Empire in Black and Gold (Shadows of the Apt)

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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. Unconcerned, Thalric questions Cheerwell about her uncle before recieving summons to Myna to investigate his old mentor Ulther for corruption. I consider this series a must read for any lover of epic fantasy and those readers who are looking for something completely different in the SFF community.

Stenwold kills his first man, a Wasp soldier who attacked him, while most of Marius's squad die defending the airfield. Among my top reads, and if you are a Wars of Light and Shadows reader, don't wait, give this one a shot! It was hard not to when Peter Jackson was busy making The Lord of the Rings accessible for everyone to enjoy, and my love for it was nurtured by my Mum’s husband, Paul, who bought me the first 3 Dragonlance (published 1984/5) books for my 14th birthday. He has also trained in stage-fighting and keeps no exotic or dangerous pets of any kind – possibly excepting his son.This is a dream come true for me as I read these books almost decade ago and it deserves a much wider audience and fanbase. Overall this is a very well balanced, intelligent novel that is different enough to be new and fresh and very rewarding.

Here the humans are separated in different kinden which all have special qualities connected with certain arthropod species that lent their names to the respective kinden.

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. Thanks Kevin for the review and to Marion for commenting and bringing these books back to my attention. Fed up of Collegiums ignorance Stenwold assembles a team and departs for the Industrial city of Helleron, which seems to be the Wasps next conquest. But once you get past the initial learning curve of Tchaikovsky’s world, Empire in Black and Gold turns out to be a wonderfully unique and exciting place to be.