REDEMPTION’S BLADE

The high price of peace

RELEASED 26 JULY 367 pages | Paperback

Author adrian Tchaikovsky Publisher solaris Books

set in the aftermath of a long, destructive war against a demigod called the Kinslayer, Redemption’s Blade asks a question rarely posed in fantasy: once you’ve won the fight, how do you win the peace?

Adrian Tchaikovsky’s heroine, Celestaine, the Champion of Forinth, is uncomfortable with the mantle of hero recently bestowed for her role in the Kinslayer’s defeat, as victory has left her fundamentally unfulfilled. She sets out to restore one of the races who suffered most harshly under the Kinslayer’s rule, the Aethani, a quest that leads her to lands permanently scarred by conflict.

Fortunately, Tchaikovsky isn’t interested in creating a catalogue of misery, even amid the blighted communities he describes with such clarity. Celestaine remains stubbornly optimistic despite the odds mounted against her, and the tone is kept well out of the dark by a lively supporting cast. This includes Heno and Nedlam, two of the Kinslayer’s former soldiers from the troll-like Yorughan race, who encounter suspicion and hostility from the humans; Catt and Fisher, charming if duplicitous collectors of arcane antiquities; and Amkulyah, an Aethani prince who’s been robbed of his pride.

Celestaine is sufficiently self-aware to question her own motives, while the two Yorughan have far more complex inner lives than their brutish exteriors suggest. Dialogue is snappy and brisk without crossing the line into self-conscious banter. Worldbuilding is marvellously detailed without being cumbersome. And the action is thrilling, combining magical spells and the more prosaic act of battering people with swords and clubs; the final climactic showdown is breathlessly intense. A superb addition to Tchaikovsky’s impressive bibliography, one that blends high adventure with real emotional weight.

Redemption’s Blade begins shared-world series After The War. Justina Robson’s Salvation’s Fire follows in September.