Welcome back to Back Shelf Sundays, where I review backlist titles I didn’t read when they were first published. I do this each week to ensure I’m reading more than just newly released and forthcoming titles; there are just so many good books out there. This week’s book is Ogres by Adrian Tchaikovsky. You probably know Tchaikovsky from his wildly popular Children of Time hard sci-fi series, which features intelligent spiders in space. His Ogres novella is a speculative work set in a world where ogres are the ruling class; humans are their servants. This book is filled with insane twists, and I thoroughly enjoyed the journey. Honestly, Ogres is the monster novella I didn’t know I needed.

Title: Ogres

Author: Adrian Tchaikovsky

Publisher: Solaris

Page Count: 102

Release Date: March 15, 2022

Goodreads / Amazon

Synopsis:

Ogres are bigger than you.
Ogres are stronger than you.
Ogres rule the world.

It’s always idyllic in the village until the landlord comes to call.

Because the landlord is an Ogre. And Ogres rule the world, with their size and strength and appetites. It’s always been that way. It’s the natural order of the world. And they only eat people sometimes.

But when the headman’s son, Torquell, dares lift his hand against the landlord’s son, he sets himself on a path to learn the terrible truth about the Ogres, and about the dark sciences that ensured their rule.

Review:

Ogres rule in this world, and humans exist only to serve them and work their lands. Only, you probably won’t recognize these humans. The humans in Ogres are simple, small, vegetarian folk; ogres are large, overbearing, and brutish. The protagonist, Torquell, is the human son of a village headman. After he makes a violent mistake and pays for it in blood, he must go on the run. His journey leads him away from the world he knows and into a world of knowledge, war, and rebellion.

Tchaikovsky outdid himself with this wild story. While Ogres feels like a horror novella in its beginning chapters, it quickly evolves into something more. Ogres uses a dystopian lens to reflect on some of the worst aspects of human nature: exploitation, population control, slavery, racism, war, and the need for power. This novella deals with heavy topics, but it does so lightly; it does not dwell too long on any one particular issue, which I actually appreciated.

Ogres is written in second person point of view; it addresses the reader as “you” and inserts the reader as the main character in the story. I’m not new to second-person narration, but this is one of the best iterations I’ve ever encountered. Due to this second-person narration, the reader feels a kinship and a real sense of self with the protagonist. This genius narration style isn’t just a gimmick – it actually impacts how the different twists in the story hit, particularly the ending.

Final Thoughts: Genius story. Genius writing style. Just genius all the way around. Other than one qualm, I adored this story. I didn’t like that one specific character was raped and how the reveal of that rape occurred. It is something that wouldn’t stop me from enjoying the book or from reading Tchaikovsky in the future, but I didn’t love it in the story.

Rating: 4/5 stars