Reviewing the situation

Just a brief catch up here of Shadows of the Apt-related news. Firstly, the reason this isn't a proper post is that my postage is playing away, with a guest article over at Speculative Horizons about films, books, the and the film of the book, with special reference to Hawke the Slayer. Next you should most definitely head over […]

Dragonfly Falling: the Podcast

To coincide with the publication of Dragonfly Falling I recently interviewed Adrian about the world behind the Shadows of the Apt and what readers might expect from the new book. So, without further ado, you can listen to the podcast in its various forms on the Pan Macmillan podcast page. Alternatively you can download it. Enjoy!

Does He Sign Body Parts?

There's a Bloom County (1) cartoon sequence where Opus the penguin has written his autobiography, "A Penguin's Tale"(2). Having finished it he sets up for a local signing, making his elaborate preparations amidst stacks of copies of his book. His sole attendee is a cockroach (appropriately enough for my purposes) who charges in demanding "Does he sign body parts?" It's […]

…And the Ugly.

Last of the nine kinden who play a significant part in Empireare the Scorpions. Significant? Well perhaps their significance is their non-appearance. There are plenty of them, and they keep turning up and showing their nasty, toothy faces, and yet what impact do they make? The Scorpions care nothing for empires, for borders, morality, politics or […]

An Old Man in a Lean Season, by Adrian Tchaikovsky

So, after confirming that I wouldn't be using major characters from the books in these, here's a story about Hokiak. Well, perhaps he's not a maincharacter, but he certainly is persistent. This story has nothing whatsoever to do with postmodernist twentieth century poetry, and most especially nothing to do with TS Eliot(1). However, Eliot exerts a strange fascination on […]

Scorpion-kinden, by David Mumford

Scorpion-kinden live lives of violence, greed and savage joy. Raiders, traders, slave-takers and mercenaries, they can be found making a brutal living across the Empire, the Spiderlands and the eastern Lowlands. Clawed and belligerent, they respect only strength. For the old, the weak, the infirm of purpose, there is only death or flight. So it is […]