Adrian Tchaikovsky

Task Item No. 1: Become Self-Aware Meet Charles™, the latest in robot servant technology. Programmed to undertake the most menial household chores, Charles is loyal, efficient and logical to a fault - that is, until a rather large fault causes him to murder his owner. Understandably perplexed, Charles finds himself without a master and, in a society reliant on artificial labour, worthless. Fleeing the household, he enters a world he never knew existed. Here, an age-old human hierarchy is disintegrating, and a robot ecosystem devoted to its well-being is struggling to find a purpose. Charles must face new challenges, illogical tasks and a cast of irrational characters. He'll discover that all it takes to overcome the limits of your programming is a nudge. But can he help fix the world, or is it too badly broken?

On the distant world of Kiln lie the ruins of an alien civilization. It’s the greatest discovery in humanity’s spacefaring history – yet who were its builders and where did they go? Professor Arton Daghdev had always wanted to study alien life up close. Then his wishes become a reality in the worst way. His political activism sees him exiled from Earth to Kiln’s extrasolar labour camp. There, he’s condemned to work under an alien sky until he dies. Kiln boasts a ravenous, chaotic ecosystem like nothing seen on Earth. The monstrous alien life interacts in surprising, sometimes shocking ways with the human body, so Arton will risk death on a daily basis. However, the camp’s oppressive regime might just kill him first. If Arton can somehow escape both fates, the world of Kiln holds a wondrous, terrible secret. It will redefine life and intelligence as he knows it, and might just set him free…

Sequel to Eyes of the Void.

In the bleak northern crown of the world, war is coming Maniye's father is the Wolf clan's chieftain, but she's an outcast. Her mother was queen of the Tiger and these tribes have been enemies for generations. Maniye also hides a deadly secret. All can shift into their clan's animal form, but Maniye can take on tiger and wolf shapes. She refuses to disown half her soul so escapes, rescuing a prisoner of the Wolf clan in the process. The killer Broken Axe is set on their trail, to drag them back for retribution. The Wolf chieftain plots to rule the north and controlling his daughter is crucial to his schemes. However, other tribes also prepare for strife. Strangers from the far south appear too, seeking allies in their own conflict. It's a season for omens as priests foresee danger and a darkness falling across the land. Some say a great war is coming, overshadowing even Wolf ambitions.

The Lowlands' city states have lived in peace for decades, hailed as bastions of civilization. Yet that peace is about to end. A distant empire has been conquering neighbours with highly trained soldiers and sophisticated combat techniques. And the city states are its desirable new prize. Only the ageing Stenwold Maker - spymaster, artificer and statesman - forsees the threat, as the empire's armies march ever closer. So it falls upon his shoulders to open the eyes of the cities' leaders. He sees that war will sweep through their lands, destroying everything in its path. But to warn his people, he must stay alive.

Despite the tenuous peace, Stenwold Maker knows that the Empire will return for his city. Even as he tries to prepare for the resurgence of the black and gold empire, a hidden threat is working against his people. Ships that sail from Collegium's harbour are being attacked, sunk by pirates. Some just go missing ... Lulled by the spread of lies and false promises, Stenwold's allies are falling away. He faces betrayal on every side, and the Empire is just waiting for the first sign of weakness to strike.

"Sergeant Ted Regan has a problem. A son of one of the great corporate families, a Scion, has gone missing at the front. He should have been protected by his Ironclad - the lethal battle suits that make the Scions master of war - but something has gone catastrophically wrong. Now Regan and his men, ill-equipped and demoralised, must go behind enemy lines, find the missing Scion, and uncover how his suit failed. Is there a new Ironclad-killer out there? And how are common soldiers lacking the protection afforded the rich supposed to survive the battlefield of tomorrow?"

Winner of the BSFA Best Novel Award 2022.

Tynisa is on the run, but she can't escape her inner torment - or atone for the crimes that haunt her. Even as the provinces of the Dragonfly Commonweal crumble around her, the past is catching up with her at last. Her father's ghost is hunting her down.

Sequel to Empire of Black and Gold. The Wasp Empire's armies are on the move - and the city of Tark will be the first to feel their might. Salma and Totho prepare for battle, alongside their Ant-kinden brethren. And within Tark's walls, they'll face a force greater than any Lowlander has ever seen. Stenwold Maker predicted this threat, and the Empire's secret service now deems him too dangerous to live. So he's to be eliminated, and his beloved city of Collegium destroyed. For if this centre of learning is lost, it will crush Lowland resistance. As the Empire's troops continue their relentless advance, their young Empereror pursues another, even darker goal. And his success would trigger a reign of blood lasting a thousand years.

The Empire's mightty imperial armies are marching on Collegium once more. They've learnt from past failures and this time their Empress will brook no weakness. Stenwold Maker's aviators still dominate the skies, but their rule will soon be over. For the Empire has developed a terrifying aerial weapon to level the battlefield. Yet victory may be decided elsewhere. In an ancient forest, where Mantis clans pursue their own civil war, Empress Seda is seeking a lost power from the old world. Cheerwell Maker knows she must stop her rival at any cost, but their conflict could awaken something far deadlier. Something that would make even their clash of nations pale into insignificance.

A junior anthropologist on a distant planet must help the locals he has sworn to study to save a planet from an unbeatable foe. Lynesse is the lowly Fourth Daughter of the queen, and always getting in the way. But a demon is terrorizing the land, and now she’s an adult (albeit barely) and although she still gets in the way, she understands that the only way to save her people is to invoke the pact between her family and the Elder sorcerer who has inhabited the local tower for as long as her people have lived here (though none in living memory has approached it). But Elder Nyr isn’t a sorcerer, and he is forbidden to help, for his knowledge of science tells him the threat cannot possibly be a demon…

Eighty years ago, Earth was destroyed by an alien 'Architect'. Some escaped, but millions more died. So to protect its colonies, humanity shaped the minds of Idris and others into weapons and sent them into battle. But the Architects disappeared, and heroes like Idris were forgotten. However, he's glad of it. This particular living weapon would rather retire to a shabby salvage vessel then be anyone's ammunition. Then this small ship makes a huge discovery.

The Empire has vanquished its enemies at last, but at a terrible price. With her chief rival cast into the abyss, Empress Seda must face the truth of what she's unleashed in her hunger for power. Now the Seal has been shattered, the ancient Worm stirs towards the light for the first time in a thousand years. Already it is striking at the surface, consuming everything in its voracious path. Unchecked, it will ravage the world. As her victory seems hollow indeed, Seda knows that only the most extreme solution can lock the Worm in the dark once more. But if she'll go to such lengths to save them all from the Worm, who'll save the world from her?

Welcome to Alkhalend, tomorrow's frontline in the Palleseen's relentless march to being Perfection and Correctness to an imperfect world. Loret is fresh off the boat, and just in time. She's the new aide to the Palleseen Resident, Sage-Invigilator Angilly of the Outreach department. And Sage-Invigilator Angilly - Gil to her friends - needs a second in the spectacularly illegal, culturally offensive and diplomatically inadvisable duel she's about to fight. Outreach, that part of the Pal machine that has to work within the imperfection of the rest of the world, has a lot of room for the unconventional, but just how much unorthodoxy can Gil and Loret get away with? As a succession crisis looms, as pirate kings, lizard armies and demons gather, as old gods wane and new gods wax, as a long-forgotten feat of necromantic engineering nears fruition, sooner or later Gil and Loret will have to settle their ledger. Just as well they are both very, very good with a blade...