A review by books_with_benghis_kahn
The Scarab Path by Adrian Tchaikovsky

5.0

This book was tremendous--I was gripped from start to finish, and stopping reading for work and sleep was brutal this past week. I had absolutely no clue where things would go after the end of the first arc, and I couldn't have been happier with this direction of exploring a new part of the map and telling a very focused story.

Spoiler

Che's POV was so engaging with her dealing with being inapt and grieving over Achaeos, who heart-breakingly thinks is haunting him. Thalric was also a terribly engaging POV in this one, dealing with all his internal conflicts and slowly coming to the realization that he loves Che. The look we got into scorpion culture was absolutely fascinating through Hrathen's also engaging POV, and as usual I became attached to side characters like the flies and mole-cricket Meyr who died tragically. Totho was so hatable at first in this one still pining unrequitedly but came to be more likable by the end, and I really like his arc in this one that finishes with him and Che departing on better terms with more mutual understanding.

The siege of Khanaphes!! First of all, the group from Collegium first arriving at Khanaphes really sparked my sense of wonder, since such an expedition just isn't possible for us anymore in the 21st century. But c'mon, the siege was just tremendously written, with dramatic scene after dramatic scene--bravo!!

Tchaikovsky does it again, this time with such a drastically different style of battle than we've seen before in the previous books.

Overall I breezed through this chunker, and Tchaikovsky's style couldn't possibly be vibing any more with me than it currently is.

9.8/10