You might think from today’s title that we have put together a composite list of our top books by site favorite author Adrian Tchaikovsky, which is a great idea for a post we should do. However, today I am reviewing a new short story collection from Subterranean Press, all by the weird and magical author Adrian Tchaikovsky.
The Best of Adrian Tchaikovsky is a forty-ish short story collection that is divided into six sections. These sections are: Science Fiction (Broken Tomorrows), Fantasy (Down and Dirty), Weirdness (Reality Gone Wrong), Weirdness (The Casebook of Walther Cohen), Fantasy (High Magic), and Science Fiction (Final Frontier). My enjoyment of these stories had a fairly wide range, but the range went from enjoyable to some of the best short stories I have ever read. Tchaikovsky is already established as an excellent short story and novella writer, and this archive of his works is a generally delightful read. Some of the additional bonus content of the collection includes some small commentary by Tchaikovsky around each of the sections that was illuminating to his writing journey.
This entire collection is an excellent highlight of the range and power that Tchaikovsky has, spanning multiple entrenched genres and also pushing at the boundaries of established genre fiction. My personal favorite story was the first short in Weirdness (Reality Gone Wrong), which was the most British thing I have ever read. It is about a man sitting on a train that keeps pulling into the same station over and over and fighting against the overwhelming societal pressure to simply keep calm and carry on.
Science Fiction (Broken Tomorrows) is a collection of stories about dystopias and all too soon, terrible futures that we might be facing. This set starts off the collection with a bang, being filled with mostly heavy hitters. I particularly loved the short about a set of automotons enforcing the rules of a farm well past its intended use. It managed to be both snarky and fun while also being horrifying and thought-provoking.
Fantasy (Down and Dirty) was designed to be a collection of Tchaikovsky’s low fantasy shorts, but I feel I need to point out that of the seven stories in this section, five are about traveling theater troupes. Not the same troupe, five separate, completely different stories about troupes. At first, I thought this felt repetitive, but then each story turned out to be an absolute banger. The one Tchaikovsky did for disability awareness is one of his best. So, fine, you got me Tchaikovsky, I guess traveling theater troupes are pretty amazing.
Weirdness (Reality Gone Wrong) is one of the strongest sets of stories in the collection, and as I mentioned above showcases my favorite short out of the whole book. These stories are the hardest to categorize and are the most experimental in their nature. Each short here explores weird and horrifying spaces and feels both fun and fresh.
On the other hand, Weirdness (The Casebook of Walther Cohen) was my least favorite collection of the set. The only novellas with a throughline, all of these stories are about an alternative reality Sherlock Holmes as he and Watson tackle a series of paranormal ghost crimes. There is nothing wrong with this set of shorts; I just didn’t find them as standout or as exciting as any of the other sections. The entire set felt safer and more tried and true, but there is nothing ever wrong with a Sherlock adaptation.
The last two sections, Fantasy (High Magic) and Science Fiction (Final Frontier), are short epics in both of the respective genres. These are Tchaikovsky’s most traditional fantasy and science fiction shorts, and I found that they had the highest variability. These two sections each held one of my favorite shorts of the entire set, and had others that I could have probably skipped.
Tallying the final results, I would give this collection a solidly strong score that I think almost any reader could enjoy. While I think an entire collection devoted to a single author usually has a high potential for getting stale, Tchaikovsky has such range and vision that there is never even the slightest chance that his work ever feels repetitive. The Best of Adrian Tchaikovsky serves both as a great introduction to one of our favorite authors if this is your first time engaging with him and as a wonderful tribute to long-time fans who will greatly enjoy this collection.
Rating: The Best of Adrian Tchaikovsky – 8.5/10
-Andrew
An ARC of this book was provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The thoughts on this book are my own.
