Status
Available
Call number
Series
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Collections
Publication
Pyr (2010), Paperback, 612 pages
Description
The city states of the Lowlands have lived in peace for decades. In far-off corners, the Wasp Empire has been devouring city after city with its highly trained armies and its machines .... And now its hunger for conquest and war has become insatiable.
User reviews
LibraryThing member rivkat
On a world where humans have various insect-like traits/affinities, and sometimes powers like flying or seeing in the dark, the Wasp Empire is rising, and a motley crew opposes it. Extra points for a bar fight that involved three individual fistfights and a larger battle “to which everyone was
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invited.” I liked a lot of the worldbuilding and politics, but I didn’t like the race-as-destiny aspects (the groups can interbreed but the results are considered “half-breeds” and treated badly by almost everyone); sympathetic and unsympathetic characters alike believe in racial behavioral and emotional traits, and the narrative so far bears this belief out. Slavery and associated sexual violence are commonplace, along with some discussion of whether the groups that have gone through the industrial revolution and use low-paid workers instead are much different from enslavers. Show Less
LibraryThing member candlemark
Somewhere between fantasy and science fiction, this may be one of the best books I've read in recent memory. It was, simply put, spectacular. Stunning. Impeccably crafted and engaging and haunting and...everything every author ever wants to hear about his book.The setting is astonishing - this is a
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vaguely Hellenistic world, with clear echoes of ancient Athens and sparring city-states reminiscent of the post-Alexandrian Greek era as well. There's a little bit of Sparta, a little bit of Rhodes, a little bit of Syracuse and Macedonia. It all adds up to a very familiar setting in which to base a very UNfamiliar system of belief. Machines - automotives, clockwork engines, steam engines, flying machines of all descriptions - exist in this world, but so, too, does magic and superstition - even the Apt, who rose up 500 years ago to overthrow their "superstitious" rulers and create a perfect, Socratean, scientific society, have access to supernatural abilities, like quasi-magical wings and energy pulses fired from their hands. These abilities correspond to one's kinden...which is possibly the most innovative, engaging part of this book and its world. Humans here are aligned with certain species of insects, and have traits that correspond thereto. Mantis-kinden, for instance, are known for being graceful and warlike; Spiders are cunning and subtle and elegant; Beetle-kinden are staid, solid, intellectual or adept with their hands. The mysterious Dragonflies form the north are similar to the Chinese or Japanese in a Victorian or medieval setting - alien and elegant and closed off to the world by choice - and the Moths are strange mystics, overthrown by the Apt generations ago and still holding a grudge.Kinden have their own physical traits, and mixing blood is, while not forbidden, discouraged and mixed-breeds are shamed because of their heritage. It's fascinating, and we're constantly exposed to different kinden - Scorpions, Thorn Bugs, and more appear as the book progresses - and there's never too much infodumping or exposition. The world is allowed to unfold naturally, gradually, organically, and it feels that much more real because of it.The plot itself is fabulous. I don't want to ruin it, but we go from a fairly standard "must oppose the sweeping, incoming empire" epic into a political discourse on opposing empire vs. promoting peace into a bit of a spy thriller into an ensemble cast adventure, and then start mixing elements of all of these. The pace never slows throughout, and the writing just gets better and better as everything sweeps to the conclusion...which works well on its own, but also whets the appetite for the rest of the books in this series (which I cannot wait for).My only real quibble is that, well, a rapier can't do what is described in a few places. Tynisa would have to be using an edge-sharpened blade, more like a cut-and-thrust, only lighter. And some of the moves described are more appropriate for a shortsword fighter than a rapier fighter. These tactical issues become less and less frequent as the book progresses, and at the end, there are almost no questionable techniques in the fighting. According to the author's bio, he's trained as a stage fighter - which would explain some of the techniques he's describing. And, frankly, his erroneous or possibly-not-completely-accurate descriptions of rapier fighting are about 10,000 times better than most swordfight scenes, so I should really quit quibbling now.If you like steampunk, fantasy, science fiction - any sort of fantastika that demands a really well thought-out, incredibly fresh and unique world, you will LOVE this book. Show Less
LibraryThing member souloftherose
This is Adrian Tchaikovsky's first book and it's a solid fantasy novel, perhaps a little overlong.
The world Tchaikovsky has created is an intriguing one. There are no humans but there are several races of humanoid creatures, each based on a different insect race. So, you have beetle-kinden:
There isn't exactly magic in the world but each race has some skills or abilities they can tap into using their Art which seems to be learnt by meditation and training. The races of the world are also divided into the Apt and the non-Apt where the Apt races are able to use and design machines of varying complexities and the non-Apt can't even understand the mechanism of a crossbow. This seems to be balanced by the non-Apt races having stronger and more varied skills which they can access using their Art. It used to be that the non-Apt races such as mantis-kinden, spider-kinden, dragonfly-kinden and moth-kinden used to be the ruling races with the Apt races as slaves, but this changed after the Revolution of the Apt and now there is an uneasy peace between the various races. The various machines used by the Apt races give a strong steampunk feel to the fantasy world.
In this post-revolution world a new threat is emerging as the Wasp Empire starts to move against the other races and cities of this world. Initially, it seems that only one man, Stenwold a beetle-kinden recognises this threat and so he and his agents have to try and work against the agents of the Wasp Empire and alert people to their danger.
I can't really put my finger on why this book didn't merit a higher rating but it felt like it lacked something so that it was a good read but not a great one. It was a book I found difficult to put down whilst reading but didn't feel in a hurry to pick up again once I'd put it down. I would like to read the sequels (the 6th book has been published and I think another 4 are planned) but again, I don't feel in a hurry about getting to them.
The world Tchaikovsky has created is an intriguing one. There are no humans but there are several races of humanoid creatures, each based on a different insect race. So, you have beetle-kinden:
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industrious, stocky and adaptable; spider-kinden:, elegant and machiavellian; ant-kinden: able to link minds to fight and work together and so on. There isn't exactly magic in the world but each race has some skills or abilities they can tap into using their Art which seems to be learnt by meditation and training. The races of the world are also divided into the Apt and the non-Apt where the Apt races are able to use and design machines of varying complexities and the non-Apt can't even understand the mechanism of a crossbow. This seems to be balanced by the non-Apt races having stronger and more varied skills which they can access using their Art. It used to be that the non-Apt races such as mantis-kinden, spider-kinden, dragonfly-kinden and moth-kinden used to be the ruling races with the Apt races as slaves, but this changed after the Revolution of the Apt and now there is an uneasy peace between the various races. The various machines used by the Apt races give a strong steampunk feel to the fantasy world.
In this post-revolution world a new threat is emerging as the Wasp Empire starts to move against the other races and cities of this world. Initially, it seems that only one man, Stenwold a beetle-kinden recognises this threat and so he and his agents have to try and work against the agents of the Wasp Empire and alert people to their danger.
I can't really put my finger on why this book didn't merit a higher rating but it felt like it lacked something so that it was a good read but not a great one. It was a book I found difficult to put down whilst reading but didn't feel in a hurry to pick up again once I'd put it down. I would like to read the sequels (the 6th book has been published and I think another 4 are planned) but again, I don't feel in a hurry about getting to them.
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LibraryThing member TerryWeyna
The Shadows of the Apt is one of those series that has a bit of everything. The racial set-up seems to come from New Weird territory; the denizens of Adrian Tchaikovsky’s world are many different races, each with the characteristics of a different insect. Thus, the Beetle-kinden (each race is a
It ought not to work. The book should fall of its own weight. But somehow, everything comes together in one great big comfortable mess and captures the reader.
The real key, I think, is that the characters are so vividly drawn that the reader falls in love with them. Stenwold Maker is an elderly Beetle who saw the city of Myna fall to the Wasp-kinden – that is, to the Empire – in his youth, and has spent his life trying to make certain his own race does not fall into slavery before the rapidly advancing war machine. He has made speech upon speech to the legislature, taught history at the university and attempted to sway young minds to his cause, and, more to the point, maintained a network of spies in countries and cities closer to the borders of the Empire so as to be warned long in advance of a Wasp attack on his own people.
But Stenwold isn’t so parochial as that. Collegium, from whence he hails, is known for being open to all species, and even to accept (with considerable reservations) half-breeds. One of his students is Totho, a cross between an Ant and a Beetle, and especially gifted at mechanical engineering. Tynisa is his ward; she is a beautiful and treacherous Spider-kinden. His niece, Cheerwell or Che, is of full Beetle blood but has never been able to access her Ancestor Art – apparently a sort of maturation that allows one certain abilities that are inherent to one’s race, such as the ability to sprout wings and fly (yes, that’s literal). The fourth in Stenwold’s band is Salma, a prince among the Dragonfly-kinden. Each has a distinctive personality, with his or her own special interests, worries and, ultimately, plot: the group is divided up this way and then that, with the threads of the story traveling across many lands and involving many more characters.
Thalric is one of the most interesting characters in the book, though he is of a type: the member of the Empire who is starting to doubt his role as the dutiful servant and merciless soldier and spy. He claims to value the Empire above all else, but putting children to the sword doesn’t sit well with him, and he isn’t too certain about slavery, either. Although he’s a fairly standard character for an Empire-based fantasy, his depth of insight is compelling.
The story itself is pretty standard: there’s an Evil Empire that must be fought, but no one with political power in the main characters’ world will recognize the threat. The good guys must find a way to make the threat obvious to their compatriots, and must prevent the war from finding their homeland before their politicians wise up. Skullduggery, treachery, negotiation, and political shenanigans predominate. There are also the mandatory confrontations between bad guys and good guys in both a threatening situation that fails to ignite and in a peaceful setting where the enemies are revealed as just folks – and each comes to have a grudging respect and even a degree of admiration for his or her adversary – before the ultimate battle that ends the book.
In addition to a conventional plot, there are some serious world-building problems here, despite the generally interesting milieu. I’ve already talked about how odd the absence of a wheel is in this culture; this becomes even more confusing with early talk of a railroad connecting two large cities – an engine that runs on a track can only have wheels and not legs, true? More than that, the weapons of war are strange. Why, in a society that can plant explosives at the front gate of a city, and that has grenades, and that has nail guns apparently working on a pneumatic system, are there no machine guns, cannons or similar weapons? If you have explosives, you have gunpowder or the equivalent, don’t you? Why, then, would you rely primarily on swords and other sharp edges, and engage in primarily hand-to-hand combat rather than the more distant wars more common to 20th century Earth? Rapiers seem to appear because they are more romantic than guns, and for no other reason.
Fundamentally, though, this is a good beginning for an epic fantasy that promises all the pleasures one usually finds in such books. This series offers nothing too unusual or too challenging, but pleasant, even compelling reading for fans who can never get enough of thick books full of battles and love affairs. (One odd point, though: Amazon lists this book as having over 600 pages, while the page number on the last page of the book I have in hand is 415.) I have the second book in the series, Dragonfly Falling, already in hand, perfect for a rainy fall afternoon.
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“kinden”) are the engineers of the world; the Ant-kinden are excellent soldiers because they share a single mind under battlefield conditions; and the Butterfly-kinden are extremely beautiful, rare and magical. Then there are the steampunk elements, such as the heliocopters and the “automotives,” which travel on four legs, just like those doomed war machines in “The Empire Strikes Back”; one wonders how a society that clearly has gears has failed to invent the wheel. There is also straightforward fantasy storytelling, which involves an empire attempting to broaden its boundary and enslave even more species than are already under its iron rule.It ought not to work. The book should fall of its own weight. But somehow, everything comes together in one great big comfortable mess and captures the reader.
The real key, I think, is that the characters are so vividly drawn that the reader falls in love with them. Stenwold Maker is an elderly Beetle who saw the city of Myna fall to the Wasp-kinden – that is, to the Empire – in his youth, and has spent his life trying to make certain his own race does not fall into slavery before the rapidly advancing war machine. He has made speech upon speech to the legislature, taught history at the university and attempted to sway young minds to his cause, and, more to the point, maintained a network of spies in countries and cities closer to the borders of the Empire so as to be warned long in advance of a Wasp attack on his own people.
But Stenwold isn’t so parochial as that. Collegium, from whence he hails, is known for being open to all species, and even to accept (with considerable reservations) half-breeds. One of his students is Totho, a cross between an Ant and a Beetle, and especially gifted at mechanical engineering. Tynisa is his ward; she is a beautiful and treacherous Spider-kinden. His niece, Cheerwell or Che, is of full Beetle blood but has never been able to access her Ancestor Art – apparently a sort of maturation that allows one certain abilities that are inherent to one’s race, such as the ability to sprout wings and fly (yes, that’s literal). The fourth in Stenwold’s band is Salma, a prince among the Dragonfly-kinden. Each has a distinctive personality, with his or her own special interests, worries and, ultimately, plot: the group is divided up this way and then that, with the threads of the story traveling across many lands and involving many more characters.
Thalric is one of the most interesting characters in the book, though he is of a type: the member of the Empire who is starting to doubt his role as the dutiful servant and merciless soldier and spy. He claims to value the Empire above all else, but putting children to the sword doesn’t sit well with him, and he isn’t too certain about slavery, either. Although he’s a fairly standard character for an Empire-based fantasy, his depth of insight is compelling.
The story itself is pretty standard: there’s an Evil Empire that must be fought, but no one with political power in the main characters’ world will recognize the threat. The good guys must find a way to make the threat obvious to their compatriots, and must prevent the war from finding their homeland before their politicians wise up. Skullduggery, treachery, negotiation, and political shenanigans predominate. There are also the mandatory confrontations between bad guys and good guys in both a threatening situation that fails to ignite and in a peaceful setting where the enemies are revealed as just folks – and each comes to have a grudging respect and even a degree of admiration for his or her adversary – before the ultimate battle that ends the book.
In addition to a conventional plot, there are some serious world-building problems here, despite the generally interesting milieu. I’ve already talked about how odd the absence of a wheel is in this culture; this becomes even more confusing with early talk of a railroad connecting two large cities – an engine that runs on a track can only have wheels and not legs, true? More than that, the weapons of war are strange. Why, in a society that can plant explosives at the front gate of a city, and that has grenades, and that has nail guns apparently working on a pneumatic system, are there no machine guns, cannons or similar weapons? If you have explosives, you have gunpowder or the equivalent, don’t you? Why, then, would you rely primarily on swords and other sharp edges, and engage in primarily hand-to-hand combat rather than the more distant wars more common to 20th century Earth? Rapiers seem to appear because they are more romantic than guns, and for no other reason.
Fundamentally, though, this is a good beginning for an epic fantasy that promises all the pleasures one usually finds in such books. This series offers nothing too unusual or too challenging, but pleasant, even compelling reading for fans who can never get enough of thick books full of battles and love affairs. (One odd point, though: Amazon lists this book as having over 600 pages, while the page number on the last page of the book I have in hand is 415.) I have the second book in the series, Dragonfly Falling, already in hand, perfect for a rainy fall afternoon.
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LibraryThing member iftyzaidi
Empire in Black and Gold is the first book in the Shadows of the Apt series and author Adrian Tchaikovsky's début novel. The series is projected to be 10 books long, though the structure is apparently broken up so that the first 4 books form one narrative arc, books 5-7 form a second narrative arc
The basic plot structure is familiar with a small band of heroes venturing forth to gain intelligence about a deadly adversary (the wasp empire - i.e. the empire in black and gold) that is gathering its armies to descend upon the unsuspecting peoples of the lowlands. However the world setting is given some unusual trimmings which help to give the novel a distinctive flavour. The different human races of this world have taken on the characteristics and talents of different insect races (the 'art'). Hence the mantis-kinden are fearsome solitary warriors, the beetle-kinden industrious workers and innovators, the dragonfly-kinden are able to use their art to fly, etc. Furthermore the races are divided into the 'apt' and 'un-apt'. The un-apt, which included the mantis, spider, moth and butterfly races used to rule the world using magic and other talents, but since their rule was swept away by their former slave-races, the world has come to be dominated by the 'apt' who are able to use tools and have developed technology and industry. The world is thus very much a steampunk world, with dirigibles, steam trains, spring-loaded automobiles and steam-powered repeating crossbows. The characters are vivid, diverse and have their own issues and purposes, which helps prevent the racial characteristics from becoming over-deterministic. The story unfolds at a rapid pace, and while it doesn't hold any major surprises, manages to entertain and the ending is both satisfying and helps set up the next book in the series, which I'll probably be looking to read sometime soon.
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and books 8-10 a third. I generally don't like starting a long series unless its available, but given that the first 5 are already out and the 6th and 7th slated to appear later this year, I thought it safe to give this a shot. The series has been garnering a fair amount of praise without quiet having set the internet on fire. My own reaction seems to mirror the general one - its an engaging and entertaining fantasy novel, though not a exceptional one. At just a pip over 600 pages its fairly chunky, but a uncomplicated, straightforward and fairly smooth read which was pretty much just what I was in the mood for.The basic plot structure is familiar with a small band of heroes venturing forth to gain intelligence about a deadly adversary (the wasp empire - i.e. the empire in black and gold) that is gathering its armies to descend upon the unsuspecting peoples of the lowlands. However the world setting is given some unusual trimmings which help to give the novel a distinctive flavour. The different human races of this world have taken on the characteristics and talents of different insect races (the 'art'). Hence the mantis-kinden are fearsome solitary warriors, the beetle-kinden industrious workers and innovators, the dragonfly-kinden are able to use their art to fly, etc. Furthermore the races are divided into the 'apt' and 'un-apt'. The un-apt, which included the mantis, spider, moth and butterfly races used to rule the world using magic and other talents, but since their rule was swept away by their former slave-races, the world has come to be dominated by the 'apt' who are able to use tools and have developed technology and industry. The world is thus very much a steampunk world, with dirigibles, steam trains, spring-loaded automobiles and steam-powered repeating crossbows. The characters are vivid, diverse and have their own issues and purposes, which helps prevent the racial characteristics from becoming over-deterministic. The story unfolds at a rapid pace, and while it doesn't hold any major surprises, manages to entertain and the ending is both satisfying and helps set up the next book in the series, which I'll probably be looking to read sometime soon.
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LibraryThing member rohitkatyal
Well a great book ,considering the kind of depth we have in the characters especially the flawed nature of heroes and villain
LibraryThing member WDBooks
Picture
Many pretty good things have been said about this relatively new (to the US) series by Adrian Tchaikovsky so I decided to give it a shot. Well, Im glad I did.
Empire of Black and Gold is in some ways a fairly standard novel. However there is one key difference and that’s how the world
The story deals with the expansionist empire of the Wasps and the actions of a certain Beatle who has fought against the Empire in the past and who has been warning his city for over a decade about the Wasp Empire and their plans for the rest of the free world. His warnings tend to fall on deaf ears since most of the people in power tend to look inward and refuse to accept that an upstart group has the means or the aggression to do what he claims they do.
The world building is fairly interesting, it’s a cross between the medieval and a world with some “modernesque“ industry and the characterizations are nothing special though are solid. The magic is however pretty interesting. The Wasps have a “sting” which is a magical blast, the Mantis’s have martial prowess with swords, Beatles are industrious, Ants are arranged militarily and have physic connections to each other and so on.
Over all it’s an interesting story with a solid enough plot and some pretty cool action.
8/10
Many pretty good things have been said about this relatively new (to the US) series by Adrian Tchaikovsky so I decided to give it a shot. Well, Im glad I did.
Empire of Black and Gold is in some ways a fairly standard novel. However there is one key difference and that’s how the world
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works. The humans are indeed human, at least to an extent. There are several “ethnic” groups and they share some characteristics from the insect kingdom. The Beatles are hard working and tend to be stockier and the same trends across for the Wasp, Mantis, Moth and assorted other groups.The story deals with the expansionist empire of the Wasps and the actions of a certain Beatle who has fought against the Empire in the past and who has been warning his city for over a decade about the Wasp Empire and their plans for the rest of the free world. His warnings tend to fall on deaf ears since most of the people in power tend to look inward and refuse to accept that an upstart group has the means or the aggression to do what he claims they do.
The world building is fairly interesting, it’s a cross between the medieval and a world with some “modernesque“ industry and the characterizations are nothing special though are solid. The magic is however pretty interesting. The Wasps have a “sting” which is a magical blast, the Mantis’s have martial prowess with swords, Beatles are industrious, Ants are arranged militarily and have physic connections to each other and so on.
Over all it’s an interesting story with a solid enough plot and some pretty cool action.
8/10
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LibraryThing member Jvstin
It's an audacious idea that you might laugh at if I describe it in print. Here goes.
On a parallel world, giant insects grew to enormous size, threatening mammals, reptiles, and primitive humans in the process. In order to adapt to this threat, tribes of humans form mystical alliances with these
Thus is Shadows of the Apt, the start of a new series by Adrian Tchaikovsky.
This world is moving slowly into an age of science, as the apt (technologically able) varieties of the Kinden, the Beetle, Ant and Wasps have become ascendant over the magic and superstitious Mantis and Moth Kinden. So ascendant in fact, that the Wasp Empire has decided to conquer the world, with flying soldiers that can both fight well and use magical bursts of energy to attack (think Janet Van Dyne from the Marvel comics universe). The Wasps are intent on subjugating all of the Kinden, of every variety, to their yoke.
Opposing the Wasps, recognizing the threat for what it is, is an old Beetle college teacher who doubles as a spymaster, who has gathered and trained a diverse set of Kinden with the goal of using them to build a resistance to the city-state gobbling Wasps.
But the Wasps are onto Stenwold, and his young charges find themselves facing the might and danger that the Wasps represent far sooner than they expected...
I probably would not have picked up this book, with this gonzo (but brilliant premise) if I didn't trust the publisher. Prometheus/Pyr books has a reputation for a strong hand on the tiller, and if he was willing to bring the novel over from Britain to America and publish it, that gave me hope it was worthwhile. I am glad I picked it up on that basis.
Its hard to classify this novel. It's clearly fantasy, given the powers of the Kinden, but the burgeoning of rapidly developing technology (trains and even better, AIRSHIPS) give a steampunkish feel to this universe. And there is apparently fading but real magic in this world, too, as exemplified by the Moth Kinden.
More than the background stuff. The characters really shine. Human with insect like traits and proclivities, they are in the end still human, with human failings, foibles, motivations and personalities. From Stenwold Maker, college teacher and spymaster, to his coterie of family and proteges, and those they interact with in trying to oppose the Wasps, each character is well developed, has a story arc, and develops over the course of the story. And, the sign of a very good writer, Tchaikovsky manages to humanize the evil Wasps as well, providing characters on their side of the conflict with recognizable motivations and personalities, rather than faceless adversaries.
The novel simply works on a number of levels. Magic, technology, interesting characters and at the core--an original idea. We see a number of Kinden, and get mentions of several more. Characters embody, and transcend, those Kinden stereotypes.
I will pick up Dragonfly Falling, and continue to read of the Kinden.
On a parallel world, giant insects grew to enormous size, threatening mammals, reptiles, and primitive humans in the process. In order to adapt to this threat, tribes of humans form mystical alliances with these
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giant insects, taking on their traits and abilities even while remaining human. Thus is Shadows of the Apt, the start of a new series by Adrian Tchaikovsky.
This world is moving slowly into an age of science, as the apt (technologically able) varieties of the Kinden, the Beetle, Ant and Wasps have become ascendant over the magic and superstitious Mantis and Moth Kinden. So ascendant in fact, that the Wasp Empire has decided to conquer the world, with flying soldiers that can both fight well and use magical bursts of energy to attack (think Janet Van Dyne from the Marvel comics universe). The Wasps are intent on subjugating all of the Kinden, of every variety, to their yoke.
Opposing the Wasps, recognizing the threat for what it is, is an old Beetle college teacher who doubles as a spymaster, who has gathered and trained a diverse set of Kinden with the goal of using them to build a resistance to the city-state gobbling Wasps.
But the Wasps are onto Stenwold, and his young charges find themselves facing the might and danger that the Wasps represent far sooner than they expected...
I probably would not have picked up this book, with this gonzo (but brilliant premise) if I didn't trust the publisher. Prometheus/Pyr books has a reputation for a strong hand on the tiller, and if he was willing to bring the novel over from Britain to America and publish it, that gave me hope it was worthwhile. I am glad I picked it up on that basis.
Its hard to classify this novel. It's clearly fantasy, given the powers of the Kinden, but the burgeoning of rapidly developing technology (trains and even better, AIRSHIPS) give a steampunkish feel to this universe. And there is apparently fading but real magic in this world, too, as exemplified by the Moth Kinden.
More than the background stuff. The characters really shine. Human with insect like traits and proclivities, they are in the end still human, with human failings, foibles, motivations and personalities. From Stenwold Maker, college teacher and spymaster, to his coterie of family and proteges, and those they interact with in trying to oppose the Wasps, each character is well developed, has a story arc, and develops over the course of the story. And, the sign of a very good writer, Tchaikovsky manages to humanize the evil Wasps as well, providing characters on their side of the conflict with recognizable motivations and personalities, rather than faceless adversaries.
The novel simply works on a number of levels. Magic, technology, interesting characters and at the core--an original idea. We see a number of Kinden, and get mentions of several more. Characters embody, and transcend, those Kinden stereotypes.
I will pick up Dragonfly Falling, and continue to read of the Kinden.
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LibraryThing member mbg0312
Original and interesting world, especially for someone who spent a fair portion of childhood obsessing over insects.
LibraryThing member DWWilkin
The Amazon suggestions kept throwing this at me, and now that so many sell their old books for a penny, I thought I would finally try it.
There are tales that Tchaikovsky, (Not the true spelling of his name) has been plugging away at his ambitious ten book arc for a while. And that he has no other
Do authors think themselves so brilliant that they can start writing a magnum opus when they leave college? it puts the definition of chutzpah to new twists.
Well Adrian Tchaikovsky is not is not ready for a ten book arc. There were fundamental problems in what could have been a good work.
Who is the hero? The old man (who starts as a young man) or his disciples? I still don't know.
The book gave us an involved first scene, and then flash forward two decades. Now we have 4 untried novices (near the age the writer I imagine when he penned this.) Well, where young people may be trained to respond physically, making them brilliant and insightful is something that is not credible. You just can't cram all that knowledge into a mind in such a short time. Not that the author is in his middle or late years writing as if his people were young. He is trying to make his young people as wise as all world leaders are.
Then the actual plot has me confused. For near half the book the action is stifled. (SPOILERS) our heroes are captured, and we chase them. This so we can play with a war of words. Not very exciting. And then those parts where action is weaved in is cliche. One of the heroes is going to be a duellist for a band of brigands and by virtue of her skill with a blade win a place at the table, literally.
I will investigate the others in the series for the Insect tie in is interesting. But I hope the author will move beyond the cliche and give us solid development of story. I hope that the cliche character development will find firmer base.
There are tales that Tchaikovsky, (Not the true spelling of his name) has been plugging away at his ambitious ten book arc for a while. And that he has no other
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novels to his credit.Do authors think themselves so brilliant that they can start writing a magnum opus when they leave college? it puts the definition of chutzpah to new twists.
Well Adrian Tchaikovsky is not is not ready for a ten book arc. There were fundamental problems in what could have been a good work.
Who is the hero? The old man (who starts as a young man) or his disciples? I still don't know.
The book gave us an involved first scene, and then flash forward two decades. Now we have 4 untried novices (near the age the writer I imagine when he penned this.) Well, where young people may be trained to respond physically, making them brilliant and insightful is something that is not credible. You just can't cram all that knowledge into a mind in such a short time. Not that the author is in his middle or late years writing as if his people were young. He is trying to make his young people as wise as all world leaders are.
Then the actual plot has me confused. For near half the book the action is stifled. (SPOILERS) our heroes are captured, and we chase them. This so we can play with a war of words. Not very exciting. And then those parts where action is weaved in is cliche. One of the heroes is going to be a duellist for a band of brigands and by virtue of her skill with a blade win a place at the table, literally.
I will investigate the others in the series for the Insect tie in is interesting. But I hope the author will move beyond the cliche and give us solid development of story. I hope that the cliche character development will find firmer base.
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LibraryThing member trinibaby9
I really thought this was excellent! The insect/kinden concept was a fresh take on things. It gave new perspective to the way we as human beings interact and judge one another. It also provides a interestingview of differing social classes, empire and individuality. It does drage a little in the
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middle but, picks up towards the end and never looks back. Has all the elements that make up a great read! Can't wait for book two! Show Less
LibraryThing member wyvernfriend
It's not the book, it's me.
This story just didn't work for me. I didn't care enough about the characters and honestly I put it down and picked it up several times and it was a bit of a trudge through it. I don't think that I would be a good reader for the rest of the series. I will look for the
The concept sounded good, people in a world where they have affinity to insects and abilities from them, with problematic politics and a Wasp-kin race threatening to take over the world and brutally suppress everyone else. A Beetle-kin artificer, Stenwold Maker, has been warning about it and hoping that he's wrong and if not that he has prepared enough people to try to resist. However it's complicated and people still have internal politics that complicate things.
It's a complex world with a lot of characters and a truly unique world, but it just wasn't me.
This story just didn't work for me. I didn't care enough about the characters and honestly I put it down and picked it up several times and it was a bit of a trudge through it. I don't think that I would be a good reader for the rest of the series. I will look for the
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author again as I did enjoy Guns of the Dawn.The concept sounded good, people in a world where they have affinity to insects and abilities from them, with problematic politics and a Wasp-kin race threatening to take over the world and brutally suppress everyone else. A Beetle-kin artificer, Stenwold Maker, has been warning about it and hoping that he's wrong and if not that he has prepared enough people to try to resist. However it's complicated and people still have internal politics that complicate things.
It's a complex world with a lot of characters and a truly unique world, but it just wasn't me.
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LibraryThing member Cataloger623
415 pages Fantasy/Scifi . This reader must decide if they want to invest the time and effort to get past the 1st 150 pages to get to a good story, This book was hard to read to but worth it in the final analysis. It builds momentum like a train. Tchaikovsky is writing a spy story using human/bugs
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as the primary characters. The story is dense with details in an unnecessary way. Yet once I got involved with the characters I wanted to know more and finished a book I almost chucked. The next books in the series are not as long and hopefully the writing style gets better. This one of those books I definitely would not buy but would tell you to borrow it from your local library. Show Less
LibraryThing member lafon
I'm going to go ahead and say that for all its length this book was well thought out. Granted that at times the pace of the book slowed to (almost) nil, and there was the occasional plot jumping. However despite that the characters were intruiging and the enemies believable. Pretty good for the
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start of a series. Show Less
LibraryThing member aadyer
A good introduction with lots of world building and an intriguing premise, with some interesting characters and plot devices. The setting is also unique amongst fantasy novels and series in its scope and subject matter. Enjoyable. Would read the next one.
LibraryThing member tuusannuuska
This was a four and a half star read, but I'm feeling generous and rounding up. Mostly because this was the first book this year that got me really excited for the world and truly invested in the characters.
I'm not usually a huge high fantasy fan, but this is Tchaikovsky, so I had to give the
I'd also recommend the audiobook, I thought it was very well narrated. Particularly Tisamon's accent was amazing, and I probably fell a little bit in love with the character for that alone.
I'm not usually a huge high fantasy fan, but this is Tchaikovsky, so I had to give the
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series a chance. And it was very much worth it. Of course, the first book in a ten book fantasy series is going to mostly consist of ground work like world-building and catching you up on characters and their backstories, so while there is a decent plot here, that's really not the star of the book.I'd also recommend the audiobook, I thought it was very well narrated. Particularly Tisamon's accent was amazing, and I probably fell a little bit in love with the character for that alone.
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LibraryThing member Tom_Wright
This was a fun book. The magic system was awesome in that the author clearly did his research on how bugs behave. The fireball-shooting seems sophomoric in most other fantasy novels, like, "Ooh, dragons! Lighting bolts! Fireballs!" However, it felt natural here.
The book was not without its
The book was not without its
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problems, though. I wavered between four and five stars because of the mixed points of view. Sometimes, the author changed the point of view mid-paragraph, or mid-sentence. It was a chore to read in that sense, despite the fun of the magic system. Show Less
LibraryThing member WilHowitt
Book series review: This is a heroic fantasy series with legs -- six of them! Adrian Tchaikovsky serves up a wealth of characters, multithreaded plots, political scheming, and lots of action. With both steampunk and bug magic. I've just finished the first four-book story arc. Check it out.
In this
So there are three different kinds of magic, counting mechanical Aptitude (and the terminology gets a bit confusing when Apt engineers are called "artificers" which has no connection with the insect Arts). Anyway, it makes for lots of intrigue. At this point in history, the magical Inapt kinden who once ruled have been mostly pushed aside by the Apt kinden building a steampunk-like economy -- and one subplot is about their plans to take over again.
But the main plot is about the Wasp kinden trying to conquer the world. Like The Last Airbender's Fire Nation, or Shaka's Zulu empire, the Wasp Empire is mad for conquest for its own sake. Lots of action, lots of schemes. I feel like I should use the word "rollicking" in there somewhere.
In this
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world, humans are divided into kinden (castes), each with the name and some characteristics of a different insect. Each kinden has a set of powers called its "Art" associated with its insect (Ants have telepathic hive minds, Mantises are supreme fighters, Moths can see in the dark, Mosquitos are vampires, and so on). Plus, some kinden are "Apt," with the ability to understand, use, and build machinery. The Inapt kinden have Tolkienesque magical powers, besides their insect Arts, but cannot understand or use machinery even as simple as a door latch.So there are three different kinds of magic, counting mechanical Aptitude (and the terminology gets a bit confusing when Apt engineers are called "artificers" which has no connection with the insect Arts). Anyway, it makes for lots of intrigue. At this point in history, the magical Inapt kinden who once ruled have been mostly pushed aside by the Apt kinden building a steampunk-like economy -- and one subplot is about their plans to take over again.
But the main plot is about the Wasp kinden trying to conquer the world. Like The Last Airbender's Fire Nation, or Shaka's Zulu empire, the Wasp Empire is mad for conquest for its own sake. Lots of action, lots of schemes. I feel like I should use the word "rollicking" in there somewhere.
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LibraryThing member lewispike
This book has a fascinating background. The "people" are all related to insects: mystical Moth-kinden, warrior Mantis-kinden, industrious (and tough to kill) Beetle-kinden and so on.
The biologist in me notices there are half-breeds which makes them races of the same species - a bit like breeds of
The various kinden have "ancestor arts" that let them do things, so Spider-kinden can climb just about anything, Wasp-, Moth- and Dragonfly-kinden (amongst others) can sprout wings and fly. Wasp-kinden can (as in the cover art) manifest an energy ball "sting" and so on.
The story itself is less novel, but still engaging. The Wasp-kinden empire is invading the lowlands, having stamped hard on most, but not all, of the surrounding lands. The lowlands are very balkanised, in city-states, and rather inward looking so the powers that be in the lowlands ignore the "ranting" of those few specimens (including one of the book's heroes obviously) who have been outside and seen what's coming.
This book is mostly a battle of spies, rebels, small groups striking where they can, but it runs along at a fair pace and reads smoothly.
The series title, Shadows of the Apt refers to another difference between some of the races. Moths, Spiders, Mantises (possibly some others) are "elder races" and use magic. Beetles, Wasps and others use technology (they're Apt) and in most cases never the twain shall meet - a Spider-kinden can't use a crossbow because they're just incapable of understanding it, whilst Beetle-kinden will rationalise the evidence of their own senses to deny magic.
It will be interesting to see where this series goes.
The biologist in me notices there are half-breeds which makes them races of the same species - a bit like breeds of
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dogs.The various kinden have "ancestor arts" that let them do things, so Spider-kinden can climb just about anything, Wasp-, Moth- and Dragonfly-kinden (amongst others) can sprout wings and fly. Wasp-kinden can (as in the cover art) manifest an energy ball "sting" and so on.
The story itself is less novel, but still engaging. The Wasp-kinden empire is invading the lowlands, having stamped hard on most, but not all, of the surrounding lands. The lowlands are very balkanised, in city-states, and rather inward looking so the powers that be in the lowlands ignore the "ranting" of those few specimens (including one of the book's heroes obviously) who have been outside and seen what's coming.
This book is mostly a battle of spies, rebels, small groups striking where they can, but it runs along at a fair pace and reads smoothly.
The series title, Shadows of the Apt refers to another difference between some of the races. Moths, Spiders, Mantises (possibly some others) are "elder races" and use magic. Beetles, Wasps and others use technology (they're Apt) and in most cases never the twain shall meet - a Spider-kinden can't use a crossbow because they're just incapable of understanding it, whilst Beetle-kinden will rationalise the evidence of their own senses to deny magic.
It will be interesting to see where this series goes.
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LibraryThing member jazzbird61
Espionage, Magic, War, Politics, Gangsters & Bugs!.Dont let the horrible synopsis fool you. Awesome Epic Fantasy
Language
Original publication date
2008-07-04
Physical description
612 p.; 8.94 inches
ISBN
1616141921 / 9781616141929
Local notes
On a world populated by human-insect and human-arachnid creatures, each type of kinden has special powers and aptitudes. The otherwise average Stenwold Maker, a Beetle kinden, is caught up in extraordinary times, full of violence and impending war with the Wasps. He takes it upon himself to create a small cadre of resistance fighters before it is too late. Unfortunately, he’s considered a crackpot, those in power ignore. But he spins his web and becomes a spymaster, doing his best to prepare for the onslaught he anticipates.