Pretenders to the Throne of God is the fourth and penultimate book in Adrian Tchaikovsky’s always entertaining and thought-provoking Tyrant Philosophers series. The series has taken readers around a rich fantasy world to different conflicts brought on by the imperial Palleseen in their pursuit of ‘Perfection’. While some characters have come and gone through the series, one character has been a constant and once again features centrally in this story.
Pretenders to the Throne of God takes the action to Eres Fennegh, a city which sits on the back of a giant, ancient but seemingly dead crab god. The city had been under the control of the Lothuri (the other great global power) until the Palleseen helped the population rise up, only to take over themselves. But then, with the help of some Palleseen who have rediscovered their people’s bloody old religion, the people of Eres Fennegh expelled their conquering allies. Which has left the city is under siege with the Palleseen army at its gates. And the pressured leaders of that besieging army are not above using very irregular (potentially heretical) troops to help them take back the city.
As with the other books of this series there is a huge cast of characters and Tchaikovsky effectively manages to jump between them in individual chapters while keeping the narrative moving forward. The exception to this are the few “mosaic” chapters – usually huge set piece battles – where the narrative nimbly skips between all of the major players. There are plenty of interesting new characters and a few returning characters from previous books. But the character that readers of this series will remember best is Devil Jack, previously known as Happy Jack and before that Maric Jack and before that Yasnic, originally the last follower of a tiny forgotten god. Once again, Jack’s actions and relationships will have huge implications on the way his world operates.
Pretenders to the Throne of God is another delightful, dark, thought-provoking novel in a series that continues to explore huge concepts such as war, religion, slavery, colonialism and exploitation within the framework of a complex fantasy world. All of which is building to a much anticipated final book The Grave of Perfection which will return Jack and readers to the city of Ilmar where his journey began.
Pretenders to the Throne of God by Adrian Tchaikovsky
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