Elder Race

On Sophos 4, a planet colonized by humanity some fifteen centuries ago, the descendants of the settlers have forgotten science and Earth entirely; what remains reads as magic, myth, and sorcery. When a demon begins devouring the land, Lynesse Fourth Daughter—the queen's overlooked, troublesome child—invokes an ancient pact and climbs to the tower of the Elder sorcerer to demand his help.

But Nyr Illim Tevich is no sorcerer. He is a junior anthropologist from Earth, left behind by his mission, sworn never to interfere with the culture he was sent to observe, and quietly falling apart—his implanted Dissociative Cognition System the only thing holding his depression at bay. Told in alternating chapters that show the same events as magic and as science, Adrian Tchaikovsky's Hugo-finalist Elder Race is a clever, warm, melancholy novella about communication, mental health, and the stories we tell to survive.