Green City Wars

By: Adrian Tchaikovsky

Narrated by: John Pirhalla

Philip Marlowe meets Redwall in this superior adult noir tale, where all the characters are animals, fighting for survival in the city underneath the humans.

In the solar cities of the future, the humans relax in the sun and the animals work in the shadows. Genetically engineered Little Helpers, serving humanity—unseen, unheard.

Meet Skotch. Raccoon, PI—yours for a few buttons as long as the job isn't too illegal, whatever that means.

A mouse has gone missing. Normally this wouldn't raise any hackles, nor any alarms, but this mouse has something that everyone seems to want, though nobody appears particularly eager to say what that something is.

The fee is good—perhaps too good. Certainly not something Skotch can easily turn down.

If only Skotch can work out where the mouse is hiding, what he’s hiding, and why his secrets are upsetting a lot of animals caught up in the Green City wars.

Critic reviews

Praise for Adrian Tchaikovsky

“A surprisingly thoughtful and compelling story...Readers who love a good postapocalyptic hell ride, AI-centered adventures, and robot/human companion stories, such as A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers, will appreciate.” —Library Journal, starred review on Service Model

“With humor, heart, and hope balancing out the decay, this glimpse of the future is sure to win fans.” —Publishers Weekly on Service Model

“Picking up an Adrian Tchaikovsky book is proof you love your brain and want it to be happy.” —John Scalzi

“There’s an Ursula Le Guin–like grace to [Tchaikovsky's] storytelling....Ten out of ten.” —The New York Times on Elder Race

“An epic tale of a land ruled by magic—or the sober record of a world colonized by science....The double vision built into the story works well.” —The Wall Street Journal on Elder Race

“Rex, a two-metre-tall bioengineered dog, is one of the most achingly human characters I have ever encountered in an SF novel. A gripping dive into bioethics and artificial intelligence.” —New Scientist on Dogs of War

“Children of Time is a joy from start to finish. Entertaining, smart, surprising and unexpectedly human.” —Patrick Ness