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A review by tomlloyd
The Air War by Adrian Tchaikovsky
4.0
Honestly, I don't know if 4* is a bit mealy-mouthed for book 8 in a series I'm hugely enjoying - yet again this was a pleasure to read, full of excitement and humanity, with a clearly defined ending despite the fact there are two books left to go in the series. That in itself is tricky for a long series, but what's just as impressive is that a) I'm still enjoying the series for a variety of reasons (the march of technology, the characters, the complex politics and relationships among others) and b) it's not just a familiarity with the style that kept me reading (unlike Dance of Dragons) but a maintained level of quality and invention.
So there are a few gripes - the new quartet of students who were introduced, it felt just a bit too heavy on the repeated theme, mostly because I didn't feel I actually got to know them well at all, let alone like them - don't think they got the page space Che etc did, and if you're going to do that you need to REALLY nail the execution. Might be they come into their own in following books, certainly Eujen will I'm sure, but, it grated a little. There are other new characters who also didn't make that great an impression on me, but I for one won't object to that when I've seen it from the other side as it were - when the plot's big and the cast list is expanding, the reader's sometimes got to run to keep up and I'd prefer to do that rather than have an extra 100 pages of filler to tell more about the characters.
There's also the speed of technology progress, decades of work and research condensed into a few weeks sometimes. while it's a world where there's magic so some things you can reasonably permit flexibility on, it felt a bit fast in this one especially. There's also the decisive act of the air war - it wasn't hidden but still felt a shade too convenient and obvious when it ran out.
All that said, it's still a great book and those details were mere details, the didn't stop me enjoying it, nor being swept up in the aerial duels especially, feeling the destruction coming down and the fear the characters lived. It's a series that's more deserving of its increasing recognition than almost any other I've come across and I'm both looking forward to the end and confident it'll be both surprising and exactly what I'm hoping for in equal measures. So no pressure then.
So there are a few gripes - the new quartet of students who were introduced, it felt just a bit too heavy on the repeated theme, mostly because I didn't feel I actually got to know them well at all, let alone like them - don't think they got the page space Che etc did, and if you're going to do that you need to REALLY nail the execution. Might be they come into their own in following books, certainly Eujen will I'm sure, but, it grated a little. There are other new characters who also didn't make that great an impression on me, but I for one won't object to that when I've seen it from the other side as it were - when the plot's big and the cast list is expanding, the reader's sometimes got to run to keep up and I'd prefer to do that rather than have an extra 100 pages of filler to tell more about the characters.
There's also the speed of technology progress, decades of work and research condensed into a few weeks sometimes. while it's a world where there's magic so some things you can reasonably permit flexibility on, it felt a bit fast in this one especially. There's also the decisive act of the air war - it wasn't hidden but still felt a shade too convenient and obvious when it ran out.
All that said, it's still a great book and those details were mere details, the didn't stop me enjoying it, nor being swept up in the aerial duels especially, feeling the destruction coming down and the fear the characters lived. It's a series that's more deserving of its increasing recognition than almost any other I've come across and I'm both looking forward to the end and confident it'll be both surprising and exactly what I'm hoping for in equal measures. So no pressure then.