connection at the Natural History Museum that meant I could go over there here in London.”
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Dogs of War
Discussed“So, there's in Dogs of War the main character is Rex. He is an bioengineered dog who is being used as a military asset.”
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The dancers at the end of time
Discussed“There is a story that I mean, Michael Moorcock wrote a series called The Dancers at the End of Time, which is set in such a far future, there are basically about seven people left...”
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The Hobbit
The Hobbit by J.R.R.
Discussed“So, for example, you know, Smaug in The Hobbit is an embodiment of greed, and Tolkien is taking that directly from Fafnir in sort of Anglo-Saxon myth.”
Where to get it
Books Adrian Tchaikovsky wrote
Appearances
| Episode | Podcast | Date | Books |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adrian Tchaikovsky: How to Write Absurdly Well | How I Write | How I Write | 2025-12-31 | 13 |
| Inside the Minds of Spiders, Octopuses and Artificial Intelligence | The Ezra Klein Show | 2023-02-24 | 2 |