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A review by kenlaan
Empire in Black and Gold by Adrian Tchaikovsky
4.0
Empire of Black and Gold, the first book of the completed 10-book Shadows of the Apt series, starts somewhat slow (after the first chapter, anyway) and was a little confusing for me, such that I was feeling a little disappointed with it. By about the halfway point though, I realized I was really enjoying it. I'm happy to have a new series to read through and am looking forward to see where things go.
Shadows of the Apt is, at least according to the number of Goodreads reviews, Tchaikovsky's lesser-known epic fantasy series when compared against his sci-fi novels Children of Time and Shards of Earth. Set in a vaguely-steampunk world populated by "kinden", which are humans named after and sharing the traits and abilities of arthropods, it focuses on the Wasp-kinden empire's attempted conquest of the Lowlands, a collection of loosely affiliated city-states populated by various kinden (beetle, fly, spider, dragonfly, etc.). It's a pretty unconventional conceit in the epic fantasy genre, and it took me a while to understand this (I was wondering if the characters were human/insect hybrids or something at first). It honestly reminded me a little of Red Rising with that aspect only (there aren't really any narrative commonalities so don't take that comparison too far).
Stenwold Maker, a beetle-kinden veteran of one of the Wasp empire's previous conquests, has become a statesman and dedicated a decade to convincing the people of the Lowlands of the empire's threat, but his warnings have largely fallen on deaf ears. He's also put together a small band of apprentices and trained them in various skills. The story begins as the Wasp empire begins making diplomatic entreaties to the Lowlands.
I started out thinking that between how this begins and my previous read of the excellent Children of Time, Tchaikovsky was one of those authors that had really good ideas and could tell a good story, but his characters seemed to fall a little flat. It turned out I wasn't giving this one enough time, because by the end I was fully invested in the fates of Stenwold, Cheerwell, Tisamon, Achaeos, and all the others.
I think I would've appreciated a bit more time spent with Stenwold forming his band and training them - the book largely skips that - but that would've presumably further slowed a beginning I'm already critiquing so I think Tchaikovsky made the right choice.
Very strongly recommended to fans of epic fantasy looking for something unique - just give it time to get going, and you'll be happy you did.
Shadows of the Apt is, at least according to the number of Goodreads reviews, Tchaikovsky's lesser-known epic fantasy series when compared against his sci-fi novels Children of Time and Shards of Earth. Set in a vaguely-steampunk world populated by "kinden", which are humans named after and sharing the traits and abilities of arthropods, it focuses on the Wasp-kinden empire's attempted conquest of the Lowlands, a collection of loosely affiliated city-states populated by various kinden (beetle, fly, spider, dragonfly, etc.). It's a pretty unconventional conceit in the epic fantasy genre, and it took me a while to understand this (I was wondering if the characters were human/insect hybrids or something at first). It honestly reminded me a little of Red Rising with that aspect only (there aren't really any narrative commonalities so don't take that comparison too far).
Stenwold Maker, a beetle-kinden veteran of one of the Wasp empire's previous conquests, has become a statesman and dedicated a decade to convincing the people of the Lowlands of the empire's threat, but his warnings have largely fallen on deaf ears. He's also put together a small band of apprentices and trained them in various skills. The story begins as the Wasp empire begins making diplomatic entreaties to the Lowlands.
I started out thinking that between how this begins and my previous read of the excellent Children of Time, Tchaikovsky was one of those authors that had really good ideas and could tell a good story, but his characters seemed to fall a little flat. It turned out I wasn't giving this one enough time, because by the end I was fully invested in the fates of Stenwold, Cheerwell, Tisamon, Achaeos, and all the others.
I think I would've appreciated a bit more time spent with Stenwold forming his band and training them - the book largely skips that - but that would've presumably further slowed a beginning I'm already critiquing so I think Tchaikovsky made the right choice.
Very strongly recommended to fans of epic fantasy looking for something unique - just give it time to get going, and you'll be happy you did.