Confronting Otherness: The Built Environments in Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Shadows of the Apt

Abstract

Confronting the unfamiliar is a common theme in the fantasy fiction genre. British author Adrian Tchaikovsky underlines this theme in his ten-book series Shadows of the Apt (2008–2014) with a dichotomy of apt–inapt. This is enhanced by the insect-derived traits of the characters, which are reflected in the cities of this imagined fantasy world. Various urban architectures provide backgrounds for the protagonists as they face a foreign reality. The reader interpretation presented here focuses on the urban spaces and the architecture. The reading is structured by a division into strategies and tactics, as defined by Michel de Certeau. This provides a basis for understanding the interaction between the spaces and the spatial practices of the protagonists, as they move about in unfamiliar surroundings, confronting otherness. The architectural reading of the story opens the scalar structure used by the author and underlines the importance of the collective in the individual growth stories.