Firewalkers is a stand alone sci-fi novella from Adrian Tchaikovsky. Tchaikovsky has written some of the most fascinating and imaginative stories I’ve read in the last few years, and that trend has continued here.

This is a story of an Earth which is slowly becoming less and less habitable. The equator is becoming a desert, the heat of the sun during the day no longer survivable. People are migrating north and south, toward the coasts, toward lives of desperation, armed compounds, and survival. Well, most people are. For the super-rich, for those with the will and the resources, there’s another option. The rich have their own starships. These are being built, in theory, to save some remnant of humanity from climate catastrophe. Practically, they’re the playground of oligarchs, accessible only by space elevators scattered across the equator. Nobody goes up without an invitation, and while a lot fo resources go up the elevators, not a lot comes back down again.

Around the elevators, the gates to an unseen world of privilege, towns have sprawled, dedicated to fulfilling the needs of those who haven’t yet made their way up the elevator. People are crammed cheek-by-jowl, searching for patches of shade in the day, eyeing the slow disintegration of their society and their dignity each night, as the desert gets closer, and hotter, and the number of jobs goes down.

It’s a harsh world, yes, but there are wonders. The ships themselves are fantastic, of course, but there are other things out in the deep desert, where those now up the elevator spent their youth in secret research labs, building the technologies that would save them. There are rumours of botched biological experiments, of stashes of forgotten riches, of rogue computers taking over facilities, of research vaults that could make you rich, if you could find them. And the infrastructure, the power which ran those labs, now runs the cut down shanty towns around the elevator whisking the privileged away.

That’s where the Firewalkers come in. Sometimes, things break. Or things need retrieving from the deep desert, no questions asked. Firewalkers will drive days through killing sun, into unmapped geography, and face the monsters - for a price.

Our crew is Mao, and Lupé, and Hotep. The muscle, the mechanic, the tech wizard, teenagers taking a horrifying risk for the promise of just a little more money, just a little more medicine, just a little more hope. The story stands by Mao, a boy growing into a man, deciding who he’s going to be, and whether he’s ready to keep taking risks, keep walking into the fire. It’s a wonderful portrayal of someone fumbling for answers, driven by their confidence and confusion, struggling to keep making things right. The two women, Lupé, and Hotep are wonderfully realised themselves. Hotep is damaged, cutting, and surprisingly fragile, wrapped in bandages both concrete and metaphorical, trying to live out a life wrapped in rage and hurt and betrayal. Lupé is pragmatic, generally more phlegmatic, with moments of fire and a sense of the burden of responsibility. The three of them are chaos, a team working well together, with an abiding friendship disguised under an atmosphere of mercantilism. You can see them all, out there in the broken-down dustrunner that they use to hurl themselves into the teeth of danger, striding through the ruins and secrets of a shattered world, risking their lives, but not heroes - just people, with all the fragility, the hard edges and quiet looks that make them feel real.

And they’re on an adventure, for sure. I won’t spoil it, but there’s so much cool stuff here. The climate crisis and the concentration of wealth in the hands of an elite are front and centre here, explored with a precision and passion which makes for searing, unforgettable reading. It’s linked to some fabulous characterisation, and more personal stories, which help shape their world. Of course, if you’re here for the delving into shattered datavaults looking for remnants of a world long gone, whilst dodging sec-bots and horrifying abandoned experiments, it’s here too. This is a great story; it has a lot to say, and wraps its larger themes in a compelling narrative that kept me reading all night, even as I didn’t want it to end.


This is great stuff, and you really should read it.

Wooo another week, another review!

So, I was pretty excited for this book, cause wow that description and that cover. And I’ve been meaning to read the Children of Time books for quite a while now so I jumped at a chance to read and review this one. Sadly it didn’t quite meet that love mark for me—I’m kind of so-so on this book.

Overall, I thought it was a book that was well written, was a great length, and the world-building was interesting, and definitely made sense and felt timely. There were certain aspects that I absolutely loved, unfortunately, my interest flagged a little about 60% of the way through.

I think the main characters were pretty well done. I didn’t necessarily connect well with them, but I did think it was pretty clear what their motivations were and why they acted the way they did. I did enjoy the growth they did and thought the ending was pretty satisfying if a little unexpected.

Yeah, I don’t really have much to say on this one, because I think it’s a strong book that will certainly appeal to some people, but just didn’t quite strike the right chord with me. So, there it is, I do think this a great book that will appeal to sci-fi fans who love a good post-apocalyptic book.

What I like about Adrian Tchaikovsky is that whilst he solely writes sci-fi, he has a wealth of ideas to work with. I have read quite a few novels and short stories by him now, and I appreciate how he takes an idea and runs with it.

Like many people, I am all too aware of how delicate our world is, and I feel it is important that novels such as this are written and published. The theme of climate change is one touched upon in many of Adrian Tchaikovsky’s novels, and the premise of firewalkers is very metaphorical. Those that have destroyed the Earth are now trying to leave it, leaving behind the younger generation who will have to live with their decisions.

I very much look forward to May when this story is released.

Tchaikovsky is one of the most inventive and exciting sff authors writing today, and writing at a rate that boggles the mind. Another gripping story with real depth and interesting ideas. I just wish it had been longer.

Firewalkers is an upcoming SF novella by Adrian Tchaikovsky scheduled to be released on May 12 - I received a prerelease e-Advance Reader Copy (e-ARC) from its publisher in exchange for a possible review. It's not a short novella - it's listed at 185 pages on Kindle and perhaps more importantly, it's not a novel that reads quickly either.

What it is however is a post-global warming - I hate to say post apocalyptic but you could go with that too - novel featuring a world in which the rich and powerful have left Earth onto spaceships orbiting the planet and a trio of young people left behind on Earth desperately scrapping for whatever they can get to feed themselves and their families. Needless to say class issues feature prominently in this SciFi thriller, and the book manages to weave them effectively through it all to form a really strong whole.


Quick Plot Summary: Global Warming has made the world mostly uninhabitable, and the areas around the equator should be too hot for the "mostly." But the rich needed those areas to build their space elevators so they could get to their escape ships, so small towns - the Anchors - of struggling workers moved to those wastelands anyhow, desperate for work.

Mao is a Firewalker, one of the young people who is willing to do the dangerous jobs out in the wastelands that lie just beyond the Anchors for money. So when he gets an incredibly well paying job to figure out why there are power shortages coming from solar panels set up out there, he and his two compatriots - tech savvy genius Lupe and exile from the rich space ship Hotep - set out to make the impossible and dangerous journey. But what they find out there will change everything....or will if they survive it all and manage to come back.....


Thoughts: Firewalkers is for the most part really effective at merging its two genres - a mad max-esque thriller as our heroes try to get from their home to the solar panels and figure out what's happening in the wasteland, only to find things and people in shapes they couldn't have imagined; and a class struggle in which the rich literally drive in fancy cars into a rich hotel, throwing out money to the poors along the way, as they then leave the hotel to go to space where they can never see the poors again. Without spoiling much, these two plot types fit together seemlessly (I mean they sort of did in Mad Max too, so perhaps that's not a surprise) and come back to prime importance by the plot's ending.

This is helped by not only the interesting setting but by the three characters all being really interesting for the most part: you have Mao, the desperate leader who knows mainly how to push forward to survive no matter what; you have Lupe, the tech genius girl who is cynical about the whole world and situation; and you have Hotep, perhaps the most interesting, who was on the rich space ship but exiled back to Earth for not fitting in and is desperately angry about it. They each have their strengths and weaknesses that for the most part work and make them fascinating and surprising - although Mao's moment of weakness is the weakest part of this whole novel, as it doesn't really match the rest of his character at all - and makes the plot compelling from beginning to end. And a surprise twist character's argument comparing a trope to not being any different from how the world really is is the most pleasant and interesting surprise of all, leading to a really satisfying conclusion in the end.



Strongly recommended.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All of the views expressed in this review are my own.
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This is a fairly short novel with a decent pacing. the setting is a town on the equator in a future where the Sun's scorching heat has left most of the planet uninhabitable. Although the premise is nothing new, the world-building is fleshed out quite well albeit in a lot of sizable chunks.

The story itself is intriguing enough to keep the reader engaged. I do wish that the characters had been fleshed out more as I found it hard to relate to them and, although the main three characters were very distinct from each other, they still did not feel as rounded as I would have liked and this applies to the protagonist the most.

Overall rating: 3/5 stars

This is one of the best works of dystopian fiction which I have read in the past year. The author does an amazing job of drawing the reader into the world that the characters inhabit. Besides providing the thrill and entertainment value of a well written work of fiction, the author does a great job of making readers think about the world we inhabit and are creating.

I did struggle to engage at first, possibly due to reading a credible post-apocalyptic wasteland during a pandemic. Once I settled in with the characters on their journey, I did find myself more engaged.

I like the premise, these firewalkers off out to explore their inhospitable surroundings, all while others disappear offworld to safety. It’s a short book that moves at a good pace. It does feel like it could’ve stood with a little more depth during the conclusion which is why I dropped a star.

La tercera entrega de la serie de novelas cortas que Adrian Tchaikovsky publica anualmente con la editorial Rebellion/Solaris da continuidad a la idea sobre la que se asienta las anteriores. Acostumbrados como estamos a sus complejas novelas de ciencia ficción, llenas de generaciones de seres de todo tipo, portales y especies, leer esta serie de novellas (término inglés utilizado para designar una novela corta) en las que Tchaikovsky coge un tema específico y crea una historia alrededor de él son un pequeño relax dentro de su amplia producción.

Firewalkers nos lleva a una Tierra en un futuro no demasiado lejano en la que el cambio climático no es el futuro sino el pasado. La humanidad ya vive en un planeta donde las temperaturas han aumentado dramáticamente y vivir en el ecuador no es posible. Los desiertos avanzan y las zonas por habitar se han reducido drásticamente. Una de las pocas ciudades que resisten en el ecuador es Ankara, donde se sitúa uno de los ascensores espaciales que las clases pudientes utilizan para escapar a las naves donde las temperaturas son más templadas y pueden disponer de todas las comodidades. En superficie quedan las clases sociales sin recursos entre los que algunos consiguen ser firewalkers, una profesión que se gana la vida saliendo de la protección de la ciudad para arreglar los infinitos campos de paneles solares que alimentan las naves donde se encuentran las clases altas.

Con este punto de partida, Tchaikovsky pone a un equipo de tres jóvenes firewalkers, Mao, Lupé y Hotep, a realizar una misión de arreglo de paneles para la que se les promete un buen sueldo pero que a la vez implica adentrarse como casi nadie lo ha hecho en los enormes desiertos de placas solares. Como comprueban al poco de abandonar Ankara en estos yermos también se encuentran naves abandonadas. En ellas, tiempo atrás (o no tan atrás), se llevaron a cabo experimentos crueles con resultados terroríficos. También encontrarán algún habitante poco cabal que aun reside en pequeñas casas y cuyas creencias se mantienen casi intactas.

Además del aspecto climático que claramente se circunscribe en la tendencia pesimista del mismo, la novela incide principalmente en las diferencias de clases y cómo es la gente de trabajos menos cualificados quienes sostienen el sistema, sea este cual sea. Algo que también estamos viendo en nuestra actualidad, donde los otrora ninguneados trabajadores de supermercado (por poner un ejemplo entre otras muchas profesiones) son los que en tiempos de crisis permiten que gran parte de la sociedad puedan seguir teniendo un alimento que llevarse a la boca. Y todo eso mientras otros arriesgan sus vidas a diario para salir a la calle. En este sentido, Firewalkers es una novela que inicialmente podría parecer distópica pero que, sin embargo, esta cada vez menos alejada de la realidad.

Esta trilogía de novelas cortas independientes que comenzó con Ironclads, continuó con Walking to Aldebaran e inicialmente se cerraba con Firewalkers, ha sido recientemente extendida contractualmente para que en los próximos tres años se sigan publicando otras tantas novelas cortas de ciencia ficción dando lugar a un total de seis historias. Tchaikovsky ha comentado que su temática se dividirá en dos bloques. Por un lado Ironclads, Firewalkers y otra futura publicación que se centraran en describir futuras distopías y desigualdades sociales. Por otro lado, Walking to Aldebaran, la futura One Day All This Will Be Yours y otras con título por confirmar contaran historias de personajes que acaban en lugares que pondrán a prueba su salud mental.

Reconozco que acostumbrado como estoy a las complejas y elaboradas tramas de Tchaikovsky en sus novelas largas de ciencia ficción, Firewalkers se me queda un poco corta en intenciones. Con todo, esta es una novela corta para leer en dos buenos ratos, con el suficiente worldbuilding en la primera mitad y el suficiente grado de emoción en la segunda. Lo cual no es poco teniendo en cuenta que apenas son doscientas páginas.

This is a brief and somewhat depressingly plausible morality tale set just before the end of the world, and its peppily picaresque adventure style ends up being a little at odds with is black as coal denouement. But that is the end of the world for you. And here we are in the hot zone. Regular tropes are set up for the start - a Space Elevator, on the equator, a climate ravaged society. In space the escape generation ship full of the rich arseholes, what's left of a support system eeking out a life of servitude on the ground floor. And that's where our firewalkers come in, trouble shooters sent out into the blistering desert to sort out broken solar arrays and have some world building adventures on the way.

And so off go our three firewalkers, with little more than broadly drawn personalities and background to play off what they find. And what they find initially challenges what felt like the hardish scientific underpinning of the book, and then unfolds into one of the older plots we can expect. That said the first two thirds are strongly picaresque, and the over theme or direction takes a long time to coalesce. This is not a problem, partially because two thirds of a short book is plenty of time to meander and do some solid world building. But it does mean that when we get to the psychological underpinnings of its denoument, it feels a little rushed, and the final deal struck is dodgy at best. Tchaikovsky likes burning through ideas in the other books i have read of his, and there is definately a case here where the characters are never quite as fleshed out as I would like. But it is a hugely enjoyable read for all of that, and I just wonder that it might have a bit more impact if the moral dilemma presented so reasonably at the end could have been given a little more weight if the audience was also allowed to participate in it.

(Netgalley ARC)

I would like to thank Netgalley for providing me with an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review in return.

I'm just going to jump straight into this, I enjoyed this book, is it my favorite Sci-fi book out there no, but it was enjoyable and worked great for the short length. Scifi is a genre that I will admit I am still very new to, so at times there are moments when I don't particularly feel like I know what its going on. The first chapter of this book was honestly very confusing to me. I had to re-read parts a few times and I'm not entirely sure if it was an editing thing or just my mind not grasping what was being told. Once I got out of chapter 1 everything started to make sense, so don't be turned away if you run into the same feeling.

We are thrown into this post apocalyptic world, where the rich live in space and have everything they could ever desire and the poor are left back on Earth where its basically a giant dried up wasteland. And of course its the poor who make sure the rich keep getting to live their comfy lives up there in space, in hopes of one day getting to join them. Its a common theme for storytelling but I did enjoy it none the less.

In the initial meeting of the Firewalkers we are told they are a group of young adults, late teens who walk the burnt, dried up Earth when problems arise in their townships. Now when I initially read the ages of the characters I did my usual eye roll, because you know 19 year olds saving the day is just..... so realistic haha. But the thing that I liked that Tchaikovsky did with this, was he provided an excellent and thought out reason as to why a bunch of 19 year olds are the best choice for being Firewalkers. After it was explained I sat back and genuinely thought about the approach and agreed with the logic behind it.

The pacing of the storytelling, was wishy washy for me, some moments it was super interesting, others felt like I was trudging through mud, and others left me just confused (but that one is more of a personal issue with being new to sci-fi terminology so don't hold to much to that please)

The characters where alright, none of them really stood out to me, I didn't feel any strong connection to them, they were decently built and easy to follow along with, and I'm sure someone out there will enjoy their character types. Although at times the conversations they had felt hard to follow and understand because of the approach to the language that was taken. The story is obviously years in the future and language changes over time and I felt like I couldn't get a grasp on some of the terms or phrases that they used that were suppose to be considered normal for them.

The plot itself was entertaining once the story moved from the township to actually following the firewalkers out in the open. For me the storytelling really picked up about chapter 4 and beyond. The last half of the book, was exciting in terms of action but then the very tail end of the story just seemed to drop the momentum, the twists were good in my mind, maybe to the more experienced sci-fi reader it might be an obvious approach but for me it felt twisty and unexpected.

Overall, I really did enjoy the idea and it was executed well, For the most part I believe its an easy to follow plot, with decent likable characters, and good world building, with well executed ideals. A quick fun read for something to pass the time.

I first started reading Adrian Tchaikovsky's work with Children of Time. What I found is I really like his type of almost optimistic view of post apocalypse humanity. In Firewalkers he tells a story of those who left on Earth as it's dying.

Firewalkers is a good, if short, tale of how humanity struggles to survive as well as all the un-intended consequences to actions. Tchaikovsky works to quickly flesh out the characters and give a somewhat limited world view, which is all the main character knows about. As the story progresses, you get to feel like you know what is driving each character and that helps their decisions make sense.

I didn't give this book five stars because like I said, it's short. I do feel like the brevity of the book leads to a lack of identifying with how the general populace are acting towards the end of the book.

Overall it's a good book and I am hoping he's planning for a second story in this universe.

I really enjoyed this fast-paced novella from the author, who brought us Children of Time. The group of main characters are several teenagers who have been summoned to provide services to the space community, since they are the last resort, young, and replaceable, and can accomplish things that robots cannot. They live in a world that’s connected to a space resort above their planet, and there is a huge disparity of lifestyles.

The author does a fantastic job of character development within this novella, and really makes the characters the focus of the story, and their roles within the greater story. They run into some crazy insects, a rogue AI and attempt to figure out what the hell is going on, and why they have been sent on this particular mission?

I recommend that science fiction fans read this title, and also suggest that public libraries purchase this title. I was able to get an advance copy of this from NetGalley and in return would provide a review.

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.

Firewalkers follows a group of teens who venture out into the scoring hot desert to repair the centuries old solar farm. This solar farm powers the Roach Hotel and the surrounding towns. Without it life in this area would cease to exist.

The novel was dark, gritty and hellish as everyone struggles to survive while under the shadow of their potential salvation. The town and solar farm was build so an elite few could escape Earth by building and living on a space ship. The injustice that the world experiences was sad yet truthful. The rich destroy the planet while having the money to escape when they have too, while refusing to help their fellow human beings. The ending was great as it was such a perfect twist and a HEA all in one.

The characters were good but nothing ground breaking. I liked each character as they had their own struggles, history and strengths.

The pacing was good, since it is such a short novel (208 pages) there wasn't any slow parts.

Overall this was a great climate sci-fi dystopian novels that creates a perfect atmosphere. I would strongly suggest it to all fans.

Thanks to Netgalley and Solaris for the ARC.

I was provided a copy of Firewalkers through NetGalley in return for an honest review. This review has not been influenced in any way.

In Firewalkers, Aidrian Tchaikovsky has painted a painfully clear picture of the Earth's future as Climate Change has taken its toll. This story is fun, exciting, bleak and very real feeling. Tchaikovsky does a great job of building a world you can believe in a short amount of time.

The story follows a trio of Firewalkers, young and extremely talented, but not fortunate enough to escape the realities of their world. The trio is really well composed with some very classic fantasy/sci-fi personas, but also very unique to this story. Firewalkers are the disposable tools of the rich, and this story follows Mao, Hotep and Lupe as they embark on a mission to the most remote parts of South Africa, investigating a power failure affecting the rich in their home town.

Overall, this was fun and easy read.

SF or fantasy, Tchaikovsky is great always! Love his stuff! This is another great outing from him. Not to be missed.

Tchaikovsky continues to write interesting and engrossing stories. Is this another look at what the future of human beings may look like at some point. Humans have to deal with a world where it really hot and it seems the earth is more desert now. Of course the wealthy people have some way to survive while at the expense at those who not so rich. Still have people willing to see that they stay at the top as they are the ones that supply some employment and money for a meaningless system of economy. For such a short read I will probably be thinking about the world this took place in.

Firewalkers, by Adrian Tchaikovsky, is a sci-fi story set mainly in the town of Achouka, on Earth. The main characters, Mao, Lupe and Hotep form a group of people called Firewalkers who are dispatched to repair the solar panels which have been destroyed as the Earth slowly dies away. Without the solar panels, there is no way of anything on Earth surviving but despite the inhospitable conditions, the Firewalkers are those dispatched to repair them in order for the Earth to remain functional.

The story follows the lives of the Firewalkers as they enter Achouka, a middle-class town where the inhabitants can afford to live in luxury, mostly oblivious to the danger unfolding outside. They are shielded from danger by people like the Firewalkers and within the book, this becomes especially frustrating for Hotep when they are greeted with an air of disdain and ungratitude by the people of Anchor.

However, Mao falls for one of the people of the town, which causes disharmony amongst the group as they feel betrayed by his disloyalty. Hotep also makes the mistake of trusting an AI, Grand Celeste, whose motives about helping them and aiding them in getting revenge against the rich people of Achouka are not all what they seem.

I am not familiar with Adrian Tchaikovsky and before Firewalkers, had never read his work. However, when I read the plot for this book and learned of Tchaikovsky’s reputation, I was excited to read it for myself. On the whole, the story is enjoyable, but it lacks distinct plot points to give the story a direction and at times, it felt as though I was reading a diary of four characters who set out to put their lives in danger for the sake of others. For this reason, I had to go back and remind myself of some of the plot points in order to write this review.

However, I did read this story to the end, and would read it again to see if I engaged with the plot and understood the story better. In my opinion, this is a book that needs to be read more than once to fully take the story in and in light of current events, my own attention was a little preoccupied at times. But the timing of reading the story was very appropriate!

This was a fun read. Fairly short, with a compelling story and good pacing, I read it in a single setting.

There was some "local" parlance that you have to sift through and decipher on your own, but I did not find that overly problematic.

Overall, I enjoyed it and with the minimal time required to read it I would freely recommend it to others. I would love to see this world revisited in future works.