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Terrible Worlds: Revolutions #2
Firewalkers
Firewalkers are brave. Firewalkers are resourceful. Firewalkers are expendable.
The Earth is burning. Nothing can survive at the Anchor; not without water and power. But the ultra-rich, waiting for their ride off the dying Earth? They can buy water. And thanks to their investment, the sun can provide power.
But someone has to repair the solar panels when they fail, down in the deserts below.
Kids like Mao, and Lupé, and Hotep; kids with brains and guts but no hope. The Firewalkers.
The Earth is burning. Nothing can survive at the Anchor; not without water and power. But the ultra-rich, waiting for their ride off the dying Earth? They can buy water. And thanks to their investment, the sun can provide power.
But someone has to repair the solar panels when they fail, down in the deserts below.
Kids like Mao, and Lupé, and Hotep; kids with brains and guts but no hope. The Firewalkers.
6 pages, Audiobook
First published May 12, 2020
248 people are currently reading
4808 people want to read
About the author
Adrian Tchaikovsky
191 books17.4k 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 - 30 of 399 reviews
February 12, 2020
The first review on GR! :)
I was pretty thrilled to get the copy on Netgalley. So much so that I had to read it the same day. Am I nuts? Or am I just a Firewalker at heart?
Gritty, depressing, and like a Hobbsian nightmare, these people live in a hothouse city on life support, barely kept alive because it is the base and the tether to the orbiting space station. Its people barely scrape by while the Roach Motel that takes in all the dignitaries and the rich are kept in Air Conditioned luxury.
Sounds rather familiar. Doesn't it? Well, Firewalkers are the ragged teams of poverty-ridden go-getters that fix the things that not even the robots can fix. They are the ones that get things working, but they're expendable and most of these young kids never come back from the near-apocalyptic desert surrounding the town.
The context is emotionally painful and takes up a large portion of the character building, but it's when the novella takes off into the wild that I was most thrilled.
I loved the tight team. I LOVED all the discoveries. No spoilers, but damn, Tchaikovsky has a huge fascination with creepy crawlies and programmed personalities, no?
The adventure is large, the stakes larger, and the end was super satisfying. I'm super glad I got my greedy hands on it.
'Nuff said.
I was pretty thrilled to get the copy on Netgalley. So much so that I had to read it the same day. Am I nuts? Or am I just a Firewalker at heart?
Gritty, depressing, and like a Hobbsian nightmare, these people live in a hothouse city on life support, barely kept alive because it is the base and the tether to the orbiting space station. Its people barely scrape by while the Roach Motel that takes in all the dignitaries and the rich are kept in Air Conditioned luxury.
Sounds rather familiar. Doesn't it? Well, Firewalkers are the ragged teams of poverty-ridden go-getters that fix the things that not even the robots can fix. They are the ones that get things working, but they're expendable and most of these young kids never come back from the near-apocalyptic desert surrounding the town.
The context is emotionally painful and takes up a large portion of the character building, but it's when the novella takes off into the wild that I was most thrilled.
I loved the tight team. I LOVED all the discoveries. No spoilers, but damn, Tchaikovsky has a huge fascination with creepy crawlies and programmed personalities, no?
The adventure is large, the stakes larger, and the end was super satisfying. I'm super glad I got my greedy hands on it.
'Nuff said.
February 14, 2021
I often say that novellas are tricky beasts, caught between the land of novels that really allow you to flesh out a story and short stories that allow for the perfect episodic feel. Novellas occupy that middle ground, where you need to find that Goldilocks sweet spot — with just enough story and characters that don’t suffocate under the demands of the shorter length. Tchaikovsky gets it pretty perfect here. It’s just well-developed enough and paced right, reading in the the end as a well-crafted snappy short novel rather than an oversized short story.
This is set in the near and plausible future, where climate change and global warming led to many parts of the planet becoming inhospitable to human life. Those belonging to select rich elites (future Musk and Bezos gagillionnaire kinds) have a way out — futuristic generation ships built in near orbit, ridiculously high-tech, that can admit those select few and eventually take them away from the messed up planet to those we haven’t messed up yet. The stations are tethered to space elevators, anchored on the otherwise barely habitable equator. The one known as Ankara Achouka, in West Africa, is an inhospitable place of searing temperatures and water shortage, slums built around the fancy air-conditioned hotel at the base of the space elevator, sustained only by their relevance as support infrastructure, powered by solar panel fields.
But those panels need maintenance, and the youngsters that are cheap and expendable (and not yet ravaged by cancers) can be enticed to go into scorching dry desert to fix the problems so that the rich can have their air conditioning. Those youngsters are the titular Firewalkers. And they may just discover something unexpected along their journey.
It’s a quick and easy read that does take a look at deep issues. Climate change, extremes of inequality, exploitation, culpability, responsibility and shaky grounds of morality. The continuing nightmare of people fighting for scraps from the masters’ table, hoping for some of the better fortune to trickle down despite all the evidence to the contrary, resigned to the fate of being second-class at best.
Adrian Tchaikovsky is a pretty versatile SF writer. He’s ridiculously smart as all of his books show. He’s also cleverly sarcastic and genuinely funny when he wants to be. And he seems to love morally ambiguous AI and all kinds of bugs (he of the sentient spiders fame). Compared with the other books of his that I’ve read, this one may be the most conventional, but despite that still feels fresh and imaginative — just with a bit less of the flight of fancy than my favorite Walking to Aldebaran or Children of Time. But it’s still rather good. (Except that one bit in the end that was unnecessary. Rare false note.)
Oh, and don’t be fooled by the younger age of the characters - they may be under 20, but it’s an adult read.
3.5 stars. Not the best Tchaikovsky but pretty darn alright.
“In older pictures he’d seen where the rivers had been: green, like some other planet entirely, as though before going off to live in space, humans had to first make their own world something alien and uninhabitable.”
This is set in the near and plausible future, where climate change and global warming led to many parts of the planet becoming inhospitable to human life. Those belonging to select rich elites (future Musk and Bezos gagillionnaire kinds) have a way out — futuristic generation ships built in near orbit, ridiculously high-tech, that can admit those select few and eventually take them away from the messed up planet to those we haven’t messed up yet. The stations are tethered to space elevators, anchored on the otherwise barely habitable equator. The one known as Ankara Achouka, in West Africa, is an inhospitable place of searing temperatures and water shortage, slums built around the fancy air-conditioned hotel at the base of the space elevator, sustained only by their relevance as support infrastructure, powered by solar panel fields.
But those panels need maintenance, and the youngsters that are cheap and expendable (and not yet ravaged by cancers) can be enticed to go into scorching dry desert to fix the problems so that the rich can have their air conditioning. Those youngsters are the titular Firewalkers. And they may just discover something unexpected along their journey.
“Except things broke down, even the robots that repaired the robots that repaired the robots. And the solution to that was to send kids to do a robot’s job and get things up and running.”
It’s a quick and easy read that does take a look at deep issues. Climate change, extremes of inequality, exploitation, culpability, responsibility and shaky grounds of morality. The continuing nightmare of people fighting for scraps from the masters’ table, hoping for some of the better fortune to trickle down despite all the evidence to the contrary, resigned to the fate of being second-class at best.
Adrian Tchaikovsky is a pretty versatile SF writer. He’s ridiculously smart as all of his books show. He’s also cleverly sarcastic and genuinely funny when he wants to be. And he seems to love morally ambiguous AI and all kinds of bugs (he of the sentient spiders fame). Compared with the other books of his that I’ve read, this one may be the most conventional, but despite that still feels fresh and imaginative — just with a bit less of the flight of fancy than my favorite Walking to Aldebaran or Children of Time. But it’s still rather good. (Except that one bit in the end that was unnecessary. Rare false note.)
Oh, and don’t be fooled by the younger age of the characters - they may be under 20, but it’s an adult read.
3.5 stars. Not the best Tchaikovsky but pretty darn alright.
“Because that’s what I saw, down there and running out of everything. I saw it was us or them. Us down there and them up here, pulling up the ladder we’d goddamn built for them so nobody could follow. And so I let loose the demon.”
February 20, 2024
This was everything I expect from this author.
Global warming has reduced Earth to a burning hot desert and people are escaping into space. Only the very rich of course and in the township where the space liners are built and anchored the poor people live a very different life, trying to stay cool while they provide the services needed to get the next ship into space.
Something or someone is draining the solar power sources and Mao, Lupe and Hotep are sent to solve the problem. No one could have guessed what was actually damaging the solar panels and the trio find themselves in a frightening and dangerous position. The discovery of an AI further complicates the whole affair.
Great fun! Tchaikovsky draws the reader in with interesting and fun characters, provides a great story and leaves with a very satisfactory ending. I enjoyed it very much.
Global warming has reduced Earth to a burning hot desert and people are escaping into space. Only the very rich of course and in the township where the space liners are built and anchored the poor people live a very different life, trying to stay cool while they provide the services needed to get the next ship into space.
Something or someone is draining the solar power sources and Mao, Lupe and Hotep are sent to solve the problem. No one could have guessed what was actually damaging the solar panels and the trio find themselves in a frightening and dangerous position. The discovery of an AI further complicates the whole affair.
Great fun! Tchaikovsky draws the reader in with interesting and fun characters, provides a great story and leaves with a very satisfactory ending. I enjoyed it very much.
May 1, 2021
Wow, what a weird little tale - but still delightful!
Earth in the future. An almost entirely dry and scorched place. And where there isn't a shortage of water, you're drowned in gigantic, violent floods.
At the Anchor (where a certain important ship is anchored at the equator), only the ultra-righ have water and air-conditioning. The rest have to scramble to survive from day to day. The bravest of these people are even sent into the deserts to repair tech (like solar panels). They are called Firewalkers.
We meet three such Firewalkers with different tragic backgrounds and, through them, learn about the terrible class system on Earth and in orbit.
One day, they are assigned yet another run that might kill them - only to find someone thought dead that opens a whole new possibility to get off planet and restart society as a whole.
If you think this is just another book about class and climate change, you better think again. Not only were the vices here very distinct (granted, also helped by the fantastic narrator of my audiobook), the whole idea of how the problem eventually gets "fixed" was ... unexpected. *lol*
We get AIs, gangs, impressive space tech, scrappy stuff, impossible pools and forests. We practically feel the heat and struggle and dispair and rage.
This might have even better than the author's other, more recent, novella. But they are both absolutely fantastic.
Earth in the future. An almost entirely dry and scorched place. And where there isn't a shortage of water, you're drowned in gigantic, violent floods.
At the Anchor (where a certain important ship is anchored at the equator), only the ultra-righ have water and air-conditioning. The rest have to scramble to survive from day to day. The bravest of these people are even sent into the deserts to repair tech (like solar panels). They are called Firewalkers.
We meet three such Firewalkers with different tragic backgrounds and, through them, learn about the terrible class system on Earth and in orbit.
One day, they are assigned yet another run that might kill them - only to find someone thought dead that opens a whole new possibility to get off planet and restart society as a whole.
If you think this is just another book about class and climate change, you better think again. Not only were the vices here very distinct (granted, also helped by the fantastic narrator of my audiobook), the whole idea of how the problem eventually gets "fixed" was ... unexpected. *lol*
We get AIs, gangs, impressive space tech, scrappy stuff, impossible pools and forests. We practically feel the heat and struggle and dispair and rage.
This might have even better than the author's other, more recent, novella. But they are both absolutely fantastic.
February 12, 2020
There can be little doubt that Adrian Tchaikovsky is among the most talented, creative and also versatile SFF authors of today.
In Firewalkers he crafts an utterly bleak world, devastated by runaway global warming that has rendered huge regions of the Earth uninhabitable desert, complete dead zones. The rich have packed up and left for space via space elevators stationed along the equator, taking much of the Earth's most valuable resources with them. Firewalkers are the brash young troubleshooters that venture out into the wasteland to troubleshoot critical infrastructure problems. Many never return.
The story follows a team of three close friends, Firewalkers stationed at the base of a space elevator located in west Africa. They are sent out to find and repair the source of increasingly more severe power supply disruptions from the vast fields of solar arrays located within the nearby dead zone. The suspense and mystery build as the team sets out among the barren landscape and the aging ruins of human civilization abandoned long ago. In the midst of the dead zone they come to the vast underground ruins of the facility setup by the rich for the construction of their spaceship and make a shocking discovery, something forgotten from the past that has a new agenda, with chilling implications for the future.
The themes here are not dissimilar to those Tchaikovsky took on in his marvelous Children of Time and Children of Ruin books. Science and technology run amok, developing and evolving in completely unforeseen ways, with surprising and devastating consequence.
In Firewalkers he crafts an utterly bleak world, devastated by runaway global warming that has rendered huge regions of the Earth uninhabitable desert, complete dead zones. The rich have packed up and left for space via space elevators stationed along the equator, taking much of the Earth's most valuable resources with them. Firewalkers are the brash young troubleshooters that venture out into the wasteland to troubleshoot critical infrastructure problems. Many never return.
The story follows a team of three close friends, Firewalkers stationed at the base of a space elevator located in west Africa. They are sent out to find and repair the source of increasingly more severe power supply disruptions from the vast fields of solar arrays located within the nearby dead zone. The suspense and mystery build as the team sets out among the barren landscape and the aging ruins of human civilization abandoned long ago. In the midst of the dead zone they come to the vast underground ruins of the facility setup by the rich for the construction of their spaceship and make a shocking discovery, something forgotten from the past that has a new agenda, with chilling implications for the future.
The themes here are not dissimilar to those Tchaikovsky took on in his marvelous Children of Time and Children of Ruin books. Science and technology run amok, developing and evolving in completely unforeseen ways, with surprising and devastating consequence.
August 5, 2025
A straight-forward but excellently told dystopian adventure, set on an Earth ravaged by climate change. At the equator where the space elevator takes the rich and privileged up to their luxurious orbiting lifeboat, the remaining underclass ekes out an existence in the burning heat below, maintaining the equipment and catching the occasional hand-outs.
When the power from the solar farms, deep in the searing heat of the desert, starts to fail, three ‘Firewalkers’ - teenagers with the skills to go into that scorching uninhabitable world - set off to investigate.
The Firewalkers won’t be paid unless they fix the power, but can it even be fixed, and do they want to? What they uncover is a puzzle that unfolds into a story of betrayal and revenge.
I read most of this as an audiobook, narrated by Adjoa Andoh (another impulse purchase to fill a long solo car journey). Her delivery is excellent, but I found the dialogue slightly difficult to understand sometimes due to the heavy accent that she gave the characters.
This is another excellent novella by Adrian Tchaikovsky. There is a tight, well-placed plot, plenty of jeopardy, and three unique and engaging main characters. And while there is nothing profound to take away from this book, it’s an enjoyable and engaging adventure.
Also on TikTok
When the power from the solar farms, deep in the searing heat of the desert, starts to fail, three ‘Firewalkers’ - teenagers with the skills to go into that scorching uninhabitable world - set off to investigate.
The Firewalkers won’t be paid unless they fix the power, but can it even be fixed, and do they want to? What they uncover is a puzzle that unfolds into a story of betrayal and revenge.
I read most of this as an audiobook, narrated by Adjoa Andoh (another impulse purchase to fill a long solo car journey). Her delivery is excellent, but I found the dialogue slightly difficult to understand sometimes due to the heavy accent that she gave the characters.
This is another excellent novella by Adrian Tchaikovsky. There is a tight, well-placed plot, plenty of jeopardy, and three unique and engaging main characters. And while there is nothing profound to take away from this book, it’s an enjoyable and engaging adventure.
Also on TikTok
February 22, 2023
Just excellent. Wanted it to be longer (The cry of many I hear) 💀
October 21, 2020
Alright, my good man Tchaikovsky, I have no idea what the hell this was about. I partly blame the audio narration which has got to be one of the worst readings ever. It was shrill, hysterical and at times almost unintelligble. Sorry, Adjoa Andoh. I just don’t get the production choices made with this one at all.
Maybe I’ll read it one day to see if the experience is different. For now I’m going to gently place it back on the shelf and move on.
Maybe I’ll read it one day to see if the experience is different. For now I’m going to gently place it back on the shelf and move on.
June 20, 2020
I've given up trying to predict in advance what a new Adrian Tchaikovsky story will be about and what the world the story inhabits might look like. The only thing I know will be true is that it will be an imaginative and richly textured piece of work.
That's not to say everything he writes is a hit for me. I didn't care for Walking to Aldebaran (and I'm in the minority on that), but I loved Dogs of War. His novels Children of Time and the more recent Cage of Souls are both masterful works that, for me, rank among the best SF novels I've read.
Firewalkers reminds me slightly of what a precursor story to Cage of Souls might look like. A desertified and dying Earth whose inhabitants seek to live in whatever way they can. In Tchaikovsky's hands what they can do, how the world and the creations that occupy it respond, is always imminently surprising.
That's not to say everything he writes is a hit for me. I didn't care for Walking to Aldebaran (and I'm in the minority on that), but I loved Dogs of War. His novels Children of Time and the more recent Cage of Souls are both masterful works that, for me, rank among the best SF novels I've read.
Firewalkers reminds me slightly of what a precursor story to Cage of Souls might look like. A desertified and dying Earth whose inhabitants seek to live in whatever way they can. In Tchaikovsky's hands what they can do, how the world and the creations that occupy it respond, is always imminently surprising.
February 9, 2021
If dystopian sci-fi floats your boat, you’re going to love this. This is climate porn at its best. Top-notch world-building, sympathetic characters and, after a bit of a slow start, a gritty and absorbing plot with plenty of clever twists and turns. A very satisfying ending too. Having read/listened to a number of Tchaikovsky’s novels, I’m amazed by his versatility as a writer. Every one of his books just seems so different from the last. Unfortunately, what lets this novella down slightly is the narration. The narrator's regular speaking voice is fine, but the accents she uses for certain characters were a real struggle to understand and I found myself having to replay some bits a couple of times. On the whole though, I really enjoyed this. Recommended! 4.5 stars.
May 11, 2020
Don't believe it's possible for fiction to be enthralling whilst also addressing urgent topical issues? Then let Mr Tchaikovsky prove you wrong in Firewalkers. Not only does it explore the links between class and climate change but it discusses capitalism and its issues, the vastly different lives of the rich and impoverished and the often brutal unfairness of life, all within the context of this compulsive standalone science fiction novella. Earth is now a post-apocalyptic wasteland due to significant climate change whereby the sun has scorched the planet almost turning it to desert and the wealthy have managed to use their money to build spaceships on which to leave a destroyed Earth behind to linger someplace more inhabitable. Of course, those with little to their name bear the brunt of it all and haven’t the means to keep their families fed and clothed never mind being able to afford the luxury of simply upping sticks and leaving it all behind. They live in the hope that one day they'll be able to join those who are more fortunate.
It follows Firewalkers Mao, Lupe and Hotep, a group of youngsters who are sent to repair vital infrastructure or retrieve items from the searing hot desert when necessary. Their employment is secured by promises of money, food, water and medicine, fuelling their hope that they will be able to leave soon too. This is a superb and exhilarating read right from the beginning and has both a stellar plot and impressive characterisation; it's what we've come to expect from Tchaikovsky and he never seems to let us down. Surprisingly for a novella, the cast is well fleshed out and come alive on the pages. It's a captivating, disturbingly bleak and all too real tale and one that cuts very close to the bone in that it captures impeccably how we are at a crossroads where we must make a decision as humans for the good of humanity whether we simply carry on in the way we have been or change our ways to save our planet. A sophisticated and thought-provoking piece. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Solaris for an ARC.
It follows Firewalkers Mao, Lupe and Hotep, a group of youngsters who are sent to repair vital infrastructure or retrieve items from the searing hot desert when necessary. Their employment is secured by promises of money, food, water and medicine, fuelling their hope that they will be able to leave soon too. This is a superb and exhilarating read right from the beginning and has both a stellar plot and impressive characterisation; it's what we've come to expect from Tchaikovsky and he never seems to let us down. Surprisingly for a novella, the cast is well fleshed out and come alive on the pages. It's a captivating, disturbingly bleak and all too real tale and one that cuts very close to the bone in that it captures impeccably how we are at a crossroads where we must make a decision as humans for the good of humanity whether we simply carry on in the way we have been or change our ways to save our planet. A sophisticated and thought-provoking piece. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Solaris for an ARC.
June 14, 2020
In a world ravaged by climate change a settlement at the base of a space elevator provides one of the few marginally habitable places for the remnants of humanity. The richest have already gone up the elevator and are waiting to go the stars, but the remnants struggle on Earth. For the most resourceful, clever and above all else, expendable, there's work to be had to go out into the uninhabitable terrain as a Firewalker. For the small group we follow, Mao, Lupé and Hotep, they'll get an opportunity to change everything with what they find out there.
I'm a big fan of this author's SF, but some of his novella length works feel like small novels (Dogs of War) and some feel like lengthy short stories (The Expert System's Brother). This is one of the latter. That's more of an observation than a criticism though; more of a warning that this is one of those novellas that's really setting up for a punchline. And like most of this author's work, it delivers with a strong finish.
I'm a big fan of this author's SF, but some of his novella length works feel like small novels (Dogs of War) and some feel like lengthy short stories (The Expert System's Brother). This is one of the latter. That's more of an observation than a criticism though; more of a warning that this is one of those novellas that's really setting up for a punchline. And like most of this author's work, it delivers with a strong finish.
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May 14, 20203.5 stars
I'm swaying between 3 and 4 stars and I can't decide in witch direction I should go. So it stays without rating for the time being.
It is Adrian Tchaikovsky and so I have to compare it to his own works. When I look at his novels I rated 4 stars "Firewalkers" can't quite reach their quality in terms of structure and ingenuity.
But, well, it is Adrian Tchaikovsky - and this means that even with novels that are not his peak works he is still better than 90% of everything contemporary that's labelled SF at the moment, which easily warrants a 4 star. So lets go for a solid and very good 3.5 stars.
"Firewalkers" takes place on an earth that's rendered nearly inhabitable due to clima change. While some regions are drowned in floods others haven't seen a drop of rain in ages. The equatorial zone of Western Africa is the setting of this novella. The settlement there only exists, because the anchor points for cables for the luxurious space ships for the rich classes need an equatorial station. Work and power are mainly distributed to the space port hotel while the working people have to get by with a minimum and have to take shelter from the heat of the day. A special group are the Firewalkers, mainly adolescents, whose job it is to go out into the unsheltered hot places to facilitate repairs among other things.
The novella follows a team of three of those Firewalkers who have to find out what interfers with the energy supply of the hotel.
As usual by Tchaikovsky the characterisation of those three team members is layered and distinct. As reader you get a grip on what makes them tick and how the circumstances made them become what they are.
The things they encounter on their trip into the remote parts are - equally usual with Tchaikovsky - inventive, crazy and contain insects.
This inventiveness is one of the trademarks of this author I love. You can always be sure to get a solid SF Story that takes some of the typical elements of this genre, but combines them in a very satisfying, intelligent way. "Firewalker" again sparks with ideas and subtle social comments (another plus with Tchaikovsky, there is no in-your-face writing with him, he relies on the intelligence of his readers to fill in the background)
Yet in the end I was missing a bit of the wow-effect, that one unexpected twist that marks his great works.
Which, as mentioned above, doesn't mean that "Firewalker" still isn't better than a lot of current SF. It just has to compete with the best: Tchaikovsky's other works.
I'm swaying between 3 and 4 stars and I can't decide in witch direction I should go. So it stays without rating for the time being.
It is Adrian Tchaikovsky and so I have to compare it to his own works. When I look at his novels I rated 4 stars "Firewalkers" can't quite reach their quality in terms of structure and ingenuity.
But, well, it is Adrian Tchaikovsky - and this means that even with novels that are not his peak works he is still better than 90% of everything contemporary that's labelled SF at the moment, which easily warrants a 4 star. So lets go for a solid and very good 3.5 stars.
"Firewalkers" takes place on an earth that's rendered nearly inhabitable due to clima change. While some regions are drowned in floods others haven't seen a drop of rain in ages. The equatorial zone of Western Africa is the setting of this novella. The settlement there only exists, because the anchor points for cables for the luxurious space ships for the rich classes need an equatorial station. Work and power are mainly distributed to the space port hotel while the working people have to get by with a minimum and have to take shelter from the heat of the day. A special group are the Firewalkers, mainly adolescents, whose job it is to go out into the unsheltered hot places to facilitate repairs among other things.
The novella follows a team of three of those Firewalkers who have to find out what interfers with the energy supply of the hotel.
As usual by Tchaikovsky the characterisation of those three team members is layered and distinct. As reader you get a grip on what makes them tick and how the circumstances made them become what they are.
The things they encounter on their trip into the remote parts are - equally usual with Tchaikovsky - inventive, crazy and contain insects.
This inventiveness is one of the trademarks of this author I love. You can always be sure to get a solid SF Story that takes some of the typical elements of this genre, but combines them in a very satisfying, intelligent way. "Firewalker" again sparks with ideas and subtle social comments (another plus with Tchaikovsky, there is no in-your-face writing with him, he relies on the intelligence of his readers to fill in the background)
Yet in the end I was missing a bit of the wow-effect, that one unexpected twist that marks his great works.
Which, as mentioned above, doesn't mean that "Firewalker" still isn't better than a lot of current SF. It just has to compete with the best: Tchaikovsky's other works.
February 23, 2020
This book had two principal effects on me. One was to make me really, really want to read Shadows of the Apt. Adrian Tchaikovsky’s been one of those people in the “I’ve heard his name, and I should get to him at some point, but really I’ve got so many books to read that if I’m being honest I probably never will” category, but after reading Firewalkers he’s getting bumped way up Mount Readmore.
The other thing this book did was really, really piss me off.
Let me start with the premise. This is a dystopian book, as I seem to be reading a lot of lately. In this particular flavor of dystopia, humanity has managed to thoroughly fuck up the climate. Things generally suck for everybody, and the equatorial regions are getting hot enough that they’re basically uninhabitable. However, there are generation ships being built, to carry humanity to safety … or at least that segment of humanity who can afford it. Everyone else? Sucks to be you.
The anchor points for the space elevators to the generation ships are on the equator, however. This means that despite the general unlivability of the area there do have to be settlements there. The protagonists of Firewalkers scrape a living working outside of the shelter of the settlement to service the solar fields that keep the A/C on for the rich folks waiting to ascend the space elevator. “Firewalker” is their title, and given how freaking hot it is - daytime temps of 140F/60C are mentioned as typical - it is appropriate.
The three protagonists - kids, really, all under 20 - are Mao (the grandson of Vietnamese workers who initially built the elevator, there being lots of Vietnamese at the time needing a place to go that wasn’t underwater); Lupé, a descendant of the local African people; and Hotep, who was actually born on one of the generation ships, but was sent back down to Earth by her parents who didn’t want to deal with her “abnormal” behavior (it’s pretty clear she’s on the neuroatypical spectrum). The plot centers around the three of them being offered a very well-paying job, but one that requires going much deeper into the desert than anyone has gone for a very long time. The desert where the wealthy segments of society conducted all sorts of research, done in such remote locations because of concerns of industrial espionage. Those facilities have been abandoned for a long time, but there are rumors that “abandoned” doesn’t necessarily mean “dead.”
Not going to go into any detail of the plot, but I will say that it’s fairly short, tightly plotted (this is a book that takes place over a few days), and mostly fairly hard science fiction with a generous sprinkling of horror.
So why, you may ask, did this book piss me off so much? Because of the sheer injustice of it all. The people going up the elevator and leaving the Earth are the exact same ones who broke it in the first place. Mao and Lupé are just people trying to make do in a world they aren’t responsible for, literally risking their lives so that the people who wrecked everything can have comfortable air conditioning in the brief time they wait to go up the elevator. And they seem almost resigned to it. That’s not even right - they’re not “resigned” to it any more than I’m “resigned” to the sky being blue. It’s just the way it is. The message here isn’t subtle, and it left me furious at the world, guilty over my privileged place in it, and depressed at my powerlessness to change things.
It’s not such a difficult thing to tug a reader’s heartstrings. But stirring this kind of reaction without something as crude as shooting poor Old Yeller is a real indicator of a craftsman at work. Highly recommended if you're looking for a quick, intense read that'll stick with you for a while.
The other thing this book did was really, really piss me off.
Let me start with the premise. This is a dystopian book, as I seem to be reading a lot of lately. In this particular flavor of dystopia, humanity has managed to thoroughly fuck up the climate. Things generally suck for everybody, and the equatorial regions are getting hot enough that they’re basically uninhabitable. However, there are generation ships being built, to carry humanity to safety … or at least that segment of humanity who can afford it. Everyone else? Sucks to be you.
The anchor points for the space elevators to the generation ships are on the equator, however. This means that despite the general unlivability of the area there do have to be settlements there. The protagonists of Firewalkers scrape a living working outside of the shelter of the settlement to service the solar fields that keep the A/C on for the rich folks waiting to ascend the space elevator. “Firewalker” is their title, and given how freaking hot it is - daytime temps of 140F/60C are mentioned as typical - it is appropriate.
The three protagonists - kids, really, all under 20 - are Mao (the grandson of Vietnamese workers who initially built the elevator, there being lots of Vietnamese at the time needing a place to go that wasn’t underwater); Lupé, a descendant of the local African people; and Hotep, who was actually born on one of the generation ships, but was sent back down to Earth by her parents who didn’t want to deal with her “abnormal” behavior (it’s pretty clear she’s on the neuroatypical spectrum). The plot centers around the three of them being offered a very well-paying job, but one that requires going much deeper into the desert than anyone has gone for a very long time. The desert where the wealthy segments of society conducted all sorts of research, done in such remote locations because of concerns of industrial espionage. Those facilities have been abandoned for a long time, but there are rumors that “abandoned” doesn’t necessarily mean “dead.”
Not going to go into any detail of the plot, but I will say that it’s fairly short, tightly plotted (this is a book that takes place over a few days), and mostly fairly hard science fiction with a generous sprinkling of horror.
So why, you may ask, did this book piss me off so much? Because of the sheer injustice of it all. The people going up the elevator and leaving the Earth are the exact same ones who broke it in the first place. Mao and Lupé are just people trying to make do in a world they aren’t responsible for, literally risking their lives so that the people who wrecked everything can have comfortable air conditioning in the brief time they wait to go up the elevator. And they seem almost resigned to it. That’s not even right - they’re not “resigned” to it any more than I’m “resigned” to the sky being blue. It’s just the way it is. The message here isn’t subtle, and it left me furious at the world, guilty over my privileged place in it, and depressed at my powerlessness to change things.
It’s not such a difficult thing to tug a reader’s heartstrings. But stirring this kind of reaction without something as crude as shooting poor Old Yeller is a real indicator of a craftsman at work. Highly recommended if you're looking for a quick, intense read that'll stick with you for a while.
August 3, 2022
Eat the rich.
7.5/10
7.5/10
May 13, 2020
A very good novel in a young adult science-fiction after post apocalyptic scenery.
I appreciated that the post apocalyptic aspect wasn't too much moralising, letting the place for the story to unfold and expand, as an inventive and rather creepy tale!
I also loved the three main characters, each one has a credible and nuance personality, without tiresome stereotype. The psychology was sane and believable.
A very good story, with characters in 3D a strong atmosphere - as in all the author's books I've read so far.
A superb read!
Note : for now this book seems to be published (in May 2020) only as an ebook (rather too expansive, I wouldn't have bought it) and a (very expansive too, the same) hard cover book - a signed limited edition. I hope that some accessible editions will be proposed in the future, it'd be a shame that this book which is, after all, a YA book, couldn't be purchase and read by its supposed readers!
(I thank Netgalley and Solaris for sending me the ARC in exchange for my honest review)
I appreciated that the post apocalyptic aspect wasn't too much moralising, letting the place for the story to unfold and expand, as an inventive and rather creepy tale!
I also loved the three main characters, each one has a credible and nuance personality, without tiresome stereotype. The psychology was sane and believable.
A very good story, with characters in 3D a strong atmosphere - as in all the author's books I've read so far.
A superb read!
Note : for now this book seems to be published (in May 2020) only as an ebook (rather too expansive, I wouldn't have bought it) and a (very expansive too, the same) hard cover book - a signed limited edition. I hope that some accessible editions will be proposed in the future, it'd be a shame that this book which is, after all, a YA book, couldn't be purchase and read by its supposed readers!
(I thank Netgalley and Solaris for sending me the ARC in exchange for my honest review)
Read
June 11, 2021Una novel·la curta que presenta una interessant reflexió sobre les diferències de classe, el canvi climàtic i la capacitat humana de pensar, o no, en l’altre.
Podeu valorar el llibre i llegir completa la ressenya de la Inés Macpherson a: https://elbiblionauta.com/ca/2021/06/...
Podeu valorar el llibre i llegir completa la ressenya de la Inés Macpherson a: https://elbiblionauta.com/ca/2021/06/...
October 10, 2020
This was my first Adrian Tchaikovsky book. Multiple friends have been raving about his writing; so I've been eager to read his books. I had planned on starting with his award-winning Children of Time, but then I decided to focus on a project of reading 2020 published books only until the next Hugos. So I put Children of Time on hold for now.
I've been told that this book is not his best work and considered merely decent by Tchaikovsky fans, but it was the first to arrive from the library for me and the theme/concept is right up my alley. I love books that deal with economic disparity and dystopias, particularly futures affected by climate change.
And I liked it quite a bit! It is a solid four stars for me - really good/enjoyable, but with something holding it back. In this case it was flow. The writing was kind of cluttered and muddy(?) I'm not sure how to describe it. I think it didn't help that there were a number of made up words to show how language had evolved in the future. It felt more like a stumbling block at times than helpful color and world building.
Sexual violence? Nope! Other triggers? Mmm, violence, dysfunctional family, ablism (although soundly portrayed as wrong).
I've been told that this book is not his best work and considered merely decent by Tchaikovsky fans, but it was the first to arrive from the library for me and the theme/concept is right up my alley. I love books that deal with economic disparity and dystopias, particularly futures affected by climate change.
And I liked it quite a bit! It is a solid four stars for me - really good/enjoyable, but with something holding it back. In this case it was flow. The writing was kind of cluttered and muddy(?) I'm not sure how to describe it. I think it didn't help that there were a number of made up words to show how language had evolved in the future. It felt more like a stumbling block at times than helpful color and world building.
Sexual violence? Nope! Other triggers? Mmm, violence, dysfunctional family, ablism (although soundly portrayed as wrong).
December 31, 2021
Mi primera experiencia con Tchaikovsky y no me ha defraudado. A ratos acción a ratos intriga, IA, ascensor espacial y un futuro en el que no quisiera estar. 🙏 Por favor cuidemos el planeta!!!
April 4, 2024
Not one of his best— not one of his worst. Given the title and books like helldivers out there I had expected a more exciting action-packed story with a more compelling ending…. But Tchaikovsky can’t be bound by rules or expectations of his readers.
In this book we follow Mao, a boy left on a dying world destroyed by climate disasters who is left in a town that holds a soace elevator for the rich. He is a firewalker, one of the few who go out into the desert of the world to fix what is broken and he calls up his team to go out and do a job further than they ever have before.
This one was an interesting experiment because Mao is not the hero, but rather the side character. He experiences the plot but has no true agency to affect it other than to keep his team alive and fall for a girl who no longer exsists. A different way to tell a story— and not quite as effective as many of his other novellas but not his worst. I dont begrudge Tchaikovsky his playtime, but wish this one was more evocative.
In this book we follow Mao, a boy left on a dying world destroyed by climate disasters who is left in a town that holds a soace elevator for the rich. He is a firewalker, one of the few who go out into the desert of the world to fix what is broken and he calls up his team to go out and do a job further than they ever have before.
This one was an interesting experiment because Mao is not the hero, but rather the side character. He experiences the plot but has no true agency to affect it other than to keep his team alive and fall for a girl who no longer exsists. A different way to tell a story— and not quite as effective as many of his other novellas but not his worst. I dont begrudge Tchaikovsky his playtime, but wish this one was more evocative.
September 6, 2022
It's impressive how Tchaikovsky can so effortlessly jump between the light, fanciful (but thoughtful and well-thought-out) stories like Spiderlight and One Day This Will All Be Yours, and the heavy, serious, dystopian stories like The Expert System's Brother and Firewalkers. The latter take a little more time for the reader to get engrossed due to the world-building, but it's almost always worth the effort.
A friend of mine this weekend mentioned how prolific and mostly excellent Tchaikovsky is, and that's the truth of his genius; you rarely get those two characteristics together.
A friend of mine this weekend mentioned how prolific and mostly excellent Tchaikovsky is, and that's the truth of his genius; you rarely get those two characteristics together.
February 18, 2020
This is my second read by the author. Previously I’ve tried another of the relatively slender Solaris published books of his, Walking to Aldebaran, and was thoroughly underwhelmed. I figured I’ll give the author another try, after all he seems to be so popular and well liked by so many readers. But having just revisited that review of mine, I must say this just isn’t for me. The complaints in fact are exactly the same. The books are technically good, imaginative, conceptually inviting…but the execution remains oddly flat. It’s downright peculiar, but despite all the good on paper, exciting on paper components, the entire thing fails to excite. So much so that it might be a strictly personal thing, but then again this is precisely what reviews are. The young age of characters almost turned me off initially, but this is definitely not YA, though I suppose it can be read as such. The characters may be young, but the devastating and dangerous world they inhabit has aged them into early maturity. The entire thing is a sort of metaphor for the wealth disparity with the one percenters residing above it all in all the comforts money can buy and the rest are scrambling in the scorched earth below trying to survive. The Firewalkers are the ones bold enough to go out into the most uninhabitable of lands to take care of the solar panels for the oligarchs. It’s a job too dangerous and too difficult to do for long, so only the young take it on. This is a story of one such team. The rest, the details have already faded from my memory in a week, which usually is its own statement, but that’s the gist of it. And the thing is there has been so many metaphors and set ups just like that one in recent literature and movies. I’ve just watched Alita and it looks just like the world described. So yeah, sure, it’s timely and all that, but not exactly original, is it. So yeah, very bland read. Something about the author’s writing just doesn’t work for me, doesn’t engage me at all. There's some nice imagery and ideas, but overall it underwhelms. Quick, though. Thanks Netgalley.
July 4, 2020
Every time I read a story by this author, I know I’m getting something interesting, and usually a new interpretation of our future. I’ve enjoyed his many what-if scenarios so far, and this time, we get a future where the majority of humans (or what’s left of them) live precarious, short lives on earth at the mercy of increasingly inhospitable climates. The setting is Ankara, which is the site of one of the world’s space elevators, to which a space ship is tethered at its top. The rich, naturally, lives lives of luxury here, with the few remaining fortunates on earth looking forward to ascending, also, and then leaving earth and its multitude of struggling masses behind.
The people on the ground must scrounge livings somehow, amongst them young Firewalkers, who are tasked with investigating and fixing problems with the surrounding solar generation and manufacturing sites outside of Ankara, where one mistake or poor planning could mean a fast death.
A trio of firewalkers are sent on such a mission and encounter some truly bizarre and terrible things, and something else, possibly more frightening.
Tchaikovsky remains an author whose work I seek out, especially after he made me like spiders. The trio here have great chemistry, and their struggle to find a path through bad choices was well handled. There’s great tension, and tough choices with a nice sense of unease left at the end of this tale.
The people on the ground must scrounge livings somehow, amongst them young Firewalkers, who are tasked with investigating and fixing problems with the surrounding solar generation and manufacturing sites outside of Ankara, where one mistake or poor planning could mean a fast death.
A trio of firewalkers are sent on such a mission and encounter some truly bizarre and terrible things, and something else, possibly more frightening.
Tchaikovsky remains an author whose work I seek out, especially after he made me like spiders. The trio here have great chemistry, and their struggle to find a path through bad choices was well handled. There’s great tension, and tough choices with a nice sense of unease left at the end of this tale.
April 6, 2020
Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in return for an honest review.
This was my first read from this prolific SFF author and good enough that I am looking forward to reading more from him in the future, but also hopeful that this is not a representation of some of his best work.
Overall I did enjoy this short book. The story was well paced and well written with distinct characters that had no problem holding my attention. The landscape and plot both pained a future that was easily believable, and I appreciated that Tchaikovsky didn't fall back on generic forms of drama such as romantic and/or sexual tension between the three main characters.
That all being said, there were two problems that stood out to me while reading. First, parts of the book I found to be really repetitive. There were character traits, background information, and plot points that did not need to be repeated five or six times in a 200 page book.
Second, and more important, while the end as a whole was interesting and took me by surprise, the last pages/the end of Mao's story I found to be both unnecessary and unbelievable and was the defining factor in my decision to give this book three stars instead of four. There was no need to go back to that particular plot point and made the otherwise unique ending/character somewhat generic.
This was my first read from this prolific SFF author and good enough that I am looking forward to reading more from him in the future, but also hopeful that this is not a representation of some of his best work.
Overall I did enjoy this short book. The story was well paced and well written with distinct characters that had no problem holding my attention. The landscape and plot both pained a future that was easily believable, and I appreciated that Tchaikovsky didn't fall back on generic forms of drama such as romantic and/or sexual tension between the three main characters.
That all being said, there were two problems that stood out to me while reading. First, parts of the book I found to be really repetitive. There were character traits, background information, and plot points that did not need to be repeated five or six times in a 200 page book.
Second, and more important, while the end as a whole was interesting and took me by surprise, the last pages/the end of Mao's story I found to be both unnecessary and unbelievable and was the defining factor in my decision to give this book three stars instead of four. There was no need to go back to that particular plot point and made the otherwise unique ending/character somewhat generic.
February 25, 2024
Distopia postapocalíptica amb rerefons ecologista. Problema principal: l'autor ens té acostumats a un devessall d'idees originals que aquí no desplega. Personatges clixé per a una història interessant, però que tots hem vist abans. No és el millor Tchaikovsky dels que he llegit.
May 5, 2025
I think I would have liked this story to be a full novel, rather than a novella. The ending was rather abrupt, but it completely upended my thoughts on the book up to that point.
June 15, 2020
Wow, what an ending.
This was an appropriate time for this book to come out, the world is changing, I can feel it, and a cautionary tale is always welcome as a "wake-up" to pay attention to the environment around us.
Climate change is here, and if we don't do anything about it, this book could be our future!
This was an appropriate time for this book to come out, the world is changing, I can feel it, and a cautionary tale is always welcome as a "wake-up" to pay attention to the environment around us.
Climate change is here, and if we don't do anything about it, this book could be our future!
November 23, 2020
Tchaikovsky has this ability to seemingly effortlessly pump out supremely interesting and unique science fiction.
I really loved FIREWALKERS! I bought it a few months ago because a few folks in the SpecFic Buddy Reads group were reading it, and because I stan for Adrian - also Book Depository were selling signed copies, and I'm a sucker.
FIREWALKERS is set on a future Earth where (presumably global warming?) has resulted in the planet heating up and a growing band around the equator turning into tractless desert - it isn't clear where exactly it takes place, but does a very good job of creating an evocative and lived-in world with the small amount of pages provided. Those down on the ground are essentially there to keep things idling while generation/colony ships in orbit are built for the rich and powerful.
Going in, I hadn't really read any of the reviews or the blurb or anything so it was nice to discover what it was about as I went. FIREWALKERS reminded me a bit of SAND by Hugh Howey, though I really didn't enjoy SAND - an interesting post-apocalypse that I haven't really seen doone before.
FIREWALKERS also goes into a bit of lite-transhumanism/post-humanism which was pretty compelling and, frankly, scary.
Honestly didn't last long enough, but at the same time I think if the book had been much longer it might have felt a bit stretched.
A very enjoyable read!
I really loved FIREWALKERS! I bought it a few months ago because a few folks in the SpecFic Buddy Reads group were reading it, and because I stan for Adrian - also Book Depository were selling signed copies, and I'm a sucker.
FIREWALKERS is set on a future Earth where (presumably global warming?) has resulted in the planet heating up and a growing band around the equator turning into tractless desert - it isn't clear where exactly it takes place, but does a very good job of creating an evocative and lived-in world with the small amount of pages provided. Those down on the ground are essentially there to keep things idling while generation/colony ships in orbit are built for the rich and powerful.
Going in, I hadn't really read any of the reviews or the blurb or anything so it was nice to discover what it was about as I went. FIREWALKERS reminded me a bit of SAND by Hugh Howey, though I really didn't enjoy SAND - an interesting post-apocalypse that I haven't really seen doone before.
FIREWALKERS also goes into a bit of lite-transhumanism/post-humanism which was pretty compelling and, frankly, scary.
Honestly didn't last long enough, but at the same time I think if the book had been much longer it might have felt a bit stretched.
A very enjoyable read!
September 10, 2023
3.5 🌟 stars....good little tale...I suppose it could be labeled "clifi" but it has some good ideas, and intriguing characters...
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