Adrian Tchaikovsky: Future Tense (with Aliens)

Arthur C Clarke Award-winning Adrian Tchaikovsky is a sci-fi legend, celebrated for his epic world-building. His latest book Alien Clay conjures a hostile planet called Kiln scattered with ruins of an alien civilisation and labour camps for exiled prisoners. He talks to Ann Landmann, exploring what imagining distant futures can teach us about our earthly world. Have sci-fi writers been ahead of the curve all along?

Book Festival News

Communities Programme participants celebrate success of 2024 Communities Programme participants celebrate success of 2024
Friday 13 December

Enjoying this event? You can help us produce more like it.

Donate

Share

Watch more

Rachel Reeves at the Edinburgh International Book Festival Rachel Reeves at the Edinburgh International Book Festival In Women of Westminster, Labour MP Rachel Reeves tells the overlooked stories of leading and lesser known British politicians who have shaped a nation, from the earliest suffrage campaigns to Harriet Harman’s legislation on the gender pay gap. Reeves… Abi Morgan: For Love Nor Pity Abi Morgan: For Love Nor Pity One of the UK’s most fearsomely talented screenwriters, Abi Morgan has worked on projects including The Iron Lady and Shame, which garnered both headlines and awards. Today, she reveals her own powerful story of survival. In This is Not a Pity Memoir… Naoise Dolan & Naomi Ishiguro: Growing Pains Naoise Dolan & Naomi Ishiguro: Growing Pains Every year at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, we celebrate the talent, wit and skill of emerging writers. In this event, we are joined by two of the freshest voices in fiction, whose coming-of-age narratives are by turns tender and cynical in… Kerri ní Dochartaigh & Katherine May: Wildest Dreams Kerri ní Dochartaigh & Katherine May: Wildest Dreams From the depths of winter sprout the seeds of new growth and the promise of wonders. In Enchantment, Katherine May unravels the threads of a tightly-wound life and finds a more meaningful and grounded way to be. In Cacophony of Bone, Kerri ní Dochartaigh… Colum McCann: An Infinity of Stories Colum McCann: An Infinity of Stories Once every few years, a novel comes along that genuinely opens up new ways of seeing the world. Colum McCann’s new novel Apeirogon might well be such a book. Two protagonists, Rami and Bassam – one a Palestinian, the other an Israeli – are each mourning… Amit Chaudhuri (2015 event) Amit Chaudhuri (2015 event) In Amit Chaudhuri’s entertaining latest novel, Odysseus Abroad, an aspiring poet named Ananda has arrived in London from India and is trying to make sense of what he sees. Chaudhuri crafts a sharply-observed world, inspired as much by James… John Gordon Sinclair (2014 event) John Gordon Sinclair (2014 event) John Gordon Sinclair continues to put distance between himself and Gregory’s Girl, the film that made his name. Two years ago he made his novel-writing debut and his second book, Blood Whispers wraps a grim tale around the CIA, Serbian gangs and a… Paul Auster (2017 Event) Paul Auster (2017 Event) The great American novelist makes his first ever appearance at the Book Festival. In 4 3 2 1, Paul Auster gives Archibald Isaac Ferguson, an only child, four different stories. Four Fergusons made of the same genetic material, four boys who are the same… Ma Jian talks to André Naffis-Sahely at the Edinburgh International Book Festival Ma Jian talks to André Naffis-Sahely at the Edinburgh International Book Festival Exile in London hasn’t dulled Chinese author Ma Jian’s anger at the state which permanently banned his work over 30 years ago. His biting satire China Dream takes aim at Xi Jinping’s regime and the mistruths told by the Communist Party today, centring on… Highlights of the 2014 Edinburgh International Book Festival Highlights of the 2014 Edinburgh International Book Festival Just a few of the highlights of the 2014 Book Festival - what a wonderful year we had!…