In Adrian Tchaikovsky's The Expert System's Champion, sometimes the ones you hate are the only ones that can save you.
It's been ten years since Handry was wrenched away from his family and friends, forced to wander a world he no longer understood. But with the help of the Ancients, he has cobbled together a life, of sorts, for himself and his fellow outcasts.
Wandering from village to village, welcoming the folk that the townships abandon, fighting the monsters the villagers cannot—or dare not—his ever-growing band of misfits has become the stuff of legend, a story told by parents to keep unruly children in line.
But there is something new and dangerous in the world, and the beasts of the land are acting against their nature, destroying the towns they once left in peace.
And for the first time in memory, the Ancients have no wisdom to offer...

Thank you so so much to Tor.com for sending me an ARC for review!

I am pretty sure that every single Tor.com novella that I’ve read I’ve rated 4 or 5 stars. So when they reached out to me to see if I was interested in this book, my answer was “ummm duh.” Okay fine, I didn’t say exactly that but that’s what I was thinking! I was also excited because though I have read one of Adrian Tchaikovsky’s fantasy novels, I hadn’t read any of his science fiction. He seems to be much more well known for that, so I jumped at the chance.