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The first review on GR! :)
I was pretty thrilled to get the copy on Netgalley. So much so that I had to read it the same day. Am I nuts? Or am I just a Firewalker at heart?
Gritty, depressing, and like a Hobbsian nightmare, these people live in a hothouse city on life support, barely kept alive because it is the base and the tether to the orbiting space station. Its people barely scrape by while the Roach Motel that takes in all the dignitaries and the rich are kept in Air Conditioned luxury.
Sound ...more
I was pretty thrilled to get the copy on Netgalley. So much so that I had to read it the same day. Am I nuts? Or am I just a Firewalker at heart?
Gritty, depressing, and like a Hobbsian nightmare, these people live in a hothouse city on life support, barely kept alive because it is the base and the tether to the orbiting space station. Its people barely scrape by while the Roach Motel that takes in all the dignitaries and the rich are kept in Air Conditioned luxury.
Sound ...more
I often say that novellas are tricky beasts, caught between the land of novels that really allow you to flesh out a story and short stories that allow for the perfect episodic feel. Novellas occupy that middle ground, where you need to find that Goldilocks sweet spot — with just enough story and characters that don’t suffocate under the demands of the shorter length. Tchaikovsky gets it pretty perfect here. It’s just well-developed enough and paced right, reading in the the end as a well-crafted
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Wow, what a weird little tale - but still delightful!
Earth in the future. An almost entirely dry and scorched place. And where there isn't a shortage of water, you're drowned in gigantic, violent floods.
At the Anchor (where a certain important ship is anchored at the equator), only the ultra-righ have water and air-conditioning. The rest have to scramble to survive from day to day. The bravest of these people are even sent into the deserts to repair tech (like solar panels). They are called Fire ...more
Earth in the future. An almost entirely dry and scorched place. And where there isn't a shortage of water, you're drowned in gigantic, violent floods.
At the Anchor (where a certain important ship is anchored at the equator), only the ultra-righ have water and air-conditioning. The rest have to scramble to survive from day to day. The bravest of these people are even sent into the deserts to repair tech (like solar panels). They are called Fire ...more
I've given up trying to predict in advance what a new Adrian Tchaikovsky story will be about and what the world the story inhabits might look like. The only thing I know will be true is that it will be an imaginative and richly textured piece of work.
That's not to say everything he writes is a hit for me. I didn't care for Walking to Aldebaran (and I'm in the minority on that), but I loved Dogs of War. His novels Children of Time and the more recent Cage of Souls are both masterful works that, f ...more
That's not to say everything he writes is a hit for me. I didn't care for Walking to Aldebaran (and I'm in the minority on that), but I loved Dogs of War. His novels Children of Time and the more recent Cage of Souls are both masterful works that, f ...more
In a world ravaged by climate change a settlement at the base of a space elevator provides one of the few marginally habitable places for the remnants of humanity. The richest have already gone up the elevator and are waiting to go the stars, but the remnants struggle on Earth. For the most resourceful, clever and above all else, expendable, there's work to be had to go out into the uninhabitable terrain as a Firewalker. For the small group we follow, Mao, Lupé and Hotep, they'll get an opportun
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Every time I read a story by this author, I know I’m getting something interesting, and usually a new interpretation of our future. I’ve enjoyed his many what-if scenarios so far, and this time, we get a future where the majority of humans (or what’s left of them) live precarious, short lives on earth at the mercy of increasingly inhospitable climates. The setting is Ankara, which is the site of one of the world’s space elevators, to which a space ship is tethered at its top. The rich, naturally
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Tchaikovsky has this ability to seemingly effortlessly pump out supremely interesting and unique science fiction.
I really loved FIREWALKERS! I bought it a few months ago because a few folks in the SpecFic Buddy Reads group were reading it, and because I stan for Adrian - also Book Depository were selling signed copies, and I'm a sucker.
FIREWALKERS is set on a future Earth where (presumably global warming?) has resulted in the planet heating up and a growing band around the equator turning into t ...more
I really loved FIREWALKERS! I bought it a few months ago because a few folks in the SpecFic Buddy Reads group were reading it, and because I stan for Adrian - also Book Depository were selling signed copies, and I'm a sucker.
FIREWALKERS is set on a future Earth where (presumably global warming?) has resulted in the planet heating up and a growing band around the equator turning into t ...more
Mind-blowing Sci-fi deserves 5 stars in my book!
Good story but a hard audio. The voice for Hotep was screamingly loud at times and extended words oddly. Really hard to listen to on the go.
Sep 06, 2020
Cindy
marked it as to-read
Nov 23, 2020
Vavita
marked it as to-read
Feb 01, 2021
Andrew Tucker
marked it as tbr-backlog
Sep 07, 2022
Dayna
marked it as to-read
Jun 24, 2024
Juliana
marked it as to-read
Aug 18, 2024
Niki Hawkes - The Obsessive Bookseller
marked it as to-read
