Green City Wars, Adrian Tchaikovsky
Green City Wars, Adrian Tchaikovsky
List: $28.99 | Sale: $20.29
Club: $14.49

Green City Wars

Author: Adrian Tchaikovsky

Narrator: John Pirhalla

Unabridged: 12 hr 50 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/23/2026


Synopsis

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.

About Adrian Tchaikovsky

Adrian Tchaikovsky is a British science-fiction and fantasy writer known for a wide-variety of work including the Children of Time, Final Architecture, Dogs of War, Tyrant Philosophers and Shadows of the Apt series, as well as standalone books such as Elder Race, Doors of Eden, Spiderlight and many others. Children of Time and its series has won the Arthur C Clarke and BSFA awards, and his other works have won the British Fantasy, British Science Fiction and Sidewise Awards.


Reviews

Goodreads review by keegan on October 05, 2025

** A copy of this book was provided by the publisher ** Really dug this but I recommend not reading it in a single six hour stretch like I did! The labeled sections work pretty well as episodes which fits the pulp detective stylings of the story, so I recommend maybe reading one section a day to give......more

Goodreads review by Kent Fairbourn on February 24, 2026

A really well written book with a fun and creative premise. The animal underworld and all of its intricate workings were well developed and explained. I really came to like and root for Skotch and Lulu! Wondering if you’d enjoy this book? My thoughts, if you liked Scalzi’s Starter Villain you’d like......more

Goodreads review by MikaReadsFantasy on April 01, 2026

3.5 ⭐ Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Green City Wars is a noir tale that drops readers into a gritty underworld of bioengineered animals struggling to survive beneath human society. When a seemingly ordinary mouse goes missing, raccoon private investigator Skotch reluctantly takes the case and quickly discove......more

Goodreads review by Michael on March 29, 2026

A secret world exists beyond the human world in Green City Wars, a humorous, uplifting story. Note: My review is based on the audiobook ARC/ALC, so please excuse any character names that may be spelled incorrectly. First, I have to admit a love of uplift stories. That is, where one species increases t......more

Goodreads review by Cathy on February 23, 2026

The main character in this novel is an animal who, as the author says, "has a reputation for dishonesty, roguishness, sharp dealing. He [Skotch] can only imagine how much easier that would make everything, if it were actually true. Who the hell has a use for a faithful raccoon?" This novel is brain f......more


Quotes

“[A] charmingly bizarre SF noir….Interstitial fiction at its most engaging and mind-bending.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

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