
Synopsis
Award-winning author Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Made Things is a dark yet whimsical fantasy tale full of magic, half-mages and puppet companions.
Making friends could mean the difference
between ruin and great reward . . .
Welcome to Fountains Parish – a cesspit of trade and crime, where ambition curls up to die and desperation grows on its cobbled streets like mould on week-old bread.? Coppelia is a street thief and a trickster with a small talent for magic. She also has something other thieves don’t . . . tiny puppet-like companions: some made of wood, some of metal. They don’t entirely trust her, and she doesn’t entirely understand them, but their partnership mostly works. But can it survive a far bigger challenge than picking a pocket or two?
A local crime lord has noted Coppelia’s success and compels her to assist in a high-stakes heist: breaking into a mages' palace to plunder its treasures. She knows this illicit adventure could either break her or make all their fortunes. But a surprising discovery shakes their world to the core – and Coppelia and her friends are forced to face a threat to the great city itself.
Includes the bonus short story, Precious Little Things!
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Praise for Adrian Tchaikovsky
‘One of the best storytellers in the business’ – John Scalzi, author of Old Man’s War on Service Model
‘Addictively brilliant!’ – John Gwynne, author of Malice on The Tiger and the Wolf
‘Few contemporary writers have Adrian Tchaikovsky’s range, excelling at chunky far-future hard SF as well as high-fantasy epics’ – The Guardian
Details
Reviews
Thieves, mages, and miniature golems run afoul of each other in this charming novella set in a steampunk fantasy world . . . The dashingly roguish cast, clever prose and well-placed moments of heartfelt emotion are sure to delight
A classically brilliant fantasy writer, a pusher of boundaries, a great storyteller
One of the most interesting and accomplished writers in speculative fiction
Equally deft in the realms of science fiction and fantasy adventure, Adrian Tchaikovsky knows how to take you to a place, no matter the setting