Elder Race
{5/5} “When I appear, everyone abruptly defers to me, and I realize that I, as the putative victim of their crimes, am expected to have some hand in the judicial process. This is, of course, just piling contamination on contamination. I am, frankly, not only the last but the worst anthropologist. I’m lucky nobody is coming back to read my reports. I’d be on the first ship home.”
Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky, published in 2021
Lynesse Fourth Daughter visits the Tower of Nyrgoth Elder to get his help as a sorcerer. He made a pact with her family, although it was so long ago it might be myth.
In reality, Nyr is a member of a different branch of humanity with advanced technology. It’s true that he helped Lyn’s great grandmother but he considers his behaviour at the time to be unprofessional.
Tchaikovsky is a master storyteller, and this short novel is delightful.
It’s about what happens when someone counted useless among her peers meets someone who has been asleep for 300 years and is alone in the universe. It’s about what happens when your words get translated but there are no words for certain things in the other language.
I’ve read 4 books by Tchaikovsky. I previously reviewed The Doors of Eden.