Tor takes two from ‘master storyteller’ Tchaikovsky

Tor has scooped two “magnificent”, currently untitled, novels by Adrian Tchaikovsky. 

Publisher Bella Pagan acquired world rights from Simon Kavanagh at the Mic Cheetham Agency. 

The first “ambitious” adventure follows a political dissident as he’s exiled from Earth to a remote prison planet. The synopsis reads: “Professor Arton Daghdev studies alien life. He also vehemently opposes Earth’s oppressive government. And when he’s arrested for his views, he’s sentenced to labour on the mysterious world of Kiln. Once there, an accident sees him and a work group abandoned in the planet’s outback, where they are infected by alien botany. As they struggle back to base, the boundaries between now and the past become unreliable; fluid. Even the landscape shifts and changes. Yet if Arton can retain his sanity, he may discover just why the ruins in the planet’s interior were abandoned – and where their lost builders are now. He might carry these dangerous secrets back to Earth. But he won’t be the same man who left.”

Tchaikovsky said: “This book gave me the chance to explore two particular science fiction interests of mine in very new ways. Speculative biology and social upheaval are the two key themes of Arton’s journey as he navigates the brutal prison camp and the tangled alien biosphere – all the while trying to solve the puzzle of a baffling and vanished alien civilisation. It’s an intense book full of the weird, the oppressive and the revelatory.”

Pagan commented: “Reading a Tchaikovsky novel is an experience like no other. The breadth of his imagination will leave you awestruck, as he unfolds worlds within worlds. But you’ll also be swept away by his relatable, complex characters as they navigate the grand adventures in store. These new books will be Adrian’s best yet, as his storytelling goes from strength to strength.” 

Tchaikovsky’s fantasy title, City of Last Chances, was recently acquired by Head of Zeus’ Ad Astra imprint.