Special: Adrian Tchaikovsky on Non-Human Intelligences

We’re back with another special interview episode. This time, Scott talks to bestselling science fiction and fantasy author Adrian Tchaikovsky. In particular, they discuss how Tchaikovsky portrays a wide range of non-human characters in his work and how we might apply this to gaming. During the course of the conversation, we go into how Tchaikovsky’s career has moved from fantasy to science fiction, what his work owes to his experience as a GM, and just how gaming has led to him narrating some of his own audiobooks. On the way, Tchaikovsky offers an impassioned defence of arthropods as protagonists, insights into how cosmic horror relates to science fiction, and his opinions about how Lovecraft had the best monsters. Links Things we mention in this episode include: Books by Adrian Tchaikovsky * Children of Time* Cage of Souls* Shards of Earth* Made Things* Walking to Aldebaran* Dogs of War* Spiderlight* Bear Head* Shadows of the Apt* Children of Ruin* One Day All This Will Be Yours Other Links * Dancers at the End of Time by Michael Moorcock* The Dying Earth by Jack Vance* Zothique by Clark Ashton Smith* Viriconium by M John Harrison* Power of Three by Diana Wynne Jones* Battle Beyond the Stars (1980)* Starship Troopers by Robert A Heinlein* The Iron Dream by Norman Spinrad* Starship Troopers (1997)* “The Litany of Earth” by Ruthanna Emrys* Winter Tide by Ruthanna Emrys* The Laundry Files by Charles Stross *