The Expert System's Brother($11.92Value)

Description

Bestselling British master of science fiction Adrian Tchaikovsky brings readers a new, mind-expanding science fantasia in The Expert System's Brother After an unfortunate accident, Handry is forced to wander a world he doesn’t understand, searching for meaning. He soon discovers that the life he thought he knew is far stranger than he could even possibly imagine. Can an unlikely saviour provide the answers to the questions he barely comprehends? “I loved it. A bold, vivid story about humanity and the broader universe. Should we mold the universe to suit us? Or should we mold ourselves to suit the universe? Adrian Tchaikovsky keeps these choices in tension, and kept me riveted to the page.” ―Ramez Naam, author of Nexus “A great coming-of-age story that careens through a world so vividly realized that you can feel each insect bite and taste every acrid berry. The Expert System’s Brother gives you that visceral eek of satisfaction as its pieces come into view then fit together with exacting precision. It’s a smart story, smartly told.” ―Hugo Award Winner, John Chu " Tchaikovsky convincingly evokes a world populated with grotesque creatures, rituals, vegetation and mysterious technology that reflects a command of the science fiction genre." ― Lincolnshire Life Magazine Adrian Tchaikovsky is a British science-fiction and fantasy writer known for a wide-variety of work including the Children of Time, Final Architecture, Dogs of War, Tyrant Philosophers and Shadows of the Apt series, as well as standalone books such as Elder Race , Doors of Eden , Spiderlight and many others. Children of Time and its series has won the Arthur C. Clarke and BSFA awards, and his other works have won the British Fantasy, British Science Fiction and Sidewise Awards. In 2024, he was inducted into the European Science Fiction Society Hall of Fame, and he has been nominated for the Hugo Award six times between 2023 and 2025. The Expert System's Brother By Adrian Tchaikovsky, Lee Harris Tom Doherty Associates Copyright © 2018 Adrian Czajkowski All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-250-19756-6 CHAPTER 1 IT WENT WRONG FOR ME when they made Sethr an outcast. Where I grew up, people don't get angry at each other. We were a community; you looked into your neighbour's face and saw a friend. But Sethr wasn't anybody's friend. He stole things and he didn't pull his weight. Give him a morning's task and he'd take two days over it. The word began to pass between people that he was no good for the village. He was still one of us, but he got fewer and fewer smiles wherever he went. It wasn't good to be seen talking to him. The young women he so wanted to spend time with, they stopped looking his way. You'd think this would be a lesson to him, and he'd get back into line so people liked him again, but then again you're not Sethr. To Sethr, it was someone else's fault and why should he change? He got angry instead, and then he got into a fight and broke Broed's arm, and that was his last chance lost. They brought him to Lawgiver Elhern. Quite a crowd came to watch. I was there myself, just thirteen and more interested in some time away from the fields than what was going on. There was a whole bunch of us kids come to see the law doled out — Livvi, Melory, Kalton, Chogger and me. We'd not needed Elhern's ghost to perform such duties for years. Aro, our village, it was a peaceful place before then. Elhern was a greying woman, still strong and stocky. She worked her own farm most of the time, with her two grown sons and a woman she'd taken in, and when you heard her speak, you'd not think she was marked for special wisdom or judgment. Right now, though, it wasn't Elhern's judgment we'd come to hear, but the Lawgiver's. Her one working eye rolled into her head and the ghostlight flickered in the empty socket of the other and played in a brief halo about her tightly bound hair. She heard the accusations and Sethr's wheedling denials, but the words went somewhere deeper, to where the ghosts lived. When her lips opened, it wasn't quite her voice, but something else speaking through her, forcing her throat and tongue to make its words. This was the ghost. This was the Lawgiver. "Community member Sethr verdict guilty. Prognosis: unacceptable burden. Recommended sentence: Severance." And Sethr was all howls and pleas then, finally understanding he'd gone too far. He promised he'd mend his ways, but some things just stay broken. The Lawgiver had heard his history and judged that he would never mend enough to pull his weight. He would be cast out for the good of everyone. The Lawgiver had spoken. * * * Let me tell you about Aro. It's much like where you come from, I'm sure, but there will be differences. Our tree is halfway up a hill, and it leans out quite a way so that the few visitors we get think it's about to tear its roots free and fall on us. It would crush half the houses if it ever did, because we're not spread out like som