This is a brilliant novella and it's an excellent work of speculative fiction at its best. The clash between different races, the rebellion against the tyrant, and an unsual style of writing made it riveting and compelling.
I was hooked since the first pages and couldn't stop reading.
Loved it
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

It's one of those books that rate differently depending on your mind frame, or it might just be me. The book is in second person narration and it might take some time getting used to. There's a drastic turn of events that alters the tone and dynamics of the story - which can also put you in an uncomfortable position as a reader. Because of the above reasons, I chose to pick this book up later post 40% progress, but from what I understand from my fellow readers, the book has huge things to offer to people post that point. So if you trust the author enough and if you're more intrigued than uncomfortable with the turn of events (which I wasn't able to, mostly because of my mind frame while reading it), you'll enjoy this book

I'm in awe that such a short book contained so much depth. The story is told in second person, as we watch the development of Torquell, the son of a village leader, as he learns what is actually happening in this world of ogres and humans. My expectations of where the story was going kept changing because I kept learning more along with the main character.

There isn't really much more I want to say - because I'd hate for any reviews to impact the experience of the book! I recommend this dark and different fantasy.

This novella is incredible. It's the best novella I've ever read. It's told in second person, which takes some getting used to, but once you get used to it, it's quite smooth. The story is being told to Torquell, a human who is destined to become more. The world is led by Ogres, and humans' place in the world is well defined. That is until Torquell does what no human dares to do; he strikes an Ogre.

What follows is a bunch of stuff I can't talk about, but it was very thought provoking and had plenty of unexpected turns. I hope more people read this novella! Tchaikovsky is becoming one of my favorite authors.

This is Tchaikovsky at his disturbing best. His smooth prose style has a tendency to lull readers into thinking they are reading one kind of book – before he slips in a few sentences that make you realise that this is something else altogether… I was intrigued by the unusual second-person viewpoint – so that the narrator is directly addressing the reader as you, instead of the more common I or s/he. If the author hadn’t been Tchaikovsky, this would have raised warning flags, but I was happy to go along with it in the knowledge that I was in the hands of a capable, experienced writer with a complete mastery of his craft. And I was pleased to see that my faith was justified, as the closing scene makes it clear who is talking so directly – and why.

I’m not sure that I liked poor Torquell all that much, but I completely sympathised with his plight, given how humanity have been so downtrodden by the greedy, entitled ogres. The story is cleverly presented. We have Robyn, the outlaw who lives in the forest surrounding the village, which is an obvious allusion to a major legend. As Torquell experiences other key events that tend to happen to an archetypal hero, which he is shown to be, it gave me a sense that I knew this story arc and where it was going.

Until I didn’t… Because inside the wrapping of this classic underdog heroic tale, other things are also happening. The most devastating of those are who the ogres are and how they ended up ruling over humans. And that was a twist I didn’t see coming until Tchaikovsky revealed it. I was still reeling over that one, until the doozy of an ending once more had my jaw dropping. I’m an experienced reader and writer – and while I get drawn into a story with the best of them, if any plot device is clumsily presented, I’ll spot it a mile away. So to be able to pull off two major plot twists while playing such games with the narrative structure takes skill and deftness. Particularly as the story is also delivered with a wry humour that at times had me grinning, despite the awfulness of the ongoing injustice.

All in all, this short book is a triumph – as well as a strong warning that we need to get our sustainability sorted out urgently. The fact that the message is presented so cleverly made it even more apt. I certainly haven’t stopped thinking about this one since I put it down. Very highly recommended for those who appreciate their science fiction delivered with skill and originality. While I obtained an arc of Ogres from the publisher via Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own.
10/10

So Adrian Tchaikovsky has gifted us with a novel about extreme income inequality and power inequality and it is called Ogres. You need to read it immediately.

Written almost like a fairy tale, it follows the strapping young Torquell’s rise from village headman’s son to hero of a revolution against the powers that be. His sense of justice can not tolerate a structure where the Ogres, the extreme 1% who own everything, even the lives of all humans, can do whatever they like on a whim without consequences, no matter who it hurts.

Ogres are genetically engineered giant humans who have taken over the world, 9 or 10-foot tall people who are super strong and able to do whatever humans can presently do and more. Humans have been a genetically engineered in an attempt to stave off the problems of overpopulation and climate change to be docile, not able to eat meat, and to have a hard time reproducing. They are the size humans are now.

The story is mostly about Torquell’s hero’s journey, with quite a bit of Charles Dickens thrown in. Tchaikovsky is quirky like that. It feels like a mashup of Science Fiction, Dickens and fairy tales and it works in the same way all of them do. And what it mostly is is righteous. It’s the righteous David going after Goliath. It’s the righteous striking worker going after the corporate master. It’s the righteous peasant throwing off their feudal Lord. It’s the righteous Ally storming the beaches at Normandy to take on the Nazis.

And there’s a truly amazing twist ending, too.

Thank you to the author and Rebellion/Solaris for an advanced readers copy to review. This did not influence my thoughts or opinions. I finished Ogres over the weekend and will be posting a full review over at FanFiAddict.

This novella was the perfect length, and able to be read within a day. I've been wanting to try a book by Tchaikovsky for sometime now but sometimes the commitment of a full length novel is a little too daunting of a task. I find the length of a novella to be a perfect introduction to a new authors work. When I saw that Ogres was coming out this year, I kept my eye open for the opportunity to check it out.

Ogres really was not what I was expecting. It was genre-bending in all the right ways. Sometimes a novella can feel incomplete, like something is missing. Ogres did not feel this way at all. If anything, it felt completely whole. I felt the story had a strong beginning, middle, and end. There was a steady buildup that was accompanied by a satisfying ending.

Tchaikovsky's prose was easy to read. It has been a long time since I read a story from a perspective other than 1st or 3rd person. Once the story got going, it was easy to follow along. I loved how Tchaikovsky pieced together the plot and details. It all worked for me. I can't think of a single thing that didn't work for me. I will definitely be continuing to read Tchaikovsky's work. Ogres was quite a fascinating story.

Adrian Tchaikovsky does it again, building a world we seem to know and understand but which is be so very very different. At first the omniscient narrator seems an odd writing device, but it's all for the best as it turns out. Torquell, the young human, has always been trouble. As the headman's son he gets a pass though, and really he isn't such a bad kid, just rambunctious. But then he does the unthinkable and kills the son of the Ogre overlord of his village and has to go on the lam holing up with outlaws until he is captured and sent to an Ogre research facility. There he is fed a diet of books and healthy food and his development recorded. The rest is history, as they say.

You will love it.

It's not easy being human in the world of ogres, but it is possible... That is, if you obey the ogres' rules and fulfill their wants. When young Torquell raises his hand against the landlord ogre's son, he finds out the true extent of their cruelty. Torquell soon finds himself on a run before he becomes fully immersed in the mysterious world of ogres, unraveling centuries of secrets.

Adrian Tchaikovsky's novella Ogres is a ballad to the little man and the lengths to which an ordinary, oppressed person would be willing to go to ensure freedom for themselves and their peers. One thing that stood out to me as the best detail in this novella is the "playing the long game" trope. The human characters in this book are seen as tiny and weak by the ogres, but they are anything but. They often make sacrifices and even pretend to be just the way the ogres see them in order to achieve a certain objective.

All of the characters were wonderfully thought out and there were lots of surprising little twists and turns when it came to their personalities and personal goals. The slow disentanglement of the history of ogres and humans was fascinating and provided more than enough motivation to swim through this book in one sitting. Now, to address the gigantic elephant in the room - Ogres uses the dreaded second-person narration. I know, I know, I can't stand it either. But trust me, you want to read this book. (See what I did there?)

Finally, it's worth mentioning that Ogres doesn't baby its readers. There is unfairness and heartbreak and death, and even though this is a tiny book, it will cause big emotions. Highly recommended!

Ogres comes out today, March 15. Huge thank you to NetGalley, Adrian Tchaikovsky and Solaris for the advanced reader copy.

A great story normally means you have a great villain and great villains tell us something about the worst sides of humanity. The casual and selfish cruelty of Prince Regal in Hobb’s Farseer trilogy; the calculating Georg in Claire North’s Notes From The Burning Age and many more all have people we can see in our real world and explain our fears and current issues in society. For all villains a hero will emerge and find a way to try and beat them. It’s a battle that has gripped readers through the ages and always has something to say about today’s world. In Adrian Tchaikovsky’s excellent novella Ogres we get an unusual tale of one such battle crossing the realms of science fiction and fantasy and raising some questions about how villains get in charge.

Torquell is the young son of his village’s leader. The kind of young man who plays pranks; gets scolded and then gets allowed to do it all again. His destiny awaits so he often runs into the forest and plays with Outlaws led by the cynical but kind Roben. But they all know the Landlord who owns the forest, the village and everyone in it will eventually come to check all is well in their world. But in this world the Landlord are Ogres – taller, stronger and in many ways crueller than the humans they manage. Torquell runs up against the younger son of the Landlord and a spontaneous act of rebellion leads to tragedy for the young man who is then once he finds a way for some revenge and ends up on the run in the forest. Torquell will find himself on a journey to finally understand his world; the secrets of the Ogres and how they may be finally beaten. But all such journeys carry a price.

This story very skilfully tells us a tale with huge relevance for today’s world. Initially you will be thinking Tchaikovsky has moved purely into fantasy territory and this does indeed look like an adult fairy tale. Villages: young sons with little sense and outlaws named Roben. Its all set up very well and yet grittily, soon things get very dark, and we then discover exactly how cruel the Ogres can be. But small discrepancies in the world start to creep in – the Ogres have cars, trains and even flying machines. There are stars in the sky that are artificial, and the humans cannot eat meat without being very ill. We soon realise that the pastoral setting is not all it appears to be. As the story progresses Torquell’s journey he is forced to stay in the Ogre’s company where we get to find out how this world has been changed and the Ogres rise to power is less magic and more the power of science and evolution serving the darkest of impulses - greed.

At this point gentle reader, I need to be a bit more careful what I share as you’ll enjoy the ride more with the surprises in store. I think it is safe to say in this story that capitalism and those who run the world and profit off it are the target of the story. This story is an allegory for how the powerful get power, use it to profit themselves and what that means for everyone else who serve the system from the economy to fighting wars. When we finally realise what has happened you may just want to take a moment to appreciate the message behind the science. The other exploration is that of the hero’s journey and unusually this story is all told in second person as someone relives with cynical commentary Torquell’s life story. We see a strong young man start to realise the world is not fair to him and he seeks revenge for the hurt delivered to him. Unusually compared to most fantasy the first step in fighting back here is via education via books and we see Torquell learning to understand the world, the science and also the weaknesses of the system allow the planning for a revolution to come to pass. Subtly changing him from warrior to leader. But Tchaikovsky does warn us that not all revolutions lead to better outcomes. How this story neatly wraps all the plot threads is very powerful and yet still very hopeful that change is inevitable.

Ogres is a brilliant and surprising novella that as well as delivering excellent science fiction with a splash of the fantastical also has a point to make about how monsters get into positions of power and what happens to us when they get there. As the world is very much seeing now what happens when monsters get far too powerful it’s a timely cautionary tale of why we have to be careful when those seeking power keep promising the world will be built back better in their hands that we need to be a little more questioning of what they really want to do once they sit on the throne. Highly recommended!

An absolutely fantastic novella about the hero's journey, the natures of slavery and revolutions, and unfettered access to power. One of my favorite Tchaikovsky books so far.

Full review here: https://youtu.be/8_oWMCnwOdQ

Torquell is the lovable village clown, the son of the headman. When the ogre overlords come, Torquell is suddenly on the run for his life in a society were Ogres are bigger and more powerful and everywhere.

This is a fascinating novella that did not go in the direction I was expecting. It took me a while to get into it because it's written in second person. And it seems like it's going to be a typical heels journey of a fledgling rebellion against the overlords. But as the story develops more and more is revealed about how society was constructed in a the way that it was and its brutal. And the end is a twist that I was not expecting and it makes you think about what is considered acceptable and winning when fighting and oppressor. It's a relatively quick novella that packs a punch.

Thank you to Netgalley and Rebellion Publishing for the advanced e-arc!

Thoroughly enjoyed this title. I am just floored by how much Tchaikovsky was able to fit in this tiny package. The amount of topics covered is staggering and it left me thinking of the story for a long time. Having the story be in second person was perhaps a bit odd but I feel like the author made it work.

Adrian Tchaikovsky is quickly becoming an auto buy author for me!

I loved this book! I pre-ordered the hardcover last week.

Dystopian world. Humans are serfs/slaves to genetically superior Ogres! Yes! Ogres! There are twists & turns.

Torquell is the rebellious son of the Ogre’s human head man and makes a dangerous mistake that sends him on the run for his life.

Why are humans subservient to genetically enhanced ogres? Torquell is poised to find out … a mixture of genres in a quick read voiced in 2nd person which makes you wonder who is telling the story?

Tchaikovsky is just cranking out great books like a machine! I’m looking forward to the audiobook!!!

Great novella!

In this standalone novella, Tchaikovsky explores a future where genetic engineering has produced a race of monsters - the "ogres" of the title - who oppress and dominate humans.

The main character is Torquell, the son of a village head, who comes across as a bit of a tearaway, reluctant to tug his forelock before the Masters. Good for him I say - the ogres in this book have adopted the role of feudal overlords, taking what they will and treating the peasants abominably. It later becomes clear that they also operate a form of robber-baron capitalism, with the worst aspects the Industrial Revolution gleefully reintroduced. So I'm all for opposition, but it seems doomed.

As an outlaw, Torquell's challenge is then first to understand how all this came to be and then to do something about it. It's a formidable task, as the ogres are not only collectively in charge but individually stronger and much bigger than any given human. But there is more going on here than that, something hinted at by the story being narrated not by Torquell, but to him, in the second person ('You were always trouble' are its opening words) so we sense other actors on the stage, perhaps.

I really enjoyed this one. The world which is seen through other eyes may seem rather alien, and be set in the future, but increasingly I began to see correspondences with our own world. It's explicitly a near future dystopia (I think it's fair to call it that) representing a world which claims to have solved certain problems - environmental and social - but at the pice of introducing others (you'll have to read it to understand which). Tchaikovsky's argument is though, I think, that those "new" problems, embodied in the society that he describes here may not really be that new at all. As with the best SF, the book holds up a mirror to our own society, both to its evident flaws and also to the damage that may be done in trying to correct them.

In centring on a driven, if originally reluctant, leader figure it also gently satirises the hero tropes of the dystopian genre: that opening passage continues 'Inevitable, really. And you weren't to know it, but you were following a particular trajectory. The Young Prince is always trouble...' The narrator returns to this theme several times throughout the story, comparing Torquell to the protagonist in the Hero's Journey, not always to his credit. The biological determinism of the process that created the ogres therefore hangs over Torquell himself as a sort of plot determinism, asking us what he is, why, and what he might become.

And whether the template will be followed to the end...

For a short book - I read it in a day - this one packs a tremendous amount in, and truly left me thinking.

The POV of this novella is very smartly done. We experience everything from the eyes of a main character that has a very narrow field of vision and knowledge of the world he lives in. So we also know very little at first of this seemingly pastoral and feudal world of humans in a society governed by ogres. We take every step of discovery with him. And it’s quite a stunning list of discoveries for him. Very little of what he believes to be true turns out to be real.

I missed emotional expressions. The inner landscape of our main character was laid out in a pretty sterile fashion. I made no real connection to him and found it hard to like or emphasize with him, even during the truly horrible events of his life. Nothing seemed to have a real impact on him. However, the story as such was a very smart one.

The final head twister is a real bummer. Nicely done, Mr. Tchaikovsky!

PS: 2nd person narrative, ugh. I am not a fan of that. But I got over it.

I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher or author through NetGalley. All opinions are my own and I was not required to give a positive review.

A Monstruous Novella: Ogres by Adrian Tchaikovsky
I'm getting a little fed up of reviewing books by Adrian Tchaikovsky, please bear with me... First there was Bear Head, which meant I then had to go on and read his other book about bioforms, The Dogs of War. I then reviewed his novella One Day All This Will Be Yours (Solaris Books, 2021), which was hilarious.


So my unhappiness is not because he's a bad writer, but because he's a bloody good one... Ogres is another novella, this time clearly located (initially at least) in the field of fantasy and the most pure form of fantasy, that of the fairy tale. And the plotline, at least initially, follows that of a fairy tale, ogres rule the world and our hero is a human, the son of an alderman who finds himself leading a rebellion against them. There are the standard ogre man eating tropes (this is NOT a story for the squeamish!), the rebel leader trope, and then, our hero is captured... And the story changes, the rural becomes urban, the medieval, industrial, fantasy, sci-fi, and the story becomes something far more interesting and even darker. There are few laughs in Ogres, but a heck of a lot of depth.

It is also impeccably written in that most difficult of voices, the second person, this annoyed me initially because I thought Mr T. was just showing off, because he does it so well, it hardly feels forced... Until the last few pages... And, kpow! There is another ruthless breath-taking twist to the tale, which leaves you gasping.

A huge thank you to Rebellion Publishing and Netgalley for providing me with a review copy of Ogres, in exchange for an honest review.

Unique in setup, Adrian Tchaikovsky deftly weaves multiple threads together in a span of a few pages to set up a very inspiring story - all told in around 100 pages. Very fast-paced - but it still feels like a proper novel with the right amount of time given to setting up the premise and our primary character. This might be my new favorite novella - and Tchaikovsky’s back catalog of books looks even more promising now.

Highly recommend pre-ordering Ogres, releases March 15th!

This was one of the best short stories I have ever read. At first it feels like a typical slave to hero story but the ending is superb! I really enjoyed every page of this and the several twists along the way. Also really enjoyed the second person pov it really made me feel like I was the lead character and it was a nice change from the typical reading I do.

This was a really interesting book. I read it straight through and it had a good pace about it, and characters you could relate too. After I had finished was even more interesting as it really made my think about the story as an allegory of so many things in our society today. I have not read books by this author before but will seek out more of his books now.