Elder Race (Elder Race #1), by Adrian Tchaikovsky

  While I enjoyed the Adrian Tchaikovsky novels and series I've read, I think I like this kind of novellas the most. In Elder Race we get a deconstruction of royalty asking help from the powerful wizard against a demonic threat trope. But in fact, this is one of the human diaspora colonies and there is no magic, only science and people who have forgotten it, yet the focus is on the internal perspectives of the characters and how they look at the same event from completely different places.

  I was a little surprised to see that this is part of a series. It felt standalone and, if anything, it should have been considered part of the general universe of the forgotten human colonies (Children of Time) rather than a separate Elder Race series. Anyway, I don't think that it required a continuation. As it is, we see the wizard who is actually an observer from the second wave of human expansion being beseeched by the local princess (of a culture regressed from the first wave) against evil magical forces encroaching on the human settlements. The princess has to prove herself in front of her family and the scientist has his own demons while he is battling clinical depression. Being completely alone on the planet and waking up every couple of centuries certainly doesn't help.

  The things lost in translation between the princess and the scientist is what makes this book shine and to feel different from just another fantasy story told from a modern scientific perspective. It examines the deeper interaction between people, transcending the pure science fiction angle. Now I am reading another novella from the guy and it's similar, but deconstructing Narnia type tropes. While I enjoy following longer narratives, I feel that this kind of short explorations of ideas is where sci-fi really stands out. Good stuff!