Adrian Tchaikovsky is the award-winning author of many books of science fiction and fantasy, including The Children of Time, Final Architecture and Tyrant Philosophers series. His new book, “Bee Speaker,” is the third in the Dogs of War series.
Q. Please tell readers about your new book, “Bee Speaker,” which is part of your Dogs of War series.
As “Bear Head” did, “Bee Speaker” moves the timeframe on from the previous book. In this case the gathering crisis on Earth we saw foreshadowed in the previous book (environmental, political, etc.) has come to a head and led to a general collapse, which the Martian colonies were able to weather with the aid of Bees. Now Mars has received a call for aid from Earth, also apparently from Bees, but the intrepid Martian explorers who respond don’t understand the situation they’re about to get into, or the problems they’ve brought with them.
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Q. Your stand-alone novel “Elder Race” combines sci-fi with fantasy. Can you talk a little about choosing to bring those elements together into one story?
The division between science-fiction (SF) and fantasy (F) is a landscape that has a lot of interesting borders and crossing points. I’d previously written an epic fantasy working to a SF structure of progress and advancement (“Shadows of the Apt”) and a Dying Earth book where the tents of SF and F are intertwined (“Cage of Souls”). What tends to happen in these narratives is that one side or the other is implicitly “the truth” and the other side is just a misunderstanding (“sufficiently advanced technology,” etc.). In “Elder Race,” I wanted to write a story where the “science” POV turns out to be no more valid than the “fantasy” POV when confronted with something that neither truly understand.
Q. Is there a book or books you always recommend to other readers?
Although most readers come to me via “Children of Time,” I always try to push “Dogs of War” as some of my finest SF work, or alternatively these days I try “City of Last Chances” or others of that series if they prefer fantasy.
Q. What are you reading now?
Currently in the last few pages of Joe Abercrombie’s “The Devils,” which is an enormously entertaining read, one of his best.
Q. How do you decide what to read next?
Honestly, my reading time is very strained and often I’m reading an advance copy of something in print. My reading outside that tends to be in audiobook, and is usually guided by the buzz I hear about a title after it comes out.
Q. Do you remember the first book that made an impact on you?
The very first one was probably a Doctor Who novelization, as I read dozens of those as a kid. “The Cave-Monsters” definitely made a big impact because in the book you got a lot more from the Silurians’ POV, and they were presented very sympathetically. But there was also a book by German author Paul Biegel called “The Seven Times Search,” where a kid who can’t do his time tables in maths gets shrunk and thrown into the garden to learn them from various insect encounters. Made a big impression on me.
Q. Is there a book you’re nervous to read?
I don’t know about nervous, but when a book gets a reputation as very literary or deep I can be a bit put off because I get worried about reading it “wrong.” Which is daft, obviously.
Q. Can you recall a book that felt like it was written with you in mind?
For me: Whilst I am always here for any positive depiction of a bug or other invertebrate character, any book that gives a full and sympathetic presentation of a nonhuman character is likely to win me over. For example, Ann Leckie’s “Translation State,” which I loved.
Not for me: For a general class of books, I do tend to react against stories where the apparently speculative elements get reduced to just being symbolic. That always feels a bit hand-wavy to me, like waking up in the shower after a dream sequence. (Or else I just read it “wrong” and decide that all that fantastical stuff was obviously literally true within the world of the story. Subtext for cowards and so forth 
Q. What’s something – a fact, a bit of dialogue or something else – that has stayed with you from a recent reading?
In a recent excursion outside SFF, I’ve hugely enjoyed the way Mick Herron writes Jackson Lamb in the Slow Horses books. A deeply loathsome character on almost every level, yet presented in such a way that you root for him every time he’s in a scene. It’s an incredible piece of characterization over a large number of books.
Q. Do you have any favorite book covers?
A bit obscure but the cover to the 1987 Futura edition of Gene Wolfe’s “Soldier of the Mists,” showing a Greek landscape with the titular warrior just sort of fading away in front of it, is amazing (Alas, I can’t find any artist credit). Of my own, the work that Joe Wilson has done on the Tyrant Philosophers books is so wonderful, intricate and drawn from the details of the books.
Q. Do you listen to audiobooks? If so, are there any titles or narrators you’d recommend?
Most of my new book consumption is audio these days. I’ve enjoyed a lot of narrators, and I’ve been particularly blessed by those who’ve worked on my own books. For other voices, I’d single out Moira Quirk’s reading of the Locked Tomb series as something I particularly enjoyed.
Q. Is there a genre or type of book you read the most – and what would you like to read more of?
Honestly I’m living my best life with SFF, although I am feeling as though I should try some more spy stuff – there is something about the whole espionage genre – the deep cover, the uncertainty, the dual identities – that’s very attractive.
Q. Do you have a favorite book or books?
There is a little-known Peter S. Beagle book, “The Folk of the Air,” which I find just the most beautifully written piece of work I ever came across. After getting it from a library I spent around a decade searching secondhand bookshops to find my own copy.
Q. Which books are you planning to read next?
I’ve heard very good things about Ai Jiang’s “A Palace Near the Wind,” so I’d like to get to that soon.
Q. Do you have a favorite character or quote from a book?
I have a certain archetype I like, which I’m not sure I’ve ever actually written yet. It’s the villain’s henchman that has their own game going on and forms a kind of bond with the hero. A good example would be Childermass from Susanna Clarke’s “Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.”
Q. Is there a person who made an impact on your reading life – a teacher, a parent, a librarian or someone else?
I always had the good fortune to have local libraries to draw on, growing up. Later, after a set of failed A-levels (exams around age 18), I shifted from sciences to take English the second time round, and the teacher we had at college, Mrs. Tingay, was one of those people whose boundless enthusiasm for the subject really spurred her students on.
Q. What do you find the most appealing in a book: the plot, the language, the cover, a recommendation? Do you have any examples?
I am always after the interesting world. Ideally a world where there’s been a lot of innovative new ideas fit neatly in with one another. For example I loved Beard & Noon’s “Gogmagog,” because it presented a wildly different place, which at the same time felt entirely lived-in and real.
Q. What’s a memorable book experience – good or bad – you’re willing to share?
A while ago, my gall bladder basically exploded and I was laid up recuperating for quite a long time. What kept me sane was the audiobooks of Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin series (“Master & Commander,” etc.), read by Ric Jerrom. There are a lot of them and they’re all sizable, and I just mainlined the entire series.
Q. Is there a book that tapped into an emotion you didn’t expect?
When I read Susanna Clarke’s “Piranesi” – perhaps one of the best books I ever read – it brought out a real sense of the numinous that I’ve had from very few works – Holdstock’s “Mythago Wood” is another. The sense of touching deep mythic themes is surprisingly hard to find, but it’s always something I appreciate.
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