The Expert System’s Champion by Adrian Tchaikovsky

[Vertigo]

The Expert System’s Champion is the second of two short books (currently) in Tchaikovsky’s Expert System series. Short they may be, but he packs quite a lot into them. He really does seem to produce very good books in this shorter novella kind of format.

Handry’s order of Cain has matured and established an uneasy relationship with the villages but now something new has appeared.

The characters are good and as well drawn as you could hope for in the relatively few pages (around 140 in my edition). As always Tchaikovsky seems to excel in creating weirdly intriguing but plausible alien creatures. And this time he gives the reader a little more background on the origins of humanity on this alien planet.

A very good easy reading book that can be consumed in just one or two sittings. It will be interesting to see if he produces more in this quite fascinating universe.



4/5 stars

 

[Rodders]

I've been watching these books come up a lot on my Amazon list and i've been somewhat curious about them. I'll definitely get them on my next book haul.

 

[Vertigo]

I've been watching these books come up a lot on my Amazon list and i've been somewhat curious about them. I'll definitely get them on my next book haul.

They're only short, both of them are around 150 pages. So no great epic but it's a fascinating world he's created. And quite possibly a rather more realistic look at humans' ability to exist in a completely alien environment, in terms of how our bodies would react to alien proteins etc. I would also add that although the book titles are quite literal they don't really give the correct sense of the books. They are absolutely not about nerds programming expert systems!