The Poetry Of Imperfection

Each book in the serieshas a cover by Joe Wilson.(Image via Amazon)There are many reasons to recommend Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Tyrant Philosophers, the five-book fantasy saga whose conclusion The Grave of Perfection is set to hit bookshelves in February 2027.There’s a sprawling cast of memorable characters struggling against the oppression of inflexible ideology.There are interesting themes surrounding the alienation of labour, about what it means to be a moral being, and about the mutability of identity.There’s impressively original worldbuilding that seems distinct from much of what exists in the fantasy landscape. There’s the compelling antagonists, the titular Tyrant Philosophers known as the Palleseen Sway. It’s an empire whose goal to make the world “more perfect” has a surface veneer of reasonableness that belies an inflexible and impractical tyranny. But most of all, what makes the Tyrant Philosophers series resonate with us is the joy that the author seems to take playing with…