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

Fodder Races

Lots of fantasy (and other fiction) revolves around or has some involvement with warfare, and decides to go for a fodder race.

Fodder races enable tons of guilt-free violence because the enemies being killed are literally subhuman, or the walking dead, or aliens who don't really count because they're horrid.

They don't have to be non-human, though. In Star Wars the stormtroopers (the name itself is a nice nod to the Nazis, the group of humans that can be killed with minimal bad karma in recent history) are all masked. In fact, they're covered from head to toe in armour, which nicely dehumanises them. It's later revealed that they're all clones anyway, which may (for some) reduce their humanity, as they're essentially grown for the job rather than being an individual with freewill.

Orcs and goblins, most famous in The Lord of the Rings, just have the appearance of humans that have been smacked very hard in the face with the ugly stick. They also tend to seem rather bloodthirsty and perhaps be a bit thick. Although we like to pretend not to judge books by their covers (covers are arguably the single biggest factor people consider when buying a book, incidentally) we still prefer attractive people to ugly bastards (after all, that's basically the definition of what being attractive is). In Ancient Greece Phryne, a famous beauty, was put on trial in Athens and her lawyer offered a novel defence. He stripped her naked and asked who could condemn someone who was so clearly Aphrodite's handmaiden* (great beauty being considered a gift from the gods). She was found not guilty. In the same way, Galadriel is renowned for her beauty, whereas the Uruk-hai are not.

Zombies are probably the most hackneyed modern fodder race. The walking dead, with a weird sort of virus that reduces them to feral animals and who can infect others with a bite. I'm not that into zombies (although I do like The Walking Dead and The Last of Us looks promising). The USP of zombies is the emotional connection. It's similar to vampires, the Borg, the cybermen and playing golf; that terribly gnawing fear that one day it could happen to me. Plus, it can happen to close relatives and friends, as a fate worse than death.

Then we have aliens. These aren't evil necessarily, of course, but their inhumanity can make them a nice fodder race. Ugliness can sometimes indicate whether they're wicked or not (compare the Jem'Hadar to the Vulcans) but this needn't be the case. Unlike zombies and the often stupid orcs/goblins aliens can not only match human intelligence, but often exceed it. A slight problem is that an actual alien idea is quite hard to come up with, so most of them end up being really very similar to us (two arms, two legs, a torso, liking war a lot etc).

The potential problem with fodder races is that it makes war a bit black and white. With the possible exception of WWII (the Nazis and Japanese PoW camps were not exactly nice) most wars tend to be morally grey. I think that a fodder race and clear dividing line between right and wrong in warfare can not only be a bit simplistic, it can also miss an opportunity for the author to explore moral ambiguity.

*That delightful snippet of ancient history is from Philip Matyszak's Classical Compendium.

Thaddeus

Review: The Queen's Assassin (Volume Three of the Terrarch Chronicles) by William King

This might be my favourite Terrarch Chronicle to date.

The story continues to follow the exploits of protagonist Rik, his former unit The Foragers and his slightly suspicious patroness Asea.

It continues where the second book left off, regarding the disposition of a possible ally nation and its recently rescued queen-to-be. Rik finds out more about his father, and the very creepy Quan race of sentient soul-stealing squid are introduced.

Sardec, the commander of Rik's former unit, continues to develop nicely and I really like the air of ambiguity about Asea. I hope there are lots more Chronicles to come and it's very easy to see her being revealed as either an angel or a demon in later books.

Rik's nation (Talorea) and their enemy (Sardea) are vying for political advantage in a lesser border nation as well as the independent city of Harven. There's a mixture of political shenanigans, bloodshed and Lovecraftian arcane horror, and I think it works really well.

The pace is also nice and fast. I think I slightly criticised the previous book for sagging a bit in the middle, but The Queen's Assassin was thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish.

Thaddeus

Monarchy in the modern world

Bit unusual for me to write about something that didn't happen over a thousand years ago, but a recent story on the BBC website got me thinking.

Republics are just as old as monarchies. Athens, in Ancient Greece, was famously a republic. Rome was a republic (after being a kingdom and before becoming an empire). Yet, for some reason, fantasy seems far more interested in monarchies.

A Song of Ice and Fire does not have the Seven Republics at war. The Dothraki do not elect a council of leaders.

Democracies and republics are seen as more modern and, by some, a more legitimate form of governance. After all, the leaders are accountable and elected and can be removed by non-violent means by the people. They have a popular (ahem) mandate.

That all makes sense. But if you asked the average Briton today whether they held Her Majesty the Queen or David Cameron/Ed Miliband/Nick Clegg in higher esteem I'd suggest that HM would win rather convincingly. Similarly, advocates of republicanism do face a rather big obstacle when people raise the prospect of a President Blair/Brown/Cameron.

Having an unelected head of state with reserve powers means that the nation can see the monarch as a symbol of unity, whilst retaining the accountability of those who govern and removing them if necessary. It's win-win.

But what if the Queen had the power to veto a public referendum or the will of Parliament? Technically, she does (she could refuse Royal Assent to a Bill and prevent it becoming an Act) but she has never used it and there's never been any suggestion she would. However, in Liechtenstein,a micro-nation principality, the Crown Prince has precisely that power, and uses it. In fact, his powers were increased in 2003.

 

There was a referendum held on this recently and 76% of those who voted supported the status quo. Now, Liechtenstein is a very small country that uses the Swiss franc and has a population of about 36,000 so it's perhaps not comparable to more sizeable kingdoms, but it is nevertheless interesting that people in the modern world not only tolerate but actively support such a powerful monarchy.

On an unrelated note, I'm thinking of adding an Interviews page (a page being a tab at the top of the blog, like Book stuff and Lore). Only got two right now, but they've both proven to be popular and I hope to get more in the future.

Thaddeus