Adrian Tchaikovsky tackles religion, the purpose of religion and tech bros and AI natural stupidity in novella length, and it's glorious. His best novella since [book:Ogres|58438207] and it goes straight to my top 3 of his novellas (along with Ogres and [book:Elder Race|50663055]).

Far future Earth, with humans clinging in low-tech tribes, when self-announced gods fall from the sky – human scientific geniuses and entrepreneurs that had left Earth long ago to create a new utopia elsewhere and return ostensibly to fix Earth. It's a fantastic setup, and the author does it justice with his own particular view into things. (Not sure if it is just me, but I kept seeing these gods as a cynical commentary on Tolkien's Istari wizards …). The self-importance and the smarmy-ness are all shining through loud and clear. We do not usually praise Adrian Tchaikovsky for the characterisation, perhaps because that is not the focus; his work is too filled with ideas and worldbuilding for that to be the focus, but it has been my opinion that in recent books he is very good at reliably portraying the concerns of his main characters, not dodging self-interest as motivation, and here again Amri was incredibly relatable to me.

The epilogue is a banger (for my taste), but well, it is Adrian Tchaikovsky, that is to be expected.

I heard it on audiobook, narrated by Emma Newman who does a great job with rhythm, accents, and expression.

This was a NetGalley request. Thank you very much to Tantor Audio for the chance. I did love it, and while it was on my wishlist, it might have taken me a while to finally get it and read it. Instead, I was lucky enough to get this to the top of my TBR and it was precisely the kind of exhilarating read I was in the mood for. No strings attached to this, except writing down my honest opinion, which this is, even if not too professional.

Ahoy there mateys! This is the first book in the Terrible Worlds: Innovations series.  I received a copy from Tantor Audio in exchange for my honest review.  It is read by Emma Newman.  She is such a great narrator for Tchaikovsky's work.

Amri is a member of the Rabbit tribe on Earth.  One day she witnesses the destruction of her people.  Four Gods have returned to Earth.  The four Gods are at war.  They did not expect to find any survivors on Earth.  Amri meets the God called Guy Vesten.  He will help her survive and get revenge if she helps gather other tribes to help him fight his war.

This was such an odd little book but I enjoyed it.  The Gods are so egotistical and short sighted that they are incapable of seeing the truth.  They each have a specialty - plants, insects, plastic (i.e. robots etc), and people managing.  I liked the concept of Earth's "smartest" people leaving Earth and returning later.

The only problem I had was that I wanted more about the human tribes on Earth and how they worked before the Gods came.  The brief descriptions of them were awesome.  I also thought the ending of this novella was excellent. Arrrr!

This is one of my favorites in this series of novella's written by Adrian Tchaikovsky. I think the premise is really interesting and to be completely honest it took a minute to realize that the characters are human as they are referred to as other animal names. In general, I love the concepts explored in this short story about "Gods". I don't feel like I should say more as almost anything said would / could be a spoiler. But going in blind is the way to go.

One of Tchaikovsky's best, and my second favourite of all the Terrible Worlds novellas.

An engaging point of view character, first-rate world building, class commentary. It's all there.

The big "twist" that the remaining god had evil plans as well was pretty thoroughly choreographed, but there was still tension because I *hoped* he was a good guy. The denouement was a bit abrupt, but it was very satisfying. Honestly, this book is just a blast.

A rich multi-billionaire who had abandoned Earth long ago has now returned with a plan to clean and remake the decaying and overheated planet. But first, he must gain the support of a Rabbit and a few key Seagulls (names for groups of surviving humans).

It’s a post-apocalyptic tale that points a finger at those who are packing their bunkers, ready to spend millions to leave the planet rather than to help fix things that are broken on Earth. In true Tchaikovsky style, I care deeply about the human animals left behind and marvel at the creative ways he sees humanity adapt and evolve. It's also quite entertaining and suspenseful.

This is a short novella with excellent audiobook narration. Highly recommended. My thanks to the author, publisher, @TantorAudio, and #NetGalley for early access to the audiobook for review purposes. Publication date: 12 August 2025.

Tchaikovsky's writing works through obfuscation ... the way everything is framed makes the banal seem otherworldly. The reader has to pay close attention, waiting for the little moments that make what's really going on obvious, and constantly read between the lines.

The story follows regular person/survivor Amri in a post-apocalyptic landscape as she gains the attention of a "god" returning to a forgotten Earth alongside three other hell-raisers. These "gods" are archetypes of the leading men in the world today ... the ones we all despite and wish to have their comeuppance. And here they do.

The narration by Emma Newman was tremulous and perfect.

I have come to realize that I love novellas. As soon as I read the synopsis I knew that this was going to be an interesting book. The characters are all separated into different tribes (rabbit, seagull, cockroach, pigeon, etc.) and each tribe works differently to survive in the post apocalyptic world. Then the gods show up from space and begin trying to remake the world to fit their own design. Designs that do not fit into the world the others have planned. Unfortunately, these men playing gods cause havoc on the planet while using the current inhabitants of the planets as pawns or simply seeing them as being in-the-way of their progress.

Reading this book, I loved the descriptions that Tchaikovsky uses. It really paints a detailed image of the world. It was also interesting to see what could happen if the rich and brightest minds left Earth while it was on the brink of destruction to create their own Utopia, then what happens when a few return. It is a dark book, more of a mix between science fiction and horror, and I definitely enjoyed it. I highly recommend this novella. Thank you to NetGalley and Tantor Media for the advanced readers copy of this book.

Was in interesting premise which provided some unusual and philosophical food for thought. That said, I didn't enjoy this story as a whole. Partly because it took me a while to get used to the narrator who was obviously good at their job but sounded like they were recovering from a nasty cold. But mainly because the pacing felt wrong, some parts fleshed out much more than others then the last chapter was "and then 15 years later it xyz happily ever after, the end" and felt jarring, weird and totally disjointed. It was a good job I listened to this on audio because if it had been ebook/physical I wouldn't have finished it. I'm generally a fantasy reader but do sometimes dip into scifi but this doesn't encourage me to explore the genre. I listened to this on a car journey with my husband and he fully agreed with my review. Not for me. Not for my husband. Sorry.

This is an absolutely phenomenal read and everything I look for in Science fiction. Such a clever display of awareness for the world around us Tchaikovsky really packs a punch in so few pages. I liked the first book Saturation Point but I feel this one really took it to a new level. 5 stars. Would definitely recommend even if you haven't read the first, would recommend even if you haven't read him before.

The story itself is quite gripping and I can’t wait to get my hands on it! However, I genuinely disliked the narrator for this particular genre. I can see her narrating perhaps romance books, romantasies, even non-fiction, but definitely not a fantasy of this sort.

The return of the space colonizers to colonize the home world at the expense of the survivors who they left behind is not the most original premise. It is very reminiscent of Emergency Skin by N.K. Jemisin, which is a much tighter satire, perfectly narrated by Jason Isaacs. But this is a slightly longer work, with a POV that isn't privy to how the world they live in became the way it is. And so Emma Newman is perfectly cast as the meek but subversive Amri of the Rabbit tribe, who is devastated and coerced by the invasion of the former tech geniuses of the world, who are back to make the home world their plaything again. But their literal God complex in dehumanizing the inheritors of Earth and their supposedly primitive intelligence is as much a tool for the vision of a restored Earth as it is of their ultimate reckoning. I wish there was a bit more of a connective tissue between the bulk of the happenings in the story, and the very last part which feels like an epilogue. Otherwise, it is everything one loves in an Adrian Tchaikovsky work.

Conforme escuchaba The Hungry Gods en m mente la estaba encuadrando en la serie de novelas cortas Terrible Worlds, aunque el estilo de la cubierta recuerda más a Saturation Point que creo que no se circunscribe a esta recopilación. Ya sabéis que es muy difícil seguirle el ritmo de publicación a AdrianTchaikovsky, así que no creo que merezca la pena perder el tiempo discutiendo sobre en qué serie encaja o no una de sus obras.


La versión en audiolibro está locutada por Emma Newman, que es una de mis lectoras favoritas, con obras encomiables como Guns of Dawn. En esta ocasión nos vuelve a dejar un trabajo buenísimo, encarnando de manera perfecta la personalidad de Amri, la protagonista de la historia.

El libro se sitúa en un futuro muy lejano, en una Tierra donde los restos de la humanidad sobreviven a duras penas asimilados en tribus que asemejan comportamiento de animales. Amri pertenece a la de los conejos, pero todo este equilibrio sumamente inestable se verá destrozado por la aparición de los dioses, los humanos que dejaron la Tierra atrás hace siglos para crear su propia utopia espacial y que ahora vuelven con objetivos poco claros y enfrentados. ¿Escenario postapocalíptico en el que se liberan nuevas tecnologías? ¡Póngame dos!

A partir de ahí, el autor inglés aprovecha para ir proponiendo “soluciones” bastante supremacistas para la Tierra, para a continuación ir desmontándolas una por una con cierto toque gore y bastante mala idea, algo que parece ser una tendencia en sus publicaciones.

Algunos puntos más débiles de la obra son que las ideas de cada dios ya las hemos visto en otras obras del mismo autor, aunque claro, con una producción tan elevada es normal repetir algún que otro tema. Es también mi impresión que los personajes de The Hungry Gods no están tan bien definidos como los de otras obras del autor y no precisamente por falta de longitud en la publicación, una novela corta de casi 200 páginas, si no porque la idiosincrasia de la tribu a la que pertenece Amri le hace ser olvidable.

Ahora bien, como historia de venganza, me parece una obra redonda y no puedo dejar de recomendarla.

The gods have returned to earth to make it in their image of a new future. But what about the survivors from the world they left behind. Amri was a Rabbit tribe, who run from danger. Seagulls fight, Pigeon trade and Cockriach scavenge.

Very well written and well narrated novel (I listened to the audiobook). Good characters in a well paced novel. There are four gods but they do not agree which version of the new earth is best and will fight amongst themselves.

Dystopian.

I love this author’s work. When I heard … rabbits … I envisioned Monty Python, you know the scene. Well it’s not that.

This was such a cool & utterly unique novella. How does Adrian Tchaikovsky think these things up? And it feels so real. I’m repulsed and amazed. I mean … cockroaches … why? Seagull fights, pigeon’s. What an odd cast of characters.

Four men … techies … self-proclaimed gods now return to this ravaged tech-less world. Amri’s family is decimated by one of the four gods. Amri is alone & latches onto Guy Vesten, a god who’s out for revenge on the other three.

The god seeking revenge needs an army. Amri doesn’t want to be alone. A match has been made!

It coulda been longer but I’m still thinking about it so pick it up!! I saw the audio pre-order is under $6.50 on Audible, available 8/12/25.

Thank you NetGalley & Tantor Media, I loved this story!

7/10

some interesting stuff, but feels like a rehash of too many of the themes and thought processes in previous novellas. It also felt like the synopsis of the novella didn't really match what we got, which made it a little more annoying how it ended up feeling so similiar. I would rather he more overtly connected these last few novellas that are clearly in the same thematic lens instead of doing so much worldbuilding in the early portions of each one only to end up treading similiar ground.

Emma Newman was great as always!

I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Emma Newman and she did a very good narration. I thought she captured Amri's voice quite well and helped bring the story to life.

The story itself reminded me of Ratchet at Clank meets Alice in Wonderland meets YA dystopia. It was action packed from the very start, but I had no clue what was going on. Perhaps the audio format had me a bit lost because there are a lot of characters and action scenes that blur together now I've finished it.

That said, there were some solid musings on the environment, the human race and meaning of life. Even though I felt some of this was a tad on the nose, I still appreciated it.

Overall, it's a good novella, but I was very confused and I feel it lacked heart.

Thank you to Tantor Audio and Netgalley for the ALC

It is interesting to see the versatility of an author who writes whole series to capture world building and character development transition to the novella format so smoothly. The Hungry Gods thrusts readers right into the story and even with a short format creates a world and characters that are interesting. The story revolves around a handful of "gods" that return to a world that they left to rot. They've decided to come back to re-terraform the planet but each has their own plan of doing this. The other hitch, there are actually still inhabitants on that planet. Amri, whose point of view we see the story through, is one of those inhabitants. Amri's story of watching her people destroyed and latching on to one of these "gods" named Guy for her survival was an interesting read. This is a short no-frills exploration but it got into my head. There are some deep messages behind this story but it also serves as a well-written brief science fiction. The ending was especially poignant and made me appreciate it more.
I listened to this story in audiobook format and the narrator added extra depth in her reading. The format also works well for a novella making it portable for a long drive, or the gym, or for listening to while cleaning or cooking.
I received this ALC thru NetGalley (for which I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher, Tantor Audio) for an honest review. The opinion expressed here is my own.

I'll admit, I spent a lot of time in the beginning trying to figure out if the characters were actually animals or people. I would have loved more background of the different sets of people's on the earth as well as more background of each individual God. Overall, I enjoyed this book. There's so much symbolism and it all feels real enough that you can picture it as a possible start to our own civilization.

Thank you Adrian Tchaikovsky, Tantor Audio and NetGalley for this ARC!


Hungry Gods is a novella tells the story of a world ravaged by time and of the people that were left behind and what will happen to those people now that four different Gods “crash land” in their world, hoping to remake that land into their own image.

My problem with the novella was the ending. Even though it made sense given everything that had happened, I still disliked it. It was too obvious for me.

(4.0 Stars)

Thank you to #NetGalley for making this book available to read and review.

Adrian Tchaikovsky knows how to weave a good tale together and be entertaining and enjoyable. This short story was very well done. The characters are unique and vivid, the world is both familiar and alien, and the story is both dreadful and maybe slightly hopeful.

The narration is good and the pace is perfect for the short story format.