Bookstooge's Reviews On the Road: Shadows of the Apt

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Wednesday, December 05, 2018

Seal of the Worm (Shadows of the Apt #10) ★★★★½

Title: Seal of the Worm
Series: Shadows of the Apt #10
Author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 641
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Che and her compatriots are stuck in the kingdom of the worm. They find out that the worm kinden found an alternate source of power to magic or aptness in the form of a giant centipede that they worship as a god. This god wipes out all thought of magic and aptness from the minds of those in its vicinity. Che tries to raise the populace to revolt but it ends up turning into a run for survival as the Worm begins to devour all of its underground slaves in preparation for breaking forth upon the surface.

Empress Seda figures out a ritual to re-seal the seal of the worm but she needs so much power to do so. To obtain this power, she will use the death of the thousands of Inapt subjects of the Wasp Empire. She begins a progrom using the Slave Corp and once the camps are established, uses the Red Watch to oversea the setting up of machinery to distribute the bee-killer gas in the camps.

General Tynan, now governor of Collegium is torn between his duty to the Empire and plain old common sense. The Empress has him rounding up Inapt instead of fighting the Empire's enemies. He is eventually driven out of Collegium by Stenwold Maker and his sea-kinden allies. Tynan retrenches in the Wasp capital and prepares to face multiple armies that are all taking advantage of Seda's preoccupation with the ritual instead of running her Empire.

The Worm begins breaking out all over the world and destroys half of Capitas (wasp capital). When Seda begins her ritual, a lot of the guards at various camps rebel and do not use the bee-killer on the prisoners. Seda reaches out to Che, as her sister in magic and Che drags Seda to the underworld. They duel and Che wins. Totho, rogue artificer and rejected lover of Che, is also in the underground kingdom. He is captured and taken to be fed to the worm but has a belt of grenades. He is able to use the grenades and destroys the giant centipede. This destroys all the worm segments attacking the surface world and fighting grinds to an immediate stop.

General Tynan, now in charge, makes treaties with the various armies and their cities. Stenwold dies in a worm attack. Tisamon is finally set free from Seda's magical imprisonment as her bodyguard. Che and Thalric make their way to the surface.

My Thoughts:

I did not race through this book. I would read 20-30 pages here and there and it took me almost 2 weeks to finish this off. Yet at the same time it was not because I wasn't enjoying it. I immensely enjoyed this re-read. It just felt like a big steak that I simply couldn't gulp down. I had to take the time to cut it up into small pieces and then chew each of those pieces thoroughly.

My only real complaint was how the worm god died. As I was reading it, it struck me how exactly the same it was as the movie Edge of Tomorrow. Both this book and that movie came out in 2014. They were released within months of each other so I find it hard to believe that one influenced the other. At the same time, the whole idea of a belt of grenades killing the big baddie almost at the end of the story seems too similar to ignore.

I had forgotten that Stenwold dies. I was under the impression that he went back under the sea with his lady friend. It was rather fitting though, since the group that started the book are now all dead. Very “circle of life” and all that.

In that vein, I thought Tchaikovsky did a good job of wrapping up all the various characters and their storylines. Very few have a happy ending but those who live have a decent ending and a chance to go on. After 10 books of almost continual warfare, you really can't ask for much more than that.

The series overall upon this re-read came out even better. Tchaikovsky can write and each book told a good story while advancing the series narrative. The quality of his writing was top notch and shows that he has mastered the art of writing entertainment. I bought this decalogy when it came out and this re-read has shown me that that was money well spent. I started this re-read back in February of 2017 and am finishing it now, so its been 1 ¾ years of making my way through this. I have enjoyed my time and don't begrudge it in any way.

I realize that Tchaikovsky isn't going to be for everyone, but he is one of those authors that I think everyone SHOULD try at least once. Highly recommended.

★★★★½

Friday, August 24, 2018

War Master's Gate (Shadows of the Apt #9) ★★★★★

Title: War Master's Gate
Series: Shadows of the Apt #9
Author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 737
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

The 8^th Imperial Army marches on Sarn, the last surviving Ant City. With the help of knowledge from previous encounters, the military leaders of Sarn have a ghost of a chance of surviving.

Collegium is facing the 2^nd Imperial Army, “The Gears”. Having fought off the Gears twice before, the citizens are certain they can do so again. After the decimation of the Imperial Air Force in the previous book, Collegium now rules the air and that might be their chance to survive.

General Tynan,general of the Gears, now allied with the Spiders, must overcome Collegium and gain access to its library, which holds texts that Empress Seda has commanded him to take. But without an airforce, with “allies” known for betrayal and facing technology from the brains of Collegium.

Seda has found a wellspring of power, the tomb of Argastos. Argastos was a moth sorceror-warrior from the Age of the Inapt, the War Leader of the Host of all the Inapt. They all came together to fight against the Worm kinden but were unable to truly defeat them. So their sorcerors all came together and sealed the Worm away. They also sealed away Argastos and his war-horde, as “guardians” of the Seal.

Che is chasing down Seda to prevent her from getting her hands on this power of Argastos. In the world of the Apt, a sorceror-Empress would be something the world wouldn't know how to deal with. Che must prevent Seda from becoming all powerful.

In the end, Che and Seda both gain Argasto's power but in the struggle break the Seal of the Worm, a kinden that want to to make every kinden into their own kind. The Gears capture Collegium and all those who resisted are either killed or in hiding. Sarn drives off the 8^th Army but the Empire and the Spiders have a falling out that prohibits any further advances by the Imperial forces.

My Thoughts:

Hmmm, where to begin? Well, knowing that there is only 1 more book after this one, unlike last time, I could appreciate this particular story arc a bit more. I wasn't constantly thinking about “what was next” but could focus on the here and now.

The other thing was that I had forgotten it took this long in the series for Collegium to finally be conquered. For some reason I thought it happened earlier in the series, even though I'm reading this series all over again. Just goes to show why I need to re-read things!

The end of the Felylal, the mantis kinden taking shelter in Collegium, that was heart breaking. What is left of a whole nation, men, women, children, grands, all throwing themselves against the Gears and dying. It really hit me hard this time around and honestly, I'm not even sure I noticed it last time. Kids. I actually put off writing this review for quite a few days just to deal with that.

On a “magic” note, Che and Seda's journey was just as interesting, if not more so than the fight between the armies and cities. Last time I kind of just skimmed it. This time, I considered it to be the main part of the book. We see how much Che has changed through the eyes of those who are now in her entourage. Instead of being dragged around, or sent off, or somewhere on someone else's behest, she is here because of her own will. Seda on the other hand is shown to be more afraid than ever, even while having more power than almost any other woman in the history of the world.

This is the kind of series that is complex enough that new things will emerge upon every re-read. I bumped it up a full star from last time because I enjoyed it even more than last time and have no doubt that when I get around to re-reading this series yet again that I'll enjoy it just as much then.

★★★★★

Monday, June 25, 2018

The Air War (Shadows of the Apt #8) ★★★★☆

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: The Air War
Series: Shadows of the Apt #8
Author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 672
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

The Empire has begun its expansion once again. Under the guise of defending themselves, they begin taking back the Low Land cities that escaped them the last time.

The war has moved into the air and airplanes and pilots are the new masters. Even the Air War evolves as it progresses, moving from one on one duels to a new way of communication among the wasps to fly kinden and wasp women being in the airforce.

The Empire, with the help of the Iron Glove Cartel, are now using Greatshotters to make walled cities pointless. They move on Collegium and it is only because the Empress has discovered a new source of power that the Imperial Army is pulled back, once again.

Empress Seda tidies up the Empire and allows plotters to gather so she can use her magic to wrap them all up.She continues to search for pockets of old power but all the old secrets have either already been used or decayed. There are less than vague hints about the Seal of the Worm but none of the Inapt slaves are willing to tell Seda about it. This only fuels Seda's curiosity and she begins to dig.

My Thoughts:

When I read this for the first time back in 2014, I gave it 3 Stars. Storywise, I still stand by that. This was depressing, as the colossus that is the Empire just rolls over almost everything in this book. Collegium is the only city that successfully fights back and even that was not a “win” but more of a stay of execution. Almost 700 pages of the good guys staving off complete disaster and calling regular disaster a win. How are you supposed to get excited about that?

This time around, since I knew that was coming, I was able to focus more on the writing itself and I must say, this deserves that 4stars completely. Tchaikovsky is a Wordsmith and even when he was going on about air fighting stuff, which I didn't care 2 whits for, I was able to focus on the words themselves and what they were trying to convey. It was worth it.

What I don't understand and I can't remember if this is EVER addressed in this series, is why the whole “kinden” gifts aren't considered magic? Why doesn't Seda try to tap into that as a source? I mean, she'd have the whole worlds population to exploit. Because of the lack of magic in this book and the focus on airplanes and how they change the war, I had to find something magical to think about for goodness sake! If a wasp can make some sort of energy appear and shoot from his hand, if a fly can make “wings” appear from her back and fly through the air, etc, etc, then what is the force behind that? It is presented as something that “just is” and with so much going on, it is easy to sit back and let it slide. But I had to pick at something since I don't care for WWI style of fighting and this idea was it. If the Darakyon, a whole magical forest, can be put into the Shadow Box, why can't Seda begin draining the magical force of the kinden gifts into her own container? See, I'd much rather read about something like that than flipping airplanes and coils and springs and crap that has no place in fantasy.

Ok, it's not completely magicless, as anything to do with Empress Seda revolves around magic, but it is such a SMALL part that I wept for its short stature.

The characters were top notch. We get a lot of small characters from previous books playing bigger roles and some new characters and a very few of the old. Taki is one of the pilots and it is through her that we see the majority of the air war. You can feel how the war changes the one on one aerial duels to mass bombings and how it affects the pilots. It is almost the same change going from warriors like Tisamon, who were exquisite artists of death, to the massed clumps of beetle soldiers armed with snapbows who are able to deal out so much more death than Tisamon ever could. War has gone from a hobby for the rich individual to something of mass death waged by cities. And Taki lets us feel that change every step of the way. She is heroic, she is brave and she is talented and in the end, it's not enough and she knows it. And we the readers know it as well.

I am also adding the “Favorite” tag because even though I didn't particularly care for the planes (have I mentioned that enough yet do you think?), this series as a whole is even better this second time around. I can take the time to examine the underpinnings and they are as solid and artful as the building as a whole. I continue to be thoroughly impressed.

★★★★☆

Friday, March 23, 2018

Heirs of the Blade (Shadows of the Apt #7) ★★★★☆

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Heirs of the Blade
Series: Shadows of the Apt #7
Author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 644
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Che, dragging Thalric in her wake, goes on a quest to save her foster-sister Tynisa, who has gone off into the hinterlands of the Commonweal to die nobly as a true Mantis would. Even though Tynisa is half-spider and looks fully spider-kinden.

Che, in her chase of Tynisa, must face the fact that she, Cheerwell Maker, is now a magician and inextricably linked with Seda the Wasp Empress as a cosmic joke by the Slug-kinden. Che has terrible premonitions about the Seal of the Worm, something so terrible that no one will talk to her about it and it has pretty much been erased from the history books. At the same time, with the ghost of Achaoes excised, Che begins to realize she is falling in love with Thalric, even with their horrible history.

Tynisa has a view of the Commonweal based on what she was of Salme Dien before he died. Unfortunately, Dien was a truly noble Dragonfly and the rest of his family and most of the nobles in fact, are nothing more than the usual spoilt aristocracy with no desire to actually shoulder their responsibilities. Tynisa ends up being possessed by her father's ghost, who had survived the destruction of the Darakyon box by haunting Che. When he was cast out by the Slug-kinden he was free to go where he wanted and ended up possessing Tynisa. This gave her all of his skill but also all of his twisted up ideas and thoughts. She hooks up with the Salme family and becomes a merchant of death for them against a peasant rebellion.

Che and Thalric hook up with a necromancer who promises she can free Tynisa from Tisamon's ghost. It doesn't go so well at first but eventually Tynisa is freed and end up siding with the rebels. The Salme family is brought to bloody justice by the King of the Commonweal for their multiple abuses of power.

While all of that is going on, Seda makes a pilgrimage to Kanaphes, city of the Slug-kinden. Ostensibly to investigate the “black mineral” found out in the desert, which will transform her army and give her a true airforce, but in reality to seek out the Slug-kinden and wrest power from them. Already a powerful sorceress from her instructions from various Inapt mystics, Seda knows she is capable of more. The Slug-kinden grant her wish but link her to Che where each can occasionally have visions of what the other is doing, has done or will do.

The book ends with the Empire of Black and Gold on the move again and breaking all treaties signed to that time. War is come again.

My Thoughts:

I have to admit, I was hoping that this time this book would go up a half star, maybe even a full star from my previous read of it back in '13. Earlier Shadows of the Apt had improved with a re-read and so my outlook was a rosy glow full of optimism and ♪Strength for ♪Today and Bright ♪Hope for Tomorrow♪ Sadly, it didn't improve. However, it was just as good as the time before, so don't take it that this was bad in any way.

This book is where the titular “Shadows” comes into play as far as I'm concerned. I don't know what Tchaikovsky meant when he titled this Shadows of the Apt but I've taken it to mean that the Apt cast a long shadow and bad things happen within that shadow (ie, war). It can also mean that things exist in their shadow (ie, blindspot) that they aren't aware of, like magic. Either way, this was a grim book full of shadows indeed. From Tynisa learning that the Commonweal was NOT a textbook fairytale filled with Heroes and Good Guys to Che sensing a glimpse of something truly horrific, to just the exigencies of war, it all casts a shadow.

There was another whole storyline in which Amnon, the First Champion of Kanaphes and his Collegium lover came back to Kanaphes and Dariandrephos and Totho are in the middle of trying to get the Iron Glave Consortium back into the good graces of the Empire. It started out feeling important and then just ends. That is one of the problems with a really big series. Not every storyline can be fully fleshed out.

My biggest issue that caused me to keep it at the same level as before is Che's refusal to accept that she is a magician and that magic is real. It came up so often in this book, her lack of belief, that it got rather annoying. Even with EVERYTHING that happened in the previous book, she still doesn't want to believe in magic. I wanted to slap her and tell her to accept reality as she knew it, not as she wanted it. And that was really my only complaint. So if people refusing to accept the truth before their eyes doesn't bother you, then it might not affect your read of this at all.

Overall, this series is just fantastic. This re-read is really cementing my love of Tchaikovsky's writing and the ideas he has. I no longer have any qualms about having bought all 10 books in trade paperback. Completely worth the money and the shelf-space.

★★★★☆

Saturday, December 30, 2017

The Sea Watch (Shadows of the Apt #6) ★★★★★

Series: Shadows of the Apt #6

Author: Adrian Tchaikovsky

Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 720
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

The city of Collegium is trying to catch it's collective breath since the cease-fire agreement with the Wasp Empire has gone into affect. Stenwold Maker continues his job as an embassador and is trying to get 2 more Ant Cities to at least become trading partners with Collegium.

Of course, the Wasp Empire has it's own agents in the city and they are doing what they can to undermine Collegium for when the Empire resumes it war footing.

At the same time, it is revealed that the Spider Family Aldenrael, which pretty much rescued Collegium during the last war with Vek, has been preying on Collegium ships and playing pirate. When one of those “pirates” is killed and turns out to be a minor Aldenrael member, the entire Spider Nation goes on the warpath and prepares an armada to take over Collegium.

Since that's obviously not enough, it turns out that there is an entire underwater culture of Kinden, which wants to invade and take over Collegium as well. Stenwold is kidnapped by these kinden while dealing with the other 2 issues (Wasps and Spiders) and gets sucked into another whole world. He must survive, escape and somehow broker a peace deal with these Sea Kinden. To seal the deal, he must find the lost ruler who is now a young man.

Neither the Empire nor the Spiders want peace, so treachery continues to abound and things look really bad for Collegium. Until Stenwold finds the heir, brokers a deal with the Sea Kinden, sinks a whole bunch of Spider ships and wipes out a nest of Rekef Inlanders (Wasp agents) in Collegium.

Now it's back to business as usual with the Wasp Empire being the main threat.

My Thoughts:

My Review for This from back in 2011 still stands true as all get out.

This was the perfect way to end my reading year, on a very good note. I enjoyed this book from beginning to end and since it's been 6 years, enough things were dulled that it wasn't a slog. In many ways, this re-read made me appreciate Tchaikovsky's writing skills even more. I liked this book. I begrudged my time away from it and made the most of when I was reading it. I read the final 30% this afternoon in one sitting.

To see Stenwold having almost everything taken from him (Che's not returning from Khanaphes, Arianna's demise, Teornis's betrayal, Sten's capture and imprisonment under the sea) and not have it break him? I thought Tchaikovsky did a fantastic job of creating Sten and turning him into someone I want to cheer on and hope that things work out for. He was a true Hero, even if deliberately not cast into the Warrior Knight mold.

It was also nice to simply have the focus be on one character. Stenwold is our point of view for the whole book and everything is through him and revolves around him. It made for a nice linear read. It also wasn't a puzzle with trying to fit 5 different storylines together. Sometimes I like complexity but other times I just want something straight forward. Tchaikovsky gave me that in spades with this.

When I bought this series in trade paperback (I'm going to try to do a shelfie of just these 10 books for the last book) I almost immediately had buyers regret as I wasn't sure I was going to like them enough to read them again. Well, this re-read has grabbed those regrets and tossed them into the Marianna Trench. These have been BETTER this second time around and I'm already looking forward to another go in 10 years or so even while I'm not finished this first Re-read!

★★★★★