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The Tyrant Philosophers #4
Pretenders to the Throne of God
Not yet published
Expected 10 Mar 26Arthur C. Clarke winner and Sunday Times bestseller returns to a world steeped in magic – and the Tyrant Philosophers' campaign to bring reason, logic and 'perfection' to it.
Eres Ffenegh - “the City on the Back of a Crab” - is the next state slated for conquest by the Palleseen, but its citizens won't give up sovereignty easily, and the siege has now dragged into the harsh Eresi winter. The defenders – both locals and Pal renegades – hold an uneasy alliance against the enemy at the gates, while the Pal army is constantly looking over its shoulder for the next self-destructive dictate of their government back home.
Within the city, Devil Jack is the apprentice to the notorious conjurer and bawd known as the Widow, a good man driven to bargaining with hell to get back what he's lost. Meanwhile Kiffel ea Leachan is the city's champion, a child of privilege who's just lost everything to the invaders. We follow the ups and downs of both as they try to survive the siege and make their own destinies in a world that's cut them loose.
Outside the city, the Pals have been desperately waiting for reinforcements so they can finally take the city, but when new soldiers finally march in with the winter it's the worst kind of help, enough to damn the entire army.
THE TYRANT PHILOSOPHERS
1. City of Last Chances: portrait of Ilmar, a city under Palleseen occupation
2. House of Open Wounds: portrait of the Palleseen war machine at work.
3. Days of Shattered Faith: portrait of a kingdom consumed, piece-by-piece, by Palleseen diplomatic subterfuge.
3.1 Lives of Bitter Rain: a prequel novella to Days of Shattered Faith, portrait of a life in the Palleseen diplomatic corps.
4. Pretenders to the Throne of God: portrait of a city under siege.
5. The Grave of Perfection: will take us back to Ilmar, the 'City of Last Chances' where our story began.
Eres Ffenegh - “the City on the Back of a Crab” - is the next state slated for conquest by the Palleseen, but its citizens won't give up sovereignty easily, and the siege has now dragged into the harsh Eresi winter. The defenders – both locals and Pal renegades – hold an uneasy alliance against the enemy at the gates, while the Pal army is constantly looking over its shoulder for the next self-destructive dictate of their government back home.
Within the city, Devil Jack is the apprentice to the notorious conjurer and bawd known as the Widow, a good man driven to bargaining with hell to get back what he's lost. Meanwhile Kiffel ea Leachan is the city's champion, a child of privilege who's just lost everything to the invaders. We follow the ups and downs of both as they try to survive the siege and make their own destinies in a world that's cut them loose.
Outside the city, the Pals have been desperately waiting for reinforcements so they can finally take the city, but when new soldiers finally march in with the winter it's the worst kind of help, enough to damn the entire army.
THE TYRANT PHILOSOPHERS
1. City of Last Chances: portrait of Ilmar, a city under Palleseen occupation
2. House of Open Wounds: portrait of the Palleseen war machine at work.
3. Days of Shattered Faith: portrait of a kingdom consumed, piece-by-piece, by Palleseen diplomatic subterfuge.
3.1 Lives of Bitter Rain: a prequel novella to Days of Shattered Faith, portrait of a life in the Palleseen diplomatic corps.
4. Pretenders to the Throne of God: portrait of a city under siege.
5. The Grave of Perfection: will take us back to Ilmar, the 'City of Last Chances' where our story began.
512 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication February 12, 2026
1339 people want to read
About the author
Adrian Tchaikovsky
191 books17.5k followersADRIAN TCHAIKOVSKY was born in Lincolnshire and studied zoology and psychology at Reading, before practising law in Leeds. He is a keen live role-player and occasional amateur actor and is trained in stage-fighting. His literary influences include Gene Wolfe, Mervyn Peake, China Miéville, Mary Gently, Steven Erikson, Naomi Novak, Scott Lynch and Alan Campbell.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
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October 22, 2025THERES ANOTHER ONE????????????
🎉 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
🎉 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
November 26, 2025
Can I give this ten stars?
Adrian Tchaikovsky is one of my favourite authors. The Tyrant Philosophers is my favourite of his series. Yasnic is my favourite of his characters. So give me a book that centres around him, and what can I do but love it?
I'm always amazed at how this world can balance so many stories but still feel cohesive. I'm amazed at how I care about every character, not just including but especially the most flawed. I thought the previous books in the series were faultless, but this might be my new favourite.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for sharing, but mostly thanks to AT for creating such a masterpiece. (I swear I'd read a book of Yasnic and God watching paint dry.) More, please!
Adrian Tchaikovsky is one of my favourite authors. The Tyrant Philosophers is my favourite of his series. Yasnic is my favourite of his characters. So give me a book that centres around him, and what can I do but love it?
I'm always amazed at how this world can balance so many stories but still feel cohesive. I'm amazed at how I care about every character, not just including but especially the most flawed. I thought the previous books in the series were faultless, but this might be my new favourite.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for sharing, but mostly thanks to AT for creating such a masterpiece. (I swear I'd read a book of Yasnic and God watching paint dry.) More, please!
November 14, 2025
It's another story about totalitarian Pals at the gates of a doomed, defiant city (sorta-Dublin?), but Mr T gets super-metal about it this time. I mean, even if you somehow ignore the title, Pretenders boasts The Lich Queen, God, The Kings Below, a Lycanthropist, and Devil Jack, and that's just the Dramatis Personae. Not everything hits that intensity, but Pretenders takes some big swings and mostly lands them, horns held high. 4.5 rounded up for attitude.
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Rest of review to follow.
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Rest of review to follow.
December 8, 2025
4.5 stars
Adrian Tchaikvosky gifts us with another delightful installment of The Tyrant Philosophers series.
I have such trust in Tchaikovsky. I don’t know what sort of demonic contract he has made to be able to write such spectacular fantasy books in such a short span of time, but everything he touches turns to gold.
The dramatically titled Pretenders to the Throne of God takes place in the winter of a city called Eres Ffenegh, which is built on the back of a giant, dead, crab god. The colonial Pal forces see the city as yet another minor addition in their quest to “Perfect” the world. The city should be a relatively straightforward conquest, but a confluence of influences—alternately magical, mundane, noble, spurious, evil, and chaotic—change the course of events. It’s everything you would expect from this series, but it never feels stale. The characters (new and old) are exquisitely written, the worldbuilding is exciting and coherent, the plot is masterfully woven, and the themes are poignant.
I noted in my review of Days of Shattered Faith that the only way in which the series has suffered as it continues is the writing. Tchaikovsky proved himself a wordsmith in the first two books. His prose is straightforward and efficient when it needs to be, but he balances the economy with sly wordplay and profound beauty. He appears to be in a rush to get the story out onto the page in the past few books (understandable—I and many others are hungry to consume it), but this has come at the expense of his prose. It’s still effective but lacks the special quality of earlier books and suffers from permissive editing that refuses to reign in his constant use of superfluous adverbs such as “honestly” and “truly” and “probably.” The word “honestly” appears eighty-five times, and eighty of those times it serves no purpose whatsoever in the except to distract. It drove me up-the-wall. I was able to overlook it only because everything else about this book is in a league of its own. And there are still glimmers of the wit and beauty in his prose, so I know that if he slowed down a bit and hired a better editor the writing improve markedly.
Don’t let my pedantic griping keep you from enjoying this book. I complain out of love, because I know he is capable of producing superb prose. I loved every minute of it and I cannot wait for the final installment.
Thank you, THANK YOU to NetGalley and Bloomsbury USA for providing me with an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Adrian Tchaikvosky gifts us with another delightful installment of The Tyrant Philosophers series.
I have such trust in Tchaikovsky. I don’t know what sort of demonic contract he has made to be able to write such spectacular fantasy books in such a short span of time, but everything he touches turns to gold.
The dramatically titled Pretenders to the Throne of God takes place in the winter of a city called Eres Ffenegh, which is built on the back of a giant, dead, crab god. The colonial Pal forces see the city as yet another minor addition in their quest to “Perfect” the world. The city should be a relatively straightforward conquest, but a confluence of influences—alternately magical, mundane, noble, spurious, evil, and chaotic—change the course of events. It’s everything you would expect from this series, but it never feels stale. The characters (new and old) are exquisitely written, the worldbuilding is exciting and coherent, the plot is masterfully woven, and the themes are poignant.
I noted in my review of Days of Shattered Faith that the only way in which the series has suffered as it continues is the writing. Tchaikovsky proved himself a wordsmith in the first two books. His prose is straightforward and efficient when it needs to be, but he balances the economy with sly wordplay and profound beauty. He appears to be in a rush to get the story out onto the page in the past few books (understandable—I and many others are hungry to consume it), but this has come at the expense of his prose. It’s still effective but lacks the special quality of earlier books and suffers from permissive editing that refuses to reign in his constant use of superfluous adverbs such as “honestly” and “truly” and “probably.” The word “honestly” appears eighty-five times, and eighty of those times it serves no purpose whatsoever in the except to distract. It drove me up-the-wall. I was able to overlook it only because everything else about this book is in a league of its own. And there are still glimmers of the wit and beauty in his prose, so I know that if he slowed down a bit and hired a better editor the writing improve markedly.
Don’t let my pedantic griping keep you from enjoying this book. I complain out of love, because I know he is capable of producing superb prose. I loved every minute of it and I cannot wait for the final installment.
Thank you, THANK YOU to NetGalley and Bloomsbury USA for providing me with an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
November 16, 2025
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.
Full review in progress; I will update here when finished with it.
Pre-order this nooooow.
Full review in progress; I will update here when finished with it.
Pre-order this nooooow.
November 27, 2025
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC. Another brilliant book following the Palleseen trying to perfect the world. Love the world building and the characters are brilliant. Not all likeable but definitely brilliantly written.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Tchaikovsky has done it again.
PRETENDERS is another triumphant entry in the Tyrant Philosophers series, this time in the middle of a siege of Eres Ffenegh, 'the City on the Back of a Crab'. This one, to me, feels much more similar to HOUSE OF OPEN WOUNDS than did its predecessor, as we have a bunch of returning characters and most of the action depends upon what came before in that book.
PRETENDERS is, despite taking place during a military action, almost a book about the aftermath of war, the prices that are levied against those who took part in the conflict, and the paying of the piper for those who are wrestling with the horrors they've had to commit in the name of victory. It's about what happens when you step over the line--again in the name of victory--and, now that victory's achieved, being scapegoated when the country for whom you cast aside your reservations needs to save face. It's about what's left for a soldier when they strip away that identity because they don't need you anymore.
Struggles with identity are all over this book, as the tides of battle ebb and flow, and people realize that they can be more than one thing and have loyalties in more than one camp. It's a story about stories, about who we are as people, and looking back on our history to see what we've become and how far we've strayed from an original vision.
PRETENDERS also has the most overt romance plot and it's handled so well that it actually ended up changing my mind about a character I had previously disliked.
This book feels like the culmination of everything that came before and I can't wait for where I think book 5 is headed. This is one of my favorite series, so go read it.
Thank you to HEAD OF ZEUS and NETGALLEY and the author for the ARC!
PRETENDERS is another triumphant entry in the Tyrant Philosophers series, this time in the middle of a siege of Eres Ffenegh, 'the City on the Back of a Crab'. This one, to me, feels much more similar to HOUSE OF OPEN WOUNDS than did its predecessor, as we have a bunch of returning characters and most of the action depends upon what came before in that book.
PRETENDERS is, despite taking place during a military action, almost a book about the aftermath of war, the prices that are levied against those who took part in the conflict, and the paying of the piper for those who are wrestling with the horrors they've had to commit in the name of victory. It's about what happens when you step over the line--again in the name of victory--and, now that victory's achieved, being scapegoated when the country for whom you cast aside your reservations needs to save face. It's about what's left for a soldier when they strip away that identity because they don't need you anymore.
Struggles with identity are all over this book, as the tides of battle ebb and flow, and people realize that they can be more than one thing and have loyalties in more than one camp. It's a story about stories, about who we are as people, and looking back on our history to see what we've become and how far we've strayed from an original vision.
PRETENDERS also has the most overt romance plot and it's handled so well that it actually ended up changing my mind about a character I had previously disliked.
This book feels like the culmination of everything that came before and I can't wait for where I think book 5 is headed. This is one of my favorite series, so go read it.
Thank you to HEAD OF ZEUS and NETGALLEY and the author for the ARC!
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Grateful to NetGalley and the author for the ARC of this book.
I have always preferred to wait for published books so the masses could pass the judgement, based on which I can pre-decide if a book was good or not and I just recently started discovering the wonders of ARCs - I realised that it is way better to read ARCs because I am not pre-biased about a book.
This book caught me off guard and I now want to be friends with the author. This kind of sardonic sense of humour is exactly my world. "Nobody ever got stabbed in the Lower City without someone calling them Friend right beforehand". *chef's kiss 🤌🏻*
I had some trouble with the unusual names at first, but the writing is so well-explained that I was still able to easily follow the story line.
I also really enjoyed the cuts between the seemingly unrelated or just losely-related scenes so far, waiting for everything to come together nicely. The writing style is somwehere between Joe Abercrombie and Terry Pratchett - what more one can wish for?
I also just realised when writing my GR review that this book is the 4th in a series, so I am now debating if I should abandon it half-way through and get the whole series to start over, or finish this book and then read the first 3 - because I am absolutely certain that I want to read everything from this author now.
I have always preferred to wait for published books so the masses could pass the judgement, based on which I can pre-decide if a book was good or not and I just recently started discovering the wonders of ARCs - I realised that it is way better to read ARCs because I am not pre-biased about a book.
This book caught me off guard and I now want to be friends with the author. This kind of sardonic sense of humour is exactly my world. "Nobody ever got stabbed in the Lower City without someone calling them Friend right beforehand". *chef's kiss 🤌🏻*
I had some trouble with the unusual names at first, but the writing is so well-explained that I was still able to easily follow the story line.
I also really enjoyed the cuts between the seemingly unrelated or just losely-related scenes so far, waiting for everything to come together nicely. The writing style is somwehere between Joe Abercrombie and Terry Pratchett - what more one can wish for?
I also just realised when writing my GR review that this book is the 4th in a series, so I am now debating if I should abandon it half-way through and get the whole series to start over, or finish this book and then read the first 3 - because I am absolutely certain that I want to read everything from this author now.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
This is the fourth book in the series, but also my first to read so I was thrown in at the deep end, not being familiar with characters and terminology and the different nations.
It's the story of a city - Eris Ffenegh ( the city on the Back of a Crab) under siege. Such is the superb story telling and writing I easily picked it all up and found it very involving and even poignant in parts. It was a rewarding read and now I need to go back to the beginning and read this series in order to understand the world building better plus read this one again. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Thanks so much to Head of Zeus and NetGalley for the ARC.
It's the story of a city - Eris Ffenegh ( the city on the Back of a Crab) under siege. Such is the superb story telling and writing I easily picked it all up and found it very involving and even poignant in parts. It was a rewarding read and now I need to go back to the beginning and read this series in order to understand the world building better plus read this one again. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Thanks so much to Head of Zeus and NetGalley for the ARC.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
The next instalment of the Tyrant Philosophers. Again intricate politics, magic and fantastic characters. Thank you to the author. Thank you to #netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Incredible. Every single book in this series gets better and better!!!
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews