Zealot Script

My first read in 2025 was also my first read of anything by Adrian Tchaikovsky. I have a couple of his books on the shelf, but had never got round to them. Most certainly a mistake on my part. I knew from his reputation alone that I should expect some form of insect in the book, I did not leave disappointed.

I will, as always, attempt to keep this review as free of spoilers as possible and as this is a novella then I shall have to keep details of the plot fairly light. Firewalkers is set in an unspecified near-future where the climate catastrophe has accelerated to the end game and the “great and good” are escaping the planet on three space elevators positioned around the equator. The story takes place in township of Ankara Achouka, which has built up around the anchor point of one of these elevators, leading to the Grander Celeste, one of the paradises the wealthy are escaping to. The wealthy stop off in a hotel at the Anchor Point while awaiting their carriage to the stars.

The town exists only to service the hotel and the passing visitors, essentially to exclusively keep the power and the air conditioning on, with the inhabitants living off the handouts of money and water from their wealthy patrons. Our triumvirate of protagonists of course come from the poverty of the township and consist of Mao, a “Firewalker” who makes the dangerous trips into the desert, Lupé, a mechanic, and Hotep, a genius software engineer who was herself banished from the liner in the sky. Their mission takes them deep into the desert and unearths something that will upset the uneasy peace between the downtrodden and the oppressors.

There’s not much else I can go into in the plot of such a short novel without spoiling, so I’ll leave the rest for you to read yourself.

The setting itself is chilling in its believability. We’re not as far away from Tchaikovsky’s dystopia as we would like to think, and that realism greatly enhances the impact of the story. The obvious theme of environmentalism underpins the story without being forced upon the reader, the characters accept the world they live in, and don’t feel the need to go on rants about it (looking at you Kursaal). Tchaikovsky also manages to pack a surprising amount of different themes in such a short outing, addressing, obviously, the impact of climate change, wealth inequality, the dangers of AI as well as fantastic science fiction concepts, space elevators, interplanetary colonisation, cryogenic storage, holograms, sentient machines, and organic robotics all make at least as much as passing reference.

It was a fantastic short standalone read and I loved it as an introduction to Tchaikovsky as an author. If he can accomplish so much in less than 200 pages, I can’t wait to dig into one of his longer novels or if I can find the time to tackle it his ten book Shadows of Apt series. If you can get your hands on a copy, then pick up Firewalkers, it’s well worth the time.