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A review by matt9ca37
The Scarab Path by Adrian Tchaikovsky
3.0
Ok - not quite sure what happened here. The first 50-100 pages are really the epilogue to Salute The Dark which I had always felt was too short and tied up all the loose ends too quickly at the end.
Scarab Path is good don't get me wrong but I cannot see a lot of justification for almost 700 pages. I would have preferred 700 pages of Salute The Dark - particularly with more of the final "uprising" accross the Lowlands being explored and much less build up to the 2nd half of Scarab.
I also miss some of the cool "tech" from previous books. I was not that impressed with the world building here compared to the 1st 4 novels. Maybe it is because I did not really engage with the supernatural/mystical angle.
Once it got going though there were some classic Shadows battle scenes and a very satisfying ending very neatly tied up. Knowing the backstory of these characters and some of the history of the world add's an extra dimension but it could almost be a stand alone novel - especially as this - like all the other books has a helpful Summary section at the start.
Scarab Path is good don't get me wrong but I cannot see a lot of justification for almost 700 pages. I would have preferred 700 pages of Salute The Dark - particularly with more of the final "uprising" accross the Lowlands being explored and much less build up to the 2nd half of Scarab.
I also miss some of the cool "tech" from previous books. I was not that impressed with the world building here compared to the 1st 4 novels. Maybe it is because I did not really engage with the supernatural/mystical angle.
Once it got going though there were some classic Shadows battle scenes and a very satisfying ending very neatly tied up. Knowing the backstory of these characters and some of the history of the world add's an extra dimension but it could almost be a stand alone novel - especially as this - like all the other books has a helpful Summary section at the start.