Empire in Black and Gold (Shadows of the Apt)

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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. I can’t believe this is a debut novel. There were some slower chapters and a lot of worldbuilding to get used to. Otherwise this was such an exciting world of insectoid beings. Some have talent in magical abilities called Art, and others create mechanical or technological devices called Apt. This has been on my radar for a while but the low scores have put me off and i already have a couple of long series on the go. What swayed me was the superb Cage of Souls by the same author, which is one of the better books I've read this year. I’ll be honest; I struggled with the beginning of this book. I even tried to pass it off to other reviewers. I felt that I wasn’t jiving with the whole premise. I kept reading because I recognized quality writing and hoped that in itself would endear me to the story. Well, it did. I was so glad I didn’t set this one down. Adrian Tchaikovsky’s characters and world grew on me and I finished the last ¾ of the book in half the time it took me to read the first ¼.

You take away the main challenge, an author faces, when deciding to tell a story in a SFF setting, the exposition and information needed for the reader, to be immersed and believe in the world; to have an understanding, that can create urgency and feels consistent. Cheerwell and Salma are impriosned in Myna while Thalric begins his mission for the Rekef to investigate Ulther, the city's Wasp governor. Thalric straps Cheerwell to a torture table, apparently about to forcibly draw information on Stenwold from her, but only uses the noise made by the torture machine to conduct a clandestine conversation with his ally Aagen about exposing Ulther. In the end he forces matters with his former mentor quite simply, confiscating a rare and beautiful Butterfly-kinden woman, Grief in Chains, from Ulther's harem. Ulther sends men to kill Thalric but Thalric survives the fight and goes after Ulther. Now, if this was something Tchaikovsky was trying to achieve then he’s succeeded. But I’m not sure. And the more I think about it, the more I’m not fully convinced by the cities we visit. 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. This book feels like the beginning of the big conflict that will probably take place in the next 9 books. It is very fast paced and has multiple settings and plots going on, also changes location quite often, but never really gets into loads of action and large-scale events. Which is fine, as the action that did take place, was what I would critizise most about Tchaikowskys writing.

The only problem I noticed for myself, that this world does feel a bit artificial at times - a bit constructed. Since every reader knows the different types of insects, there is instantly a picture painted, of how these people might look, what their abilities might be, how they might behave, etc. The world is massive, the cultures rich and come in all shapes and forms. Add the uniqueness of the setting and main worldbuilding premise, and I was instantly hooked. And, like I was saying before, there’s the featureless plains between the faraway cities, the Dryclaw Desert (ugh), the Great Barrier Ridge, Spiderlands and Tharn in the mountains. The landscape in the Lowlands is so boring, so featureless, we literally fly over it at one point.

There are several insect groups represented and I hope to see more in forthcoming books. Stenwold is a beetle who is an academic. Tisamon is his Mantis warrior friend. Tynisa is his foster Spider-daughter. Che is his beetle niece. Salma is a flamboyant Dragonfly swordsman. Tothe is a half-breed who is very good at mechanical devices. Achaeos is a Moth-seer and becomes an unwilling participant in their fight. Then there’s the main antagonist, Thalric, a captain of the invading Wasp Empire. These are all great characters and easy to route for. Now the Empire is marching toward the Lowlands and his home city of Collegium lies directly in the path.The blindness of the leaders is one of the most prevalent themes of the book, and basically also what drives the narrative, as the characters decide to act themselves and finally prove their point. But the one thing I’d say about Empire is that the cities are interesting, the world between isn’t. I am hooked and I want to see what my favourites are up to, what kind of fate lies in wait for them. What more can I wish for from a good Fantasy read? This might be a debut, but apart from some small things, you will probably not really notice it. Tchaikovsky had some balls when he decided to start off with something like this.