A review by mifterkim
Empire in Black and Gold by Adrian Tchaikovsky

3.0

Empire in Black and Gold is the first fantasy novel from the popular science fiction author Adrian Tchaikovsky, which has since spawned many sequels. It's also the first book of his I have read so I went in not knowing what to expect. It is about a world in which the humans are in many very different races based on types of insect, with each having different powers based on their race - such as flight, built-in weapons, and body armour.

I loved the idea of this novel and enjoyed much of the action, but I suspect I have been reading too many long and stodgy epic fantasy novels and am getting a bit sick of them. The plot was extremely plodding and the writing longwinded, and I kept expecting it to come to a conclusion and being surprised when yet one more little thing kept happening (I listened to this one as an audiobook, so didn't have the physical reminder of how much was left). I was really interested in the world and the characters, but I felt we didn't get to know them beyond a shallow level, which seemed a shame in such a long book.

I would still recommend this to fans of epic fantasy, but I feel I should probably take a break from this type of book for a while!