2026 Reading Challenge discussion

This thread is to discuss Elder Race, the first book in the Elder Race series by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

Pages: 199 pages

Length: 1 month (September)

Participants: M, Lorraine

Everyone reads at their own pace during a Buddy Read. Because participants can be at different parts of the book at different times, it is extremely important to mark spoilers so that the book is not ruined for someone who is not as far along as others!!!

Mark spoilers by placing {spoiler} before the text and {/spoiler} after the text but use the < and > instead of the { and }.

Here are some questions to help get the conversation started! Feel free to look up discussion questions specific to this book or come up with your own. Just make sure any questions that contain spoilers are under spoiler tags.
Discussion questions are not required but may be a fun way to talk about the book and get to know each other!

Prior to starting:
What prompted you to join this buddy read?
Have you read this author before? What do you think of their other books?

Mid-read:
What character or ideas do you relate to the most and why?
Do you have any favorite quotes or scenes?

After reading:
What was enjoyable or not-so-enjoyable about this book?
Did this book change your perception about anything, either within the book (character development) or in real life?

Hey thanks for joining me Lorraine :)
I read this back in 2024 and remember enjoying it but didn't remember enough to jump into the second book soon haha.
I own a copy somewhere but my Libby hold says available soon so I'll likely read it on Kindle so I can save digital notes :)
Looking forward to diving into this one again.

My pleasure, M! The fact that you're rereading this book and gave it 4 stars is a good incentive for me to give it a try. I already have my copy from the library, so I hope to start reading it this weekend. I have two books I want to finish first, though.
As for Book 2, I don't know if my library will buy it in time for us to read it together in October. I'll keep you posted.

Hello M, I've finished the book. I was able to get a French copy, which made it much easier for me. I tried reading it in English first, but I was completely lost!
I'm still not entirely sure what I think of the book. I liked it enough to give it 4 stars. The story and the characters are interesting, but it is a strange story.
(view spoiler)[ I couldn't help thinking of Asimov's Foundation series, where the robots gradually become more sophisticated and, in the end, even resemble humans. Of course, the situation here is almost the reverse: we have a human being who wants to control his emotions as we might imagine a robot would. Very strange indeed!
That said, I can understand how being isolated from your friends, family, and everything familiar for such a long time could lead to depression. And I have to admit, having a system that could block out all your emotions might sound appealing at times... But a world where humans can no longer release their emotions? We would certainly be in for big trouble! (hide spoiler)]
So, despite my reservations, I liked the book enough to want to read Book 2.

My library has ordered Book 2, and I'm already in line to get it in about two weeks. I'm going to suspend the delivery so that I can try to make it work in October and read it with you. This time, it will have to be in English. But now that I know the universe, I think I can make it.
Just a little warning, though: I'll be travelling from September 26 to October 31, so I won't be able to read or comment as often as I normally do. We'll see how it goes!

P.S. let me know if October still works for you so I can ask SarahKat to open a thread for us. Thanks

Hi Lorraine!
I'm glad you enjoyed it and would like to read book 2 :)
My Libby hold says 4 weeks so I was still planning to read it in Oct!
I'd love it if you joined mee!

I'm currently reading another Tchaikovsky novel but I'm a little bored so I think I'll read this again instead over the weekend.
I too remember thinking it was a strange story but I also knew that I'd like to revisit it again because I wondered what I may have missed between the two perspectives.

I took a look through my previous notes and this quote caught my eye again.
"I should be the master of any strangeness in this world, because my people know the secrets of the universe. We travel the night sky and craft objects of power and change our very bodies so that we are no longer heir to the frailties of humanity. And yet I am in this forest with you, and the darkness between the trees is just as fearsome to me."

I look forward to visiting these characters again and seeing what I remember and what I don't.

Save travels!
No worries about checking in :) I'm a slow reader that gets distracted easily so sometimes it takes me a while to pop in and I have no real excuse haha