Green City Wars by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Book Review

Sarah Deeming

The future is green. Humanity’s old cities have been replaced by eco, bio diverse cities where humans and nature thrive hand in hand. Buildings are surrounded by plant life: trees, moss, ferns, ivy. It is a futuristic elven paradise. But all this natural luxury comes with a price tag, and the sort of people who can afford it don’t want little, menial tasks to get in the way. So in come the Little Helpers, bio-engineered creatures, adapted to have enough intelligence to do jobs like clean up after diners in restaurants, or keeping the gutters clear, or any one of a multitude of tasks humans think beneath them, all wrapped up in a cutesy animal form.

Skotch is a raccoon, once a problem-solver for Uzco, the company that made him, now a freelance PI, solving problems and finding things for other Little Helpers, all in the hope of earning enough buttons to keep himself in Plangent, the chemical that stops the Little Helpers returning to their base animal. Skotch’s old employer wants to hire him for a really simple job: find a mouse. What could be easier? But Skotch is suspicious; mice are the cheapest Little Helper to create, and Uzco is willing to pay a small fortune to get their hands on this mouse. And Uzco isn’t the only interested party. Skotch must dodge warring squirrels, a murderous stout, and an overly talkative pigeon. Find this mouse and stay alive.

Green City Wars is a new story from one of my favourite authors, Adrian Tchaikovsky. Written in a very close third-person POV, we follow a raccoon called Skotch as he tries to survive an incredibly inventive world of humans and warring creatures with enhanced intelligence. Due to the narrative’s closeness to the main character, Skotch’s voice comes across strong and full of nuances that make him a likeable little rogue, and gives the reader a blend of futuristic sci-fi and old-fashioned detective noir.

The worldbuilding is fantastic, with this beautiful world of humans residing in living buildings as they try to repair the damage done to the world and all the little tasks completed by Little Helpers. There are significant rules surrounding the Little Helpers and their human interactions, as well as an ethical question about whether they are just tools, as they were created in a laboratory, or whether they are something more. Where does the line between property and free-thinking individuals lie?

There is an incredibly complex social hierarchy between the different animals that make up the Little Helpers, as a raccoon, Skotch is bigger than most of the others, but he also has traits that make him differ to pure predators who are more vicious than him. He forms unusual friendships with other creatures and keeps himself useful to all parties, loyal mostly to himself. Watching these interactions between Skotch and the other animals is fascinating, and the idea of red and grey squirrels forming separate bands to attack each other is genius. However, because the world is so complex, there is a lot of exposition which sometimes distracted from the story, and I had to reread paragraphs to get back to the point.

At its heart, Green City Wars is a detective story with all the expected characteristics of the genre. Skotch is a freelance PI who is in way over his head because his employers know he is capable but also expendable. He only has limited information about Dr. Meece, the mouse he is searching for; for example, he knows what the mouse smells like but doesn’t know why everyone is so interested in him. Slowly but surely, Skotch uncovers more of the mystery until he is confronted with the whole truth and is left with a decision that could change the world forever. It is this clever give and take of information that kept me reading when the exposition became a little heavy.

Green City Wars is another hit from Tchaikovsky, blending genres and current themes into a fantastical piece of fiction that immerses you in another world, both alien and familiar to our own. His already substantial fan base will love this, and it’s bound to bring in a few more. Highly recommended.