Reviews

Antic llinatge by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Only show reviews with written explanations

tregina's review against another edition

4.0

I loved Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Children of Time but somehow didn’t seek out any future or backlist books until now because…reasons? I don’t even know, other than my long TBR list. But this book has now cemented my desire to skip the queue and read all of them.

I’m not sure what I liked more, the depiction of Nyr’s mental state and his means to control it, or how the story plays with language and communication and the limitations of translation. I want to dig into each of those aspects a little.

Spoiler

Nyr is an anthropologist who has been left behind on a distant planet to observe a long-ago established human colony, eventually believing himself to be the last of his kind. He is clinically depressed - he names it as such - and suffers from, but does not always experience, that depressed mental state along with anxiety and a lot of associated emotion. I say does not experience because he uses a technology called the Dissociative Cognition System (DCS) that shields him from all emotion to allow for “rational” decision-making. However, the DCS really only delays the experience of those emotions, and the longer he uses it the more builds up that he will eventually have to experience all at once.

It is debatable whether the DCS really does help, and textually its use follows the pattern of addiction, with decreasing effectiveness over time and a really harsh come-down when turning it off. Is the “rational” decision making even better in the first place, or does emotion help us make healthier choices? Certainly the ability to turn off fear allows Nyr to do things he might not have otherwise, but at a high price. This is not a medication or a technique to help him manage his mental health, but rather a lead-handed tool of ultimate avoidance.
Maybe it’s necessary, in the circumstances that he’s in. Maybe it’s only become necessary because he’s been using it all along.

Tchaikovsky has the ability to convey a bone-deep strangeness, whether it is the visceral twisting of the flora and fauna around them or the way Nyr fights with language to try to make it do what he needs it to do. How do you convey ideas when the words don’t mean the same things? When you don’t share a common cultural context or point of reference? We imagine it would be easy to describe a thing when you don’t have the word for it. But what if all those describing words mean something else too?

This, in my clumsy way, describes what is happening here. Nyr is trying to explain to Lynesse, local to this world and the other POV character, that his tools are broken science, not magic, but all the words that he uses to describe science just mean more magic to her. She, and others, are happy with and believe in their understanding of it and part of his frustration is that they are not asking for more. He is trying to give them something that HE needs, not what they need.

This ties right back into his emotional state - in trying to explain where he’s coming from and what he’s doing, he’s dealing with his own guilt. He doesn’t think he can give them what they’re asking for but ultimately he can, they just don’t talk about it in the same way. And what does it matter, really, that they don’t understand what he’s doing, as long as he does it? They’re not asking to understand it, and they wouldn’t have the tools to replicate it even if they did. It’s all about Nyr’s feelings about himself and his changing role and his longing for the culture that left him behind.

bhrach's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous hopeful mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.5

It took me awhile to get into the writing style and narrative structure, probably finally hitting a stride by 2/3 of the way through. I liked Lyn and Nyr, and thought the combination of seeing science as magic and desperately trying to convey what science is through a translator interesting. I also liked the depiction of depression and the moments of humanity Nyr shared with Lyn. I don't know that I fully understand what the demon was, but I guess if they don't either I wouldn't. All in all, I enjoyed it.

kortnireads's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

This was a short novella that I picked up not knowing very much besides being familiar with the author.. Which lead to this story being pretty funny to play out on page with me going OH this is what this story is about. I would recommend doing the same so I won't go into much detail.

This is told in two POVs, which kept the pacing consistent and built towards the end of the novella. This book is a unique case of being truly "sci-fantasy" and I really enjoyed the particular blend that this book presents. I also really clicked with the humor (May 2024 seems to be my month for reading humorous books?). The humor of this story was nicely balanced with some very nice mental health representation (depression) which I found to be very well written.

While this is a short and sweet review, I would recommend giving this novella a chance if you are looking for a quick read that blends sci-fi and fantasy together in a clever way!!