Book Review: Made Things, by Adrian Tchaikovsky
A mage-thief's heist leads to a revolt against the archmages.
Tor.com, 2019, 192 pages
Making friends has never been so important.
Welcome to Fountains Parish - a cesspit of trade and crime, where ambition curls up to die and desperation grows on its cobbled streets like mold on week-old bread.
Coppelia is a street thief, a trickster, a low-level con artist. But she has something other thieves don't...tiny puppet-like companions: some made of wood, some of metal. They don't entirely trust her, and she doesn't entirely understand them, but their partnership mostly works.
After a surprising discovery shakes their world to the core, Coppelia and her friends must re-examine everything they thought they knew about their world, while attempting to save their city from a seemingly impossible new threat.
Adrian Tchaikovsky is a versatile writer who hasn't disappointed me yet. He writes space operas and epic fantasies with equal facility, and even his shorter works are fine reads. Made Things is a little novella about an orphaned thief with a bit of magic growing up rough in a dystopian fantasy city. It doesn't have the sweep of Tchaikovsky's Children of Time or Shadows of the Apt series, but it's mostly self-contained though there is also a prequel.
Coppelia lives in a city ruled by archmages. She gets by with thievery and a little bit of magic, as many citizens have some magical talent. Her parents had a little bit of magical talent, and were taken away to the workhouses, never to be seen again. Now she scrapes by as a burglar paying the appropriate homage to the crime lords above her.
Coppelia's secret is that she has been befriended by a tribe of homunculi: small, magically constructed golems, who despite their artificial construction, are living, thinking beings. So far Coppelia has kept their existence a secret, and they have helped her on some of her capers. They do not fully trust her, or any human, but they have an agenda of their own: to multiply and establish independent colonies that don't have to hide in the shadows.
Most of the story is told from Coppelia's point of view, but Tchaikovsky gives us a glimpse into the minds and dialog of the homunculi as well. There are parallel storylines running throughout this novella: it's very much a story about privilege and oppression. The magelords of the city are selfish and callous, acting like stereotypical rich prick aristos bullying their lessers about, and Coppelia and her thief compatriots reveal in their thoughts and actions that revolution is buried deep in their hearts, an impossible dream but still there. This is echoed by the fear of the homunculi, who must trust in a single talented human like Coppelia but know that humans could destroy them all if they are not careful.
Coppelia, because of her talent for puppetry and manufacturing intricate mechanical things (the same talent that drew the homunculi to her) is involuntarily drafted into a heist in an archmage's tower. This heist goes very badly and Coppelia is captured. She learns something about who the real powers in the city are. In order to escape, she will need the help of her friends, human and otherwise.
While the ending was a little tidy, this was just a novella, and there is plenty of room for the further adventures of Coppelia and her little "puppet" friends.
Also by Adrian Tchaikovsky: My reviews of Children of Time, Children of Ruin, Empire in Black and Gold, Dragonfly Falling, and The Expert System's Brother.
My complete list of book reviews.
Tor.com, 2019, 192 pages
Making friends has never been so important.
Welcome to Fountains Parish - a cesspit of trade and crime, where ambition curls up to die and desperation grows on its cobbled streets like mold on week-old bread.
Coppelia is a street thief, a trickster, a low-level con artist. But she has something other thieves don't...tiny puppet-like companions: some made of wood, some of metal. They don't entirely trust her, and she doesn't entirely understand them, but their partnership mostly works.
After a surprising discovery shakes their world to the core, Coppelia and her friends must re-examine everything they thought they knew about their world, while attempting to save their city from a seemingly impossible new threat.
Adrian Tchaikovsky is a versatile writer who hasn't disappointed me yet. He writes space operas and epic fantasies with equal facility, and even his shorter works are fine reads. Made Things is a little novella about an orphaned thief with a bit of magic growing up rough in a dystopian fantasy city. It doesn't have the sweep of Tchaikovsky's Children of Time or Shadows of the Apt series, but it's mostly self-contained though there is also a prequel.
Coppelia lives in a city ruled by archmages. She gets by with thievery and a little bit of magic, as many citizens have some magical talent. Her parents had a little bit of magical talent, and were taken away to the workhouses, never to be seen again. Now she scrapes by as a burglar paying the appropriate homage to the crime lords above her.
Coppelia's secret is that she has been befriended by a tribe of homunculi: small, magically constructed golems, who despite their artificial construction, are living, thinking beings. So far Coppelia has kept their existence a secret, and they have helped her on some of her capers. They do not fully trust her, or any human, but they have an agenda of their own: to multiply and establish independent colonies that don't have to hide in the shadows.
Most of the story is told from Coppelia's point of view, but Tchaikovsky gives us a glimpse into the minds and dialog of the homunculi as well. There are parallel storylines running throughout this novella: it's very much a story about privilege and oppression. The magelords of the city are selfish and callous, acting like stereotypical rich prick aristos bullying their lessers about, and Coppelia and her thief compatriots reveal in their thoughts and actions that revolution is buried deep in their hearts, an impossible dream but still there. This is echoed by the fear of the homunculi, who must trust in a single talented human like Coppelia but know that humans could destroy them all if they are not careful.
Coppelia, because of her talent for puppetry and manufacturing intricate mechanical things (the same talent that drew the homunculi to her) is involuntarily drafted into a heist in an archmage's tower. This heist goes very badly and Coppelia is captured. She learns something about who the real powers in the city are. In order to escape, she will need the help of her friends, human and otherwise.
While the ending was a little tidy, this was just a novella, and there is plenty of room for the further adventures of Coppelia and her little "puppet" friends.
Also by Adrian Tchaikovsky: My reviews of Children of Time, Children of Ruin, Empire in Black and Gold, Dragonfly Falling, and The Expert System's Brother.
My complete list of book reviews.