Tor acquires stunning science fiction from established author

Senior Commissioning Editor Bella Pagan bought World Rights to the novel from Simon Kavanagh of the Mic Cheetham Agency. Tor UK has published nine of Adrian’s highly accomplished Shadows of the Apt fantasy novels so far. But with this science fictional departure, Tchaikovsky has proved that he is a true master of speculative fiction – being more than capable of making this challenging transition from one subgenre to another.

Portia’s Children tells the story of a desperate quest to preserve the last remnants of humanity, which brings out the best and very worst in his impressive cast of characters. It describes a future where our kind once travelled the stars. But here our reach exceeded our grasp, and we fell back to Earth. Now, the ragged remnants of our species are fleeing a dying planet one last time, following ancient star maps and searching for a new home. But they cannot know that mankind’s oldest fear is already waiting for them.

Adrian Tchaikovsky enthused: ‘I’m delighted that Tor has decided to take me up on this. I’ve been wanting for a long time to turn my hand to science fiction, and Portia’s Children is a book that I poured a lot of myself into. I’m looking forward to seeing it unleashed on the world.’

Bella Pagan praised the book, saying: ‘I knew Adrian was an impressive fantasy writer, but I was really blown away by his science fiction. This novel is utterly compulsive, powerfully ambitious and a palpable sense of menace and danger informs the urgent writing throughout.’

Tor UK plans to release Portia’s Children in summer 2015, in between Tchaikovsky’s forthcoming fantasy titles.