A review by lauracooleyjohnson
Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky

3.0

I do not precisely recall how this particular novella made it onto my TBR pile. It is a mash up of science fiction (satellites and robots and future tech like regeneration) and fantasy (heroes and princesses with swords, and of course a magician). The clever thing here is that the magician isn’t really magical, but simply an anthropologist from a super high tech civilization sent to observe but not interfere with our quaint princess and her cute fairy tales. I’m betting this title got recommended because I liked the Murderbot diaries. The anthropologist “magician” protagonist Nyr has a lot in common with the quirky AI Murderbot. But I give it 3 stars. Maybe 3.5. The story has a lot of potential and the character arc for Nyr is solid and rewarding. But somehow there were holes in the telling; things aren’t entirely explored or explained and as a result I’m not feeling especially fulfilled from the read.