The Tiger and the Wolf

// the speculative fiction authors challenge
// part 3 continued: Adrian Tchaikovsky

Prior to this novel I've only read Elder Race, a novella I wasn't particularly excited about, but for the sake of this reading challenge I wanted to read a novel length book as well.

I will acknowledge that Tchaikovsky is very thorough in his worldbuilding. I do really enjoy this universe of tribes that worship these animal gods and can shapeshift into said animal. But... The pacing of this book is unfathomably slow. And most of the character building is aggressive male behaviour (and sometimes aggressive women trying to prove their worth in this animal universe) and I got really tired of the stereotype animal characteristics projected onto these “humans” very early on. I don't know... It didn't work for me.

I don't know if it's the same for all Tchaikovsky's books, but I'm thinking they work better for someone who loves rich worldbuilding more so than complex characters. I'm the opposite: I prefer to understand the world through the characters.

So it's a 2.5* for me, I'll round up to 3. And the verdict of this challenge is Tchaikovsky is not for me.