| Title | : | Empire in Black and Gold (Shadows of the Apt, #1) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0230704131 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780230704138 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 612 |
| Publication | : | First published July 25, 2008 |
But meanwhile, in far-off corners, the Wasp Empire has been devouring city after city with its highly trained armies, its machines, its killing Art...And now its hunger for conquest and war has become insatiable.
Only the ageing Stenwold Maker, spymaster, artificer and statesman, can see that the long days of peace are over. It falls upon his shoulders to open the eyes of his people, before a black-and-gold tide sweeps down over the Lowlands and burns away everything in its path.
But first he must stop himself becoming the Empire's latest victim.
Empire in Black and Gold (Shadows of the Apt, #1) Reviews
-
Some authors do not write enough books while others write heaps. Tchaikovsky is one of the latter group. I feel as though I am never going to catch up with him, but starting the Shadows of the Apt series is a small step in the right direction.
I liked this book but did not love it, mostly because there was just too much war. The author actually writes war really well but it is not my favourite subject and I admit to skimming a bit. The characters were good and I had developed an attachment to, or at least an interest in, most of them by the end of the book thus ensuring I will move on to book 2.
The best part was the world in which the book is set with insect/humans and magic versus engineering. I would have liked much more of that and much less war but maybe that will happen in future books. I definitely plan to find out. -
War, war, and rumours of war, and yeah, war is here and war is HERE!
I wish I liked epic fantasy novels of war more. I'd probably be a bit more enthusiastic.
The wasps are an implacable and vast, vast army, an empire made up of slaves, slaves, and yet more slaves. This is a foe that makes me feel a knee-jerk reaction. Hell, most of the arguments made up of those still living in the lands that haven't been taken over make it sound like the ramblings of ignorant peeps in the face of the Chinese. All the stereotypes are still in effect: clever, devoted to their ideology, and you know the trope.
What really makes this novel stand out are the races of humans, whether Apt or non-Apt. Those who use magic can't use tech at all, even latches on doors, but they can take on the aspects of the insects (or arachnids) that they're linked to. The normal races of humans (for they're all human) have a thriving steampunk society and they fear the magic. Of course, all types of people show up in every land, but how they deal with the types allows for a lot of diverse conflict situations.
Cool and interesting world-building here.
Too bad so much of it was placed firmly in the service of so much eye-watering war. Sure, a great deal of character building happens with the show, don't tell school, but my eyes glazed over with most of the time being a slave. Things picked back up by the time of the rise in the ranks and the rescue comes around, and I finally began seeing the promise of the MCs.
I finally got into the stride of the novel very late, and that's a shame. I'm now into it and I'll probably continue reading the series. My only regret was the potential storytelling that didn't happen early on, revolving around the rules of the world and the exploration of any and all possible loopholes in the restrictions. Hoards and hoards bore me unless we've got some truly amazing viewpoints. The amaze factor wasn't here for most of the novel, but there were some very cool moments, placing this firmly in the category of immensely serviceable epic fantasy with still-good potential with a somewhat uninspiring beginning. -
I'm finally diving into Tchaikovsky's epic fantasy series after liking so many of his books. If you've not yet tried Tchaikovsky, and you're a fan of science fiction try
Children of Time and
Dogs of War, and if you happen to be a fantasy fan, try the excellent
Guns of the Dawn.
Shadows of the Apt consists of ten books. Quite a commitment, but it's done, so no waiting for the last few books. This is a world filled with human-insect races, and no, the Wasps are not very nice. The series has a steampunk flair with lots of races using and developing technology.
The prose isn't quite as smooth as in Tchaikovsky's later books, but it's already filled with his unmistakable humour.
The cast of characters is varied, fleshed out, and I particularly enjoyed the amount of work the author put into his antagonists.
It's a fantastic first book, and I can't wait to continue with the series. -
4 Stars
An Empire in Black and Gold was a really enjoyable start to a fantasy series, with distinct characters, cool action, and some unique world building. Set against a backdrop of a looming invasion no one wants to believe will actually happen, the book follows a reluctant spy and his young helpers as they try to find out what the menacing Wasp army is going to do and stop them before it’s too late.
To start with, that first chapter was great. I know some people don’t like being dropped right into the action from the start but for me a great prologue that leaves me asking questions and wanting to know more is one of the best ways to get me hooked. Like the prologue from the Eye of the World or the Way of Kings or the Shadow of What Was Lost, it made me immediately interested in what was happening. Plus there was some really cool and unique action.
One of the most distinctive things about this book was the world building. The races are completely different from anything I’ve seen before. I was a little hesitant when I read the cover blurb because I wasn’t sure how I would feel about what sounded like various races of bug people, but it was executed brilliantly. These people aren’t just human sized insects walking around. The different races, or kinden, have distinct characteristics and abilities, called their Art, that lend them specific talents. For instance the Wasp kinden can summon wings to fly and shoot fiery blast, or stings. Others can summon abilities like stealth, strength, or dexterity. The diversity of the kinden was really interesting, and I can’t wait to find out more about them. There is also a heavier technology presence than I was expecting, which I usually don’t love, but which I thought was handled well.
The author also created some really intriguing characters. You have Stenwold, an aging engineer (what they call an artificer), who has become a spymaster in the face of an invasion he knows is coming yet no one will believe. He assembles four younger charges, each of them different in ability and temperament. Salma, a Dragonfly kinden, and Tynisa, a Spider kinden, were 2 I particularly liked. Special mention has to go to Tisamon as well, a Mantis kinden who is simply cool. The author also managed to add depth to the conflict by presenting a character from the enemy, Captain Thalric, who is a Wasp officer working against the rest of our characters. The Wasp Empire itself, with its entire male population serving as soldiers and its use of captured people as slave labor, reminded me a bit of ancient Sparta, which as someone who finds the Spartans fascinating was another positive.
Despite all the good, the book wasn’t perfect. After that great opening chapter the middle of book was a bit slow. The writing itself is sometimes a bit cumbersome with at times a frustrating lack of detail. Some of the dialogue and interpersonal interactions also felt a bit stilted, as there were times I wondered why a character didn’t ask the obvious question or react more strongly to a situation.
Still, I would definitely recommend giving the book a shot. It’s the first in a completed (no waiting for the next book!) 10 book series and I’ve already gotten the second book. After the end to this book, I’m excited to see where the story goes now. -
Винаги се завръщам с удоволствие във фантастичния свят създаден от Ейдриън Чайковски.
В поредицата "Сянката на умелите" има всичко, каквото почитателите на фентъзито обичат - приключения и битки, интриги, предателства и любов.
Равнините са разделени на градове-държави, улисани в стари дрязги и непрекъснати конфликти. Почти никой не вижда заплаха в надигащата се от север Империя в черно и златно. Всички раси в този свят са свързани духовно с насекоми и арахноиди, и имат умения присъщи за тях - чародейства, мисловни връзки, оръжия, способността да мимикрират, да летят и още много други.
Стенуолд Трудан, бръмбаророден от Колегиум работи от години срещу неминуемата инвазия на осите. Ще успее ли той заедно със своите агенти да предотврати плановете им за господство над Равнините? В тези смутни времена са омесени стиймпънк технологии и магия, в една наистина експлозивна смес!
Поредицата бе издадена само до четвъртата част от Бард - което е един завършен цикъл от поредицата, но тези дни си купих петата - "Пътят на скарабея" и смятам да ги изчета до край на английски. Българският превод е отличен!
P.S. Дочетох поредицата, няма нито една слаба книга в нея! Препоръчвам я горещо! -
I hadn't even known about this epic fantasy series, until a friend outside the USA mentioned it. The good thing about that is: all ten books in the series are out (though one or two are not published here yet), which means not having to wait, if the succeeding volumes entranced me as much as this first one did.
It has a zillion reviews, most of which give a general outline of the plot, and hint at the world building: basically a world of human-insect races, called kinden. Within some of these are clans, like the Ant-kinden, who fight each other when not menaced by outsiders, in this story arc, the imperialistic Wasps.
Tchaikovsky does what I thought a terrific job of developing his characters, young and old. The old ones are weighed down by experience, but still demonstrate vitality and drive, especially Stenwold Maker, the old, fat Beetle who mentored the four young kinden central to this story. When it looks like a Wasp assassin squad is coming after Stenwold and his group, he sends them ahead to safety--or what he assumed would be safety, and their adventures begin.
I loved all the characters, but especially Che, (Cheerwell Maker), Stenwold's niece. I wonder if the series is going to be centered around her, and I'll be more than fine with that if it is. She's so determinedly certain she knows how the world works, but that doesn't get in the way of her natural compassion as slowly her worldview gets hammered, and she herself falls into extreme danger.
The villains are as interesting as the protagonists, which is a rarity I treasure. I find it more difficult these days to stick with a book in which the villains are all torture and evil all the time. Unless you enjoy reading all that graphic misery, it can get tediously predictable. not that torture doesn't happen in this book, but I appreciated the way it was handled, and even more, I found the chief villain, Captain Thalric, interesting in his determined dedication to the empire. He is aware that that makes ethical and moral decisions moot: honor requires totally loyalty to the empire, even when carrying out utterly horrific orders. Except that certain memories will keep coming back at him.
Thalric reminds me a little of Rommel, without the Junker sense of aristocratic entitlement. But similar in that conviction that the military is the only calling for a man, which means your life is necessarily organized around war, and loyalty to the government being the dividing line between savagery and honor, which can come back to haunt you when it becomes increasingly clear that the government is run by seriously flawed humans whose power guarantees that their whims affect countless thousands.
Exiting chases, betrayals, battles, and moments of awe and a sense of numinous otherness filled the tale richly around characters I am excited to follow into their next adventure. -
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.
It’s an interesting plot concept which brings to mind the film 300 (well, my mind. maybe nobody else’s). The Wasps play the part of the Xerxes led Persians as they sweep over the land conquering all before them aiming for their end goal of ‘One Nation’. Stenwold Maker, a beetle spymaster defeated in the books opening battle at Myna, is laying low in Collegium keeping his eye on the advancing Wasps as they slowly make their way to the Lowlands. His attempts at convincing the governors of Collegium to take action and prepare for the inevitable invasion are rejected due to their selfishness. The idea of invasion is a joke to them so they’d rather turn a blind eye and live like fat kings. 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.
The idea of an all devouring race slowly conquering an entire world just appeals to me and the execution is pretty good. The standout sections are the political scheming and negotiations between the different insect/human races; dialogue is definitely the authors strongest writing skill. The downside to this book is the fighting/battle scenes; they’re such a drag. I found myself zoning out every time there was a scuffle. They seemed amateur compared to the rest of the book.
Fight scenes aside it’s a decent opener to a fantasy series but i won't be in a rush to read book 2. -
Perhaps it was the phase of the moon or the change of the seasons or my attention to other matters, but whatever the reason, this book and I never hit it off. I thought the prologue was great: combat, intrigue, deaths, and a hopeless fight against a powerful enemy, but then the actual book began with two hundred pages of world building and four new main characters who I never cared one thing about. Perhaps if I kept reading I could finally get to the exciting parts, but since this is a library book, my time has run out (Literally, no more renewals allowed), so back it goes and maybe I'll try it again some other time.
-
Damnnnn
That was something I didn't know I needed. -
This is an amazing start to a finished series. Topnotch intrigue and action, set against a complex backdrop with many races, a wide range of interests and motivations, with characters that are written with a superb touch - you care about all of them from the very start. There are no cardboard villains, quite the opposite, from the traitors to the 'bad guys' each one is presented with credible motivations, unanswered mysteries of character, adding up to incredible depth and scope.
The execution is smooth and the uptake as well, for a book of this scope and complexity. If you enjoy topnotch political intrigue, plenty of sword fights and full scale battles, gangster wars, industrialization, and yes, even magic - spread across multiple factions, nationalities and settings - here are interesting angles of view set into concepts that are never more relevant, and characters you can empathize with - this is your ticket. A brilliant read, and keep this level of praise for any work sparingly. Nor do I do stars very often. This book deserves full credit.
Among my top reads, and if you are a Wars of Light and Shadows reader, don't wait, give this one a shot! I loved it without reservation. -
3.5. Solid but not spectacular start to this fantasy series. I enjoyed the steampunk industrial elements and learning about the various kinden races. There is a large cast of characters but only a couple have me interested. Hopefully they will develop over time. I was entertained but it hasn’t kicked me in the feels.
-
Started strong then the final third kinda dragged. Overall I found it very enjoyable and will continue the series.
-
I first discovered Tchaikovsky with his
Children of Time and have read most of his science fiction, but EIBAG was his first foray into writing and also a fantasy epic. Yet, many of the themes found in his later science fiction novels may be found here as well. EIBAG was his first novel, and while that shows a little, I still found it an engrossing and fun read.
Tchaikovsky is known for his 'big ideas', world building and biological 'constructs' for lack of a better world and all are on display here. Mr. T. does not employ big info dumps, so it takes a bit to get into the groove here. The world T. builds here is definitely unique. Humanity had historically been traumatized by large insects, like horse size locusts and such. Through some (magical?) means, various groups of humans started to take on features of the local bugs. Eventually, there were 'spider-kinden', 'beetle-kinden', 'wasp-kinden', 'scorpion-kinden' etc. Now, these people kinden have various attributes of the bugs, and to an extent some features, but they are still human and can interbreed. Beetle-kinden, for example, are industrious, short and squat, while spider-kinden are lithe, cunning and crafty (and killer with a sword).
This strange melange of humanity for hundreds of years was ruled by a theocracy of Moth-kinden, the most 'magical' of the humans in alliance with the 'mantis-kinden' who provided the muscle with their legendary prowess with blades. 500 years ago, the 'slave races' rebelled and cast off the moth yoke. It seems moths and some of the races possess an inability to employ technology while beetles (what is called the 'apt'), ants and so forth are really good at it. In a way, it was new tech and mass production that lead to the downfall of the moths and company. The moths have been reduced to living in a few scattered cities while the former slave races populate an area known as the lowlands. Whew!
In the here and now so to speak, the story centers on a beetle (Stenwold) who teaches at the largest university in the world, located in Collegium, the heart of beetle inventiveness. Stenwold Maker, our main protagonist, a few decades ago saw the downfall of a city on the edge of the lowlands by the wasp empire and over the years repeatedly warned his colleagues at the university and else where of the wasp threat. This definitely has a rise of the Nazi empire feel to it. The wasp empire is built on conquest, and while they turn to their northern flanks first, after a terrible 12 year war with they dragonfly-kinden, they now are turning their sites on the lowlands. The lowlands are basically a mixed bag of city states with petty rivalries that go back generations. Until recently, the 'outlands' were similar, until the wasp empire started its massive consolidation under the black and gold flag. It is up to Stenwold and the network of his former students scattered in the lowlands to raise the awareness of the wasp threat, or else!
While this is definitely a world building treat laced with political intrigue, Mr T. does not skimp on his characters. Besides the beetle Stenwold, we have his current cadre of students, including his beetle niece, a spider woman, a mantis prince and a half-breed beetle young man. The traits of the various species color their world and create some fascinating interrelations to say the least. They set out to the industrial center of the lowlands, a city that feels like Pittsburgh in its prime in the 1920s. Helleron exports manufactured goods all over, and lately, its best customers are the wasp empire. Lets just say the reception in Helleron is a disaster and the plucky students are forced to grow up fast...
I should also note that this has a definite steampunk feel to it. The beetles have invented cars running on steam, spring tension and even electricity; the same goes for air craft. Trains are just coming into the picture. Weapons seem to be the cutting edge, however, with gunpowder fired crossbows (with repeating action), massive siege engines and such. The imagination of Tchaikovsky is truly amazing and his prose is a pleasure.
This does suffer from some pacing issues, and perhaps a little 'too much' to grasp regarding the world itself. If you just let it flow, however, it all starts to make sense. Very good first novel in any case and I will be back for the sequels! 4 buggy stars!! -
4 stars - Oct. 2022 re-read via the new audiobooks. Ben Allen does a fantastic job narrating. His performance reminds me of Jim Dale in the way he acts out the voices.
There were some parts/plot points that I liked less the second time through (nearly a decade later), but overall I'm planning to continue a reread of this amazing series in audio.
---------------------------
I'm sure every reader knows the feeling of starting a book you're skeptical about and being pleasantly surprised. Empire in Black and Gold was that and so much more. I had continually pushed it down on my TBR list because the whole insect idea just didn't click with me. Eventually I caved thinking that what if it ended up being a gem? Tchaikovsky writes pretty damn fast for a new-ish (I know '08 isn't that new but still) author whom not a ton of people know about.
The human race is divided into several different insect-kinden and each kinden has an Ancestor Art. From what I gather, we have Beetles who tend to be more stout than the others, but also more resilient, with very rare encounters of flying Beetles, and even then they're bad at it. The Beetles are one of the Apt races, those of whom can use technology and their Art allows them this resilience to several things. Dragonflies are gold of skin and can fly and are much more dextrous and quick than other races (but Inapt) and have weapons called 'thumb claws' that are explained in the book, Wasps can fly and 'sting', meaning their Art allows them to shoot what is essentially a ball of fire from their hands. Flies are much smaller than others, Mantids are deadly warriors, the list goes on and Tchaikovsky does a great job explaining them.
The action is very well written and keeps coming, and the dialogue is great. I cannot comment on prose due to the fact that I'm still not 100% sure how to categorize it. The basic plotline is that Stenwold, a Beetle, has been preaching to everyone for 17 years of the imminent Wasp threat, but nobody has listened. The Wasps continue to move and mobilize, and he is laughed at. The cast has many likable characters and their development is also top-notch.
The electronic version finished at 86%(567 or so pages on the PaperWhite), which was strange, but included several little short stories not relevant to our cast that I'll get around to eventually. There wasn't a crazy cliffhanger like GRRM has done and PVBrett has done as well, but there is definitely motivation to read more. Most first novels in an epic fantasy-esque series tend to be set-ups, and Adrian did a brilliant job setting up the series, but with some added POW.
All in all this was a fantastic debut and I'm very pleased that I am able to dive right into Dragonfly Falling and subsequent ones without waiting. Provided that I whittle down Mount TBR a bit between books.
5/5 and really looking forward to more. -
Second read, March 2021: after having listened to the first 4 books which contain one story arc I went back for a re-read before going on to the next. With so many characters and places a second read always is more rewarding, cause nuances are more appreciated in hindsight, characters are better known etc.
So I would tend towards 5 stars now, but in light of the level up that is book 4 I'll go for 4.5 star rating now.
I'm happy to say that "Shadows of the Apt" is the second epic Fantasy series after Sanderson's "Stormlight Archive" that convinces me on all levels.
‐------------------------------
Initial review:
This is a great opening book for what looks like a very promising series.
The worldbuilding in Tchaikovsky's Fantasy epic is refreshingly different from your usual medivial human kind of characters. 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. There are bugs and spiders, dragonflies and mantis etc. These peoples live more or less in peace (or ignorance), until the wasp kinden start conquering the lands and (re)action is called for. A nice twist is that some can use machinery, they are called the apt, and some can't even figure out how a locking mechanism could work, but have other qualities - the inapt.
I was listening to it (lovely performance by Ben Allen) and so it took me some time to get into the world, cause it starts in medias res with a lot of names and places which certainly is easier to follow on (e-)paper. But not long and I started to feel for and with the characters. And that's the linchpin for me and Fantasy. When I start rooting for some (or more than some) of the folks I'm reading about, I'm bought.
All of the characters are layered and some are more grey tinted than others. Their struggles and doubts feel real in this epic war world. Everybody, including the antagonist, goes through emotional development - and since this is only book one I am eagerly looking forward to see what is in store for them.
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?
Only warning: this is a book (and probably the whole series) about war. So the emphasis is on fights and battles. I'm not such a fan of this, but I was forewarned and got into it with the right mind-setting. Readers who aren't into war tales probably won't enjoy it that much. -
Adrian certainly has civilization building down to an art. I thought this was a fun, "different" take on sword and sorcery with bug people.
CONTENT WARNING:
Things to love:
-All the moving parts. New kinds of humans! Very distinct politics all over the place! Found family! Magic!
-True ensemble cast. Each had a story, point of view, and growth. Very cool.
Why it's not 5 stars:
-One step from totally new. We have so much new and then so much very mundane. I'd have loved to have seen more about gender, sexual relationships, and the concept of war integrated more from the bugs that have influenced the people of this world.
I'll likely continue and I see what people enjoy about this. Definitely worth a read! -
Excellent debut fantasy set in a quite unusual world of various human races that have some specific insect adaptation and are called insect-kinden, e.g. beetle-kinden squat, mechanically inclined, mantis-kinden fast deadly warriors, spider-kinden masters of intrigue in whose society women dominate, moth-kindeb mystical former rulers until the mechanically inclined kinden, beetle, ants and flies overthrew them and built an early industrial society of city states - Lowlands - loosely allied and having the Collegium - an Athens like mercantile and scholar democracy as the most influential.
But now the tribes of the eastern deserts have been united by the wasp-kinden in the Empire in Black and Gold of the title and in the 3 generations since creation the Empire started expanding to the borders of the Lowlands where the industrial powerhouse city of Helleron is making tons of money selling the most advanced weapons and machinery to it. Making money for now...
One master artificer and historian beetle-kinden Stenwold Maker of the Collegium has seen the Empire in action at first hand when fighting alongside a desert city state trying to resist the wasp-kinden and in the 17 years since he played Casandra to the Collegium assembly with the same (lack of) success as the original had with the nobles of Troy. But now after winning a terrible war with the dragonfly-kinden Commonweal, the Empire is on the move again.
Stenwold and his last disciples, his spider-kinden ward Tynisa, his niece Chee, his apprentice Totho and a young prince of the Commonweal Salma try one more desperate attempt to do something, while Intelligence Captain Thalric of the Empire currently emissary to the Collegium has Sten on his hit list.
Full of wonders, action and stopping at a reasonable point this novel is an extraordinary debut and moved into my top 5 fantasies of 2008. The second book scheduled for February 09 became a get asap book -
I absolutely adored this first book of the Shadows of the Apt. I grew attached to just about every main or side character, and I was so intrigued by the creative worldbuilding and was left wanting so much more (not a bad place to be when there are 9 more books in the series!).
The opening action set piece and the climactic action set piece had me on the edge of my seat, and I found the action to be so well laid out and written that I could picture things so clearly.
Overall a great start to the series! -
It was a very fine book with an original idea and well executed too. Solid world building, even pacing and impeccable characterization, plenty of action as well.
But I've been reading exceptionally great books in the recent past with Paul Kearney, Steven Erikson, and K.J Parker's books so it fell a prey to involuntary comparisons, although I did try very hard to not let that happen and enjoy this book on its own merits which are considerable.
One thing I missed was epic battles which I am rather mad about in my epic fantasy. So I was a bit disappointed on that front. Although there were plenty of duellist melees and group combat.
This series does have vast potential though and from the reviews I've seen it gets better and better so I will be getting back to it. But not immediately cause as good as this was I've got even better stuff awaiting my attention.
Rating: Distracted Smile. -
За първи път чета с увлечение за полет с гигантски молец - започвам да преосмислям отношението си към тези невзрачни насекоми. Но той Чайковски обича всякакви пълзящи и летящи твари, както се вижда и от други негови романи.
А тук насекомите буквално изобилстват - богомолки, паяци, бръмбари, молци, водни кончета, оси. И са огромни! Освен това са споделили уменията си с човечеството, което се е разделило на стари мистични и нови технологични раси тъкмо според качествата на съответното насекомо.
Бръмбарите са техниците сред цялото това изобилие, и са достигнали своего рода индустриална революция. Старите мистични и вълшебни раси, загубили господството си след техническия процес и последвала го революция на робите срещу бившите им господари, са далеч от щастието по този повод. Но всички те са заплашени от възхода на една изключително агресивна и безмилостна нова империя, чиято политика за усмиряване на света е да го завладее и подчини, изсмуквайки богатствата му.
Алюзията с навечерието на втората световна война е повече от прозрачна, както и нежеланието на застрашените да осъзнаят истинските измерения на заплахата. Бръмбарите-англичани си затварят очите. Водните кончета-руснаци вече са понесли загуби. А нацистите-оси вършеят на тихия и открития фронт. Всичко си има в тази история - логика, приключения, магии, техно джаджи от 19-ти и по-ранните векове, приятелство, стари и нови любови и вражди, стари тайни и световни загадки, битки и шпионаж. Както и здравословна доза ирония и приземеност насред цялата тази магия, наред с колоритни и симпатични герои.
Прекрасно начало на поредица, хуквам към продълженията. Чайковски е стабилен и оригинален, както винаги - истински любимец. От по-сложничката стара школа, което на фона на масовката безмислени фентъзийни тухли с ученически вълнения от шести клас и напълно некадърни и глупави “злодеи” си е истинско гурме.
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➡️ Цитати:
🪲 “Дайте им глад, война, застигнат от бедствие район или осиротяло дете и те ще дискутират надълго и нашироко символизма и философията на ненамесата. Дайте им състезание или празен трофей и те ще нарушат всички правила само и само да се изфукат с победата си.”
🐜 “Всички писани правила бяха на негова страна, а всички неписани — срещу него.”
🪰 “Влизай. Имаме новини от смесен характер.”
🪲 “Превръщаше всичко в драматична криза, от която зависи оцеляването на малкия й личен свят.”
🐝 “Но дълбоко в ума си, там, където дори Рекеф не би могъл да долови изменнически мисли, се чудеше що за империя строят, щом дори тайните служби се боят от тайно наблюдение.”
🐝 “Излъчваше най-вече ленив цинизъм и черно чувство за хумор, а това обикновено подсказваше честност в приемливи количества.” -
Just an absolutely fantastic first book in a series that deserves a fandom as dedicated as those of Malazan, Stormlight Archive, or Wheel of Time.
Tchaikovsky has somehow struck an amazing balance between the wildly unique world-building of Steven Erikson and the accessible/addictive writing of Brandon Sanderson. The outcome is a book that I -literally- could not put down.
If you are a fan of any of the writers I just mentioned, do yourself a favor and check this book out as soon as you can. I'm off to go start Book 2! -
UPDATE: reread
I absolute loved my second reading of this book. The world building is phenomenal. The plot is simple but has so many implications. It’s like the Romans who wanted to invade all of Europe. And the characters are so vivid and real that I can easily picture them in my mind.
Although I read this less than a year ago, there were things I didn’t remember. So I was surprised for a second time, which was wonderful! My favorite characters right now are Achaeos and Thalric with Tisamon a close second.
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
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.
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.
There are some philosophical comments like when Aagen, a Wasp soldier says to Salma: “… next time you shed my kinden’s blood, think o. This: we are but men, no less no more than other men, and we strive and feel joy and fail as men have always done. We live in the darkness that is the birthright of us all, that of hurt and ignorance, only sometimes… sometimes there comes the sun.”
The final battle is a small victory but the wider war is still to come. -
Empire in Black and Gold is the first volume of the fantasy series Shadows of the Apt by Adrian Tchaikovsky.
My impressions:
There is a wise man, a threat, a "party", a travel, betrayal, fights. Hmmh, sounds familiar. But there are no elves, dwarfs, hobbits or trolls. Instead we find steampunk elements and most unsual: insect-kinden.
Insect-kinden? There are several human races who long ago adapted to prehistoric insects. Examples: mantis-kinden are warriors, beetle-kinden like mechanics, wasp-kinden can fly and use stingers.
For more information please visit
Shadows of the Apt
Adrian Tchaikovsky combines all these things to a fast pace and imaginative web.
The whole story is a phantastic spiderweb and you are the fly. Once you're captivated you only can free yourself by finishing the book.
But be aware the next web Dragonfly Falling has been braced in bookstores.
If you like epic fantasy beyond elves and dragons then give the insect-kinden a try. -
Empire in Black and Gold was a really great start to this ten book series. A Fantasy Steampunk world in which the human inhabitants have the characteristics of insects which is a very cool idea indeed.Some characters I really liked such as Stenwold and Tisamon the Mantis assassin. There were times when I thought that some of the characterisation and plotting was a little rough around the edges but on the whole I thoroughly enjoyed this first instalment and will definitely buy the next one.
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Oh, darling how I wanted to love you, with your slick cover, interesting bug people and rave reviews, but you let me down. Maybe if I wasn't expecting so much, I would have loved you more.
Bug people, well sorta bug people. Sounds awesome, right? People who share the aspects of bugs is a pretty cool concept and one that I haven't seen done before on this scale. This was cool and done really well. I was actually expecting just a couple of different types of kinden (bug people, which are as far as I can tell all people except they do refer to humans sometimes in a sense that included the kinden but doesn't actually clarify if there are non-binding humans, this ambiguity is one of the things that did bother me) but there were a ton of different types. (Maybe too many if it's considered taboo to have a child with someone who isn't from your exact kinden; I mean the population of a given city can't be all that large considering the setting so I would expect everyone to have a pretty high inbreeding coefficient.... of course the author never describes the size of the population of the various towns and cities so who knows.) I didn't have an issue with the author’s vague descriptions of the characters that some readers did, I assumed humanoid except in the cases where the text explicitly mentioned bone spurs or claw hands. I imagined wings as not always there, but appearing and disappearing as needed. Tchaikovsky does a great job at making the various kinden unique, giving each species/race different abilities. Mantids (Mantis kinden) are superb fighters that take glory in battle with bone spurs on the forearms they can use as weapons. Wasps can fly (though not as gracefully as moths or dragonflies or other kinden), have dangerous tempers and can shoot energy beams (this is Art, not magic) from their hands, yeah they were the coolest. Ant kinden could link together like a hive mind, etc etc. This was probably the coolest concept in the book, as well as the best executed.
Apt vs Inapt, or able to use technology and not able to use technology. This also sounded pretty interesting when it was first mentioned. Unnnnfortunatly it was taken way too far. Basically, certain kinden (as a whole except for the extremely rare exception) are able to use technology but not magic, and other can use main but not tech. Magic is different from Art; Art consists of the abilities that you have from your kinden: flying, ants mind speech, climbing walls if you’re a spider... The abilities and limitations of magic are not really explored in this book, although magic does play a role. Those who are Apt don't believe in magic anymore and many of the Inapt don't either. So yeah, I thought this was pretty cool, up until Tynisa (Inapt spider kinden) got locked in a room and laments how if she were Apt, she'd be able to take a piece of metal and jiggle it around in the lock to open it. So she looks at the lock and doesn't understand it and thinks about how spider’s don’t have locks and just have curtains with guards instead of doors because the Inapt are incapable of using a latch or key or apparently a doorknob.... (0_0;) WUUUT? I had to put the book down and go on a mental rant, especially since it was mentioned that spiders make the best mirror and that then Inapt also make good swords. Ummmm, I hate to break it to the author but making glass and swords requires the use of technology more advanced than a latch. Just to smelt the metal for the swords you need a bellows. Maybe he meant they use magic to make them, but if so he should have mentioned that. It would have been super cray cray easy to just say the spider magic made mirror instead of just the spider made mirror. =_= But then, a few pages later Totho (apt) asks Tynisa to pass him crossbow bolts in the middle of a battle and he doubts that they can do it, because ya know crossbows are technology. Even though the Inapt are really good archers and passing someone an arrow is really the same thing as passing someone a crossbow bolt. Luckily (for the author) she is capable of this. Still as a result, what started off as an intriguing idea ended up feeling flat and forced.
I almost quit here, I didn't really like any of the main characters introduced so far, I didn't feel a sense of urgency for the trouble the characters were in and I didn't really care what happened to them. But, I liked Tisamon in his 30 second scene in the beginning, and I totally researched the rest of the books and Thalric sounded interesting, and I paid 10$ for this ebook, dangit! So I forged on. Eventually Thalric and Achaeos were introduced, both of whom were at least mildly interesting. I don't know how this author managed to make his main characters so boring/unlikeable. They were whiny, angsty, dramatic, unnecessarily secretive, and immature when they all should have been pretty cool. They all had characteristics I should have liked, but I just didn't. They felt bland and 2D. So, Thalric and Achaeos the most interesting of the bunch. Unfortunately, Thalric casually rapes a women a little over halfway through the book. She's a slave so she doesn't protest but he's "sourly aware that her responses were born of a need to appear willing, and that the pleasure, such as it was, was all his." He then turns around and asks her to help him and this is all couched in very bland "this is perfectly normal" language. And yeah, Thalric is an antagonist, but I'm fairly sure the reader is supposed to like him. And, now I feel guilty for liking him, because he apparently has low respect for women (actually I wonder if this scene was only in there so he could think about how the wasp empire treats women) but he is still the most interesting character. Ugh!
Pacing, structure, narrative, grammar, or things that made me double check that this wasn't self published and that I really paid 10$ for the kindle book. Many of Empire's problems could have been fixed by thorough editing and restructuring of sentences. The author uses odd sentence structure, as if trying to make the text more interesting and instead does the opposite. Events, and actions are filtered through the viewpoint character removing the urgency or immediacy of the situation. Each one on one fight is formulaic. Action, "but" this is why action failed, counter action, "but" counter action was avoided by doing this annnd back to action. They are clunky, the literary equivalent of
Flynning and unfortunately used seriously. And yes, the "buts" are there. I could have removed a zillion "buts" and "ands" from the text to improve the flow. I don't mind breaking grammar rules and using conjunctions to start sentences (as the astute reader might notice), but Tchaikovsky does this way too often and it is way to drama-drama and breaks the flow. Speaking of drama, he makes things that should be exciting boring by couching them in stilted passive voice phrases like “For a sheer height of over one hundred yards the side of the mountain had been worked into a city.” Yes, that sentence us missing a comma, and wow does it make a city carved into the side of a freaking mountain, boring! Also, one hundred yards – not really that big of a distance. For reference, the Statue of Liberty is about 102 yards tall. Small city. A few pages later he breaks into the most vomit inducing purple prose like, “She was so full of love for him that tears ran down her cheeks until he kissed them away,” and “he had given her a gift beyond counting- and love as well.” Barf.
Annnd, I am realizing this review is getting kinda long and other people have covered some of the other issues I had so, I’m gonna wrap this up. BTW, I didn’t actually hate this book, like it might sound – I mean, I finished it after all. It was just not anywhere near as good as what I was expecting. If I had paid 5$ for it instead of 10$, I wouldn’t be nearly as disappointed – and I might even give the second book a chance. At least I had fun reading excerpts aloud to my mom and watching her reactions. -
More reviews at undertheradarsffbooks.com
Welcome to the Lowlands and what I can only describe as the most underrated epic fantasy series of out time! Yes, you heard me correctly and I do not use these words lightly. Adrian Tchaikovsky is known mostly through his sci-fi novels but he wrote a ten book epic fantasy series starting with Empire in Black and Gold in 2008. This ten book epic fantasy series is the hidden gem of the epic fantasy genre and I would like to thank Tor UK for rereleasing the entire series including its first release on audible. The audible edition is performed by the very talented Ben Allen and he does a smashing job. Every single characters voice was performed brilliantly and I mentioned to Ben that one scene in a haunted forest was done so well that he literally game me the chills! Ok, that’s enough about me gushing about this story.
The Lowlands is a world and civilization unlike any other you have read in the fantasy genre and I can guarantee that! There are several different races of humans in this world with each race being referred to as a different Kinden. A Kinden is a race of human that based on the aspects of different insects!. I know this may sound strange but let me explain how it works. The world consists of several different types of Kinden: beetles, ants, dragonfly, mantis, spider, moth, wasp etc… Each Kinden contains their own skills or magic abilities. Beetle-Kinden tend to be short with round build and they are very smart with the ability to build machines. Ant-Kinden are short but very strong soldiers to go to war and they can communicate in each others minds without talking. Mantis-Kinden are elite soldiers similar to a samurai and very prideful. Finally Wasp-Kinden are magic users who can fly, but not very strong as a group. All of these Kinden and so much more inhabit this world and Adrian Tchaikovsky has taken my breath away with his imagination and creative genius!
There is so much that happens in just this one book that I believe it could have been split up into a trilogy. 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. Lets get into the synopsis: The city states of the Lowlands have lived in peace for decades, bastions of civilization, prosperity and sophistication, protected by treaties, trade and a belief in the reasonable nature of their neighbors. But meanwhile, in far-off corners, the Wasp Empire has been devouring city after city with its highly trained armies, its machines, its killing Art…And now its hunger for conquest and war has become insatiable. Only the ageing Stenwold Maker, spymaster, artificer and statesman, can see that the long days of peace are over. It falls upon his shoulders to open the eyes of his people, before a black-and-gold tide sweeps down over the Lowlands and burns away everything in its path. But first he must stop himself becoming the Empire’s latest victim.
We follow several characters on this journey and each one is better than the next. First we follow Cheerwell Maker: Stenwold’s niece and student at the collegium. Beetle-Kinden curious about the world and its inhabitants until the war is brought to her front door. Next we follow Tynisa: Stenwolds student and ward. Spider-Kinden who finds that she has no interest in the learning and knowledge of building machines but instead wishes to take up the way of the sword. Then we have Tisamon: Mantis-Kinden and a fierce warrior. Guilted by the betrayal of his once friend, he had lived in isolation for the past 17 years until Stenwold calls for help and the war with the wasps begin. Finally there is Achaeos: Moth-Kinden on a secret mission until it goes horrible wrong, He is a seer in training and his scenes involving his powers were the one of my favorite parts of the story.
Each Kinden has its own history and predigests towards the others. Beetles, Ants, and Flies were slaves, cowed by the powerful sorceries of their masters that they couldn’t even comprehend. The Lowlands were ruled by the Moth-Kinden, with the assistance of the Mantis-Kinden. This relationship is summed up in the commonly used phrase Masters of the Grey, Servants of the Green. This was until the revolution happened and the slaves rose up with the might force of the machines to overtake their masters and magic is now practiced in certain areas.
Now that we got that out of the way, lets get into the writing. If you have read any of Adrian Tchaikovsky other novels, you already know how much of a wizard his with words. Beautifully and methodically written with suspense and tension lurking around every corner. It had been almost a decade since I first read this and I was still shocked and how much I didn’t remember and I left with a huge smile on my face ready to dive into book 2. This book does have some very dark moments including a torture scene, a brutal murder, and the very brief glimpse of a rape scene (nothing graphic or descriptive), in case these types of scenes are hard to read for some readers.
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. It is a crime that this series is such an unknown to the vast majority of fantasy readers and I will take it upon myself to correct this injustice. This is in my top 5 greatest epic fantasy series ever written and I hope you will see this work for the grand epic it truly is.
Thank you Ben Allen for your wonderful contribution to this series and keep the good work!
Adrian, I can’t begin to express my gratitude for creating this masterpiece and I hope many will appreciate this work and all its glory! It has changed the way I want stories to be told forever and I have you to thank!
Cheers! -
So, initially, I thought it was going to be The Lord of the Rings, but with Bug-People. We read that Gandalf sends four young hobbits from the Shire to Bree, where they are to meet Strider. Strider is scary. They are attacked by the roving agents of the Enemy. Some escape, and some don't. The captured ones are taken deep into Enemy territory. They are rescued, with the aid of new allies, and the rescue even involves tangentially a haunted forest. It's all set in the context of an invasion by an Evil Empire into the lands of disunited peoples who have long histories of their own quarrels.
Much like how it's easy to make the respective series of Robert Jordan, George Martin, and Scott Bakker fit into the general plot outline of
Dune, when the narrative is described with a sufficiently broad level of caricature, so too here it might be a simple affair to dismiss the narrative as derivative of Tolkien, updated to be steampunky, with Bug-People, who are often described at times in terms of a potentially annoying essentialism, much as with Tolkien's various species.
Dismissal is however premature. We might, with effort, chart out the functional elements of fantasy literature, as Propp did for Russian folklore in
Morphology of the Folktale--but that need not constitute the basis for rejection of any particular writing. Despite the familiarity here, the setting is plenty alien, and the narrative has some nifty originalities.
It's likely a mistake, first of all, to think of the seeming Evil Empire in this text as so simplistic as the neoconservative propaganda term that's been used to describe it. It comes across as brutal, slave-owning, expressly racist. Little distinguishes it from the other cultures in the narrative, though, except that it appears to be winning. There are very thoughtful presentations of wage-slavery, "hundreds of labouring bodies," allegedly working of their own "free will," but acknowledging that "how many of them had a family an eighth of an inch from starving" (131)--occuring in places where the Empire's writ does not run. We note also a caste mentality, leaving a "poor half-breed" with little option to be other than a "slave at worst, or at best an unskilled laborer" (49)--though one city-state pats itself on the back for the apparently radical opinion that such poor half-breeds should be educated and employed meritocratically. This and other city-states like to sell arms to both sides in ongoing wars, much like the United States, surely one of the lowest forms of douchebaggery. The empire, by contrast, is mostly Roman with a touch of Mongol--which means that it is property-oriented, male-oriented, expansionist. The various Bug-Peoples are not an allegory or roman a clef otherwise.
The area into which the Evil Empire thrusts itself has undergone, not recently, a revolution, casting off a race-monarchy of the Inapt over the Apt. The marketing description of the book at times makes it seem as though aptness is a matter of magickes v. technology. This is not completely correct, because each of the specific Bug-Peoples, including the Apt, has their own "Art," which encompasses various types of fantasy functions. Magickes proper appear on the margins, among, surely, the remnants of the now-dispossessed race-monarchists, who are generally not able to work doorknobs.
The text presents the perspective of an imperial army officer, who is devoted to the idea of Empire, unlike his compatriots, who are motivated by personal ambition or capital accumulation or whatever. The narrative also brings the narrators into contact with a bona fide national liberation movement, against the empire. The intersection of the army officer and the revolutionaries is interesting, and not without consequence. We also get some race-monarchist perspective, too, to round out the presentation of the various historical forces at work--but generally the narrative focuses on our four insect-hobbits, who are a mixed group of apt and inapt, but who have all been trained at the progressive university of the preeminent apt city-state.
Amid all of the discussion of industry, commerce, and technology are gems of the setting's history, which could be rich, but we only receive quick glances. The story partakes of action-adventure at times, and espionage thriller at others, as well as nauseating adolescent sex drama and concomitant bildungsroman. It's not a bad mix, perhaps moves a bit quickly at times--I want it to slow down, catch its breath, and explain some of its key concepts. I'm definitely feeling the adrenaline, though, and it's fun to watch a group of unlikely ass-kickers take down a bunch of redshirts, but I'll be wanting more out of the next installment than the novelty of Bug-People giving beatdowns to jackboots and turning to luddite quasi-terrorism as a weapon contra the invasion.
Recommended for fans of Conan the Bugbarian, people who batter themselves against the glass, and those who always suspected that the mantis is completely badass. -
With the review!
https://solseit.wordpress.com/2019/03...
The journey in this link:
https://solseit.wordpress.com/2019/02... -
** Full video review here:
https://youtu.be/mURJeJXF3RA **
Empire in Black and Gold, book one of the Shadows of the Apt series by Adrian Tchaikovsky, was a rare re-read for me.
This is the opening of one of my favourite series and the opening itself really kicks this book off with a bang.
Set 17 years before the main events of the ten-book series, we get to see some of the different types of people—Kinden—of this world, and the Ancester Arts they inherit from their totem insects.
We have fascinating imagery of humans with wings and energy-bolt stings firing from their hands; mysterious, living forests; humans with skin alive in dancing colours when the sun hits, and much more.
As a debut novel, there are some rough edges, but the storytelling and the compelling characters more than make up for that.
The world is full of mystery and intrigue, but also full of strange clockwork- or steam-powered machines, and the difference between Apt and Inapt characters brings an interesting twist to this.
The Apt are on the rise, using their artifice to bring a new world to the horizon, whereas the Inapt are completely incapable of understanding technology, even so far as simple mechanisms such as levers and door handles.
With the overarching storyline of the imminent Wasp-Kinden invasion of the Lowlands, and networks of spies working on both sides to either accomplish or prevent this from happening, Empire in Black and Gold is a thrilling read.
Now that I've finished this re-read, the good news is there's nine more where that came from! -
I really enjoyed this debut novel from Tchaikovsky. The unusual races of insect kinden give this novel a very unique and intriguing feel. The story is the typical bad guy's empire is taking over the world and many people/countries still do not believe it. The characters are interesting and the writing style is quite detailed. His action scenes are depicted in the vain of RA Salvatore where you often are told where each step, flip, and swing of the sword is. This novel reminded me of Star Wars a New Hope, many unique races, a large and powerful bad guy, a rebellion, secret missions, and a bit of magic through out. I highly recommend this novel and look forward to reading book 2.
