Review: Dragonfly Falling (Shadows of the Apt 2), by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Dragonfly falling is the second in the quite large Shadows of the Apt series, and follows on from Empire in Black and Gold, which I read perhaps over a year ago. It's a fantasy story, set in a fictional world with various human races, called kinden, who are named after insects/arachnids and have related natural abilities, strengths and weaknesses.

It follows on more or less immediately from the events in Empire in Black and Gold, with the Wasps continuing their military expansionist ways and Stenwold doing his best to persuade the disparate other nations to collaborate (think of Greek city states uniting against Persia).

The cast includes those of the first book but there are also a reasonable number of additions and quite a lot of points of view. Mr. Tchaikovsky does a very good job of using the wide range of perspectives to put together a coherent and broad-ranging narrative. Or, to put it a non-management-speak way: the story's big but still easy to follow.

One possible disadvantage, however, of so many varied viewpoints is that there's less room for character development because each character gets less time. Tynisa, Tisamon and Totho all progress, as does Thalric, but Salma, after lots of early action, seems to drift into irrelevance later on and Scuto never gets past being a gruff and ugly chap.

I also liked the way that the war is described, both regarding battle scenes and the rapid advances in technology which have put a premium on invention and manufacture. On the strategic front, there's a really nice sense of the war being hard fought and slightly unpredictable.

It's been a while since I bought the previous book, but I suspect I'll buy the third rather sooner.

Thaddeus

Review: Empire in Black and Gold, by Adrian Tchaikovsky

This is the first book I’ve read by Tchaikovsky. It’s a fantasy set in a fictional world, with a number of interesting ideas, some very enjoyable moments and a few flaws which, in my view, made it likeable rather than brilliant.

A general and spoiler-free overview of the plot is that the Wasps (the Empire in Black and Gold) are patiently expanding, conquering cities and subjugating other peoples. The Lowlands resemble Greek or Renaissance Italy city-states, and are being chewed up piecemeal. Stenwold, a Beetle intent upon stopping the Wasps taking over the Lowlands, is one of the few with an eye on the bigger picture, and the story follows his efforts and those of his agents to prevent this.

The decision to divide mankind into species (or perhaps subspecies) based mostly on insects and the odd arachnid is a good one. The insects are alien enough to be a bit weird and original but well-known enough that you quickly get a feel for what being a Mantis or a Spider might mean.

I felt a little bit unengaged in some of the early chapters, and I think one or two characters could’ve been fleshed out a bit more. However, the antagonist was very well-written (reminded me of the villain in Shadow Hearts, in that regard alone). No cackling black-robed megalomaniac offering a cardboard cut-out villainy, but a reasoned, intelligent and even sympathetic foe, which added greatly to the book.

The world is more technologically advanced than standard fantasy fare, including rail, flying machines and weaponry halfway between bows (also featured) and proper guns. One city in particular stood out as being innovative and creative, with the others being built along more familiar lines.

The plot progresses at a pretty rapid pace, and the characters develop well. There’s a nice element of generations older and younger trying to work alongside one another, and the odd spot of unrequited love (thankfully not overdone. When it comes to books I much prefer blood and guts to romance).

I was surprised to see that 86% into the book (I got the electronic version) it finished, but this was because of a number of extras at the end. These included about 3-4 miniature stories mostly unrelated to the main characters of the book proper, as well as some pictures of the various races of man. I loved one of these mini-stories (the one with the treasure) and was indifferent to the others.

It was quite hard reviewing this, because at some points I was disengaged, but at others I absolutely loved what I was reading. Overall, I’d say that it has a lot of good aspects and is worth getting. I do plan getting the follow-up (Dragonfly Falling), but I may get the Mistborn Trilogy first.

Thaddeus