Fantasy Saga

Adrian Tchaikovsky is one of the hardest working men in fantasy fiction. How he is able to produce such high quality books is beyond me. No sooner have you finished the current book in the Shadow of the Apt series than a new one is ready and waiting for you to begin.

The Scarab Path is book five in the series and a lot has happened since it began. The war with the Wasp Empire has ended in a unsatisfying stalemate with implications for both sides. On the Wasp side the first ever Empress is trying to consolidate her [power, while on the other side political machinations look to over-through everything they were fighting for. As well both sides find themselves looking for the forgotten city of Khanaphes which may hold answers to their problems.

This is another great entry in what is becoming a genre-leading series. Tchaikovsky's characters are strong and well written and possess believable motives. As usual there is action, intrigue and enough mystery to ensure that the next volume can't get here quick enough.

More Fantasy

My recent spate of reading fantasy novels continues as I have just finished another great read in Adrian Tchaikovsky's Empire in Black and Gold. This novel, first in a trilogy, expertly sets out the intriguing world that these books are set in.

The Lowlands are home to many kinden, humans who share characteristics with different types of insects. There are beetle-kinden who are short and stout and are inventors, mantis-kinden who are excellent duellists and fighters, ant-kinden who are great soldiers due to there hive-mind, spider-kinden who are able to climb any surface and so on. And then we have the wasp-kinden who are the empire mentioned in the title. Their special ability is that they can create a 'sting' to attack their enemies as well as all wasp-kinden being warriors who use slaves to make their society function.

As the wasp empire begins to encroach on the Lowlands one beetle-kinden, Stenwold, has for years been warning about this coming threat but no one has paid him any mind. Therefore he must send off a small group of operatives to try and protect the world from the growing darkness.

This inventive premise is wonderfully used by Tchaikovsky to tell a great story that will leave you hanging out for the next book, Dragonfly Falling.