Customer Reviews

Dragonfly Falling (Shadows of the Apt 2)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As other reviewers have mentioned, this series is premised on a completely original world building idea, in which the different races ("kinden") are based on different types of insect, with appropriate powers. I started the first book reluctantly because it sounded campy, but soon found I couldn't put it down. This second book is even better than the first one; completely immersing.

What makes it tick is the author's talent for *both* plot and character. Most fantasy/sci-fi books are plot-driven, often with characters that are flat or silly. These characters have depth, they are well differentiated, they feel like real people, and I *care* what happens to them. And there is certainly enough going on as the Lowlands are plunged into war. The book does not sag, the pace is fast and even.

The other great thing about these books is the way that description is handled. One would think that with a universe this different there would be endless amounts of exposition and description, and really badly handled exposition and description is an unfortunately common characteristic of sci-fi and fantasy . . . people spend a lot of time gazing at their features in mirrors, explaining things to each other for pages, etc. In these books, by contrast description is both thoughtful and deft -- I am often surprised by a sentence and think, yes, well, that is exactly what it would look like, or that is what would happen if X happened, etc. And exposition is feather light; you don't even notice it, you are just plunged into this very complex universe. Reminds me of some of the best of China Mieville's work.

Can't say enough good things about it. We need more like this one!

WOW! This second novel in the Shadows Of The Apt series is truly breathtaking. I loved the first novel Empire In Black And Gold, but the brilliance of this latest work blows it away. Tchaikovsky writes with a skill that in the future could easily put him up there with the very best of writers in the Fantasy genre, his world is massive and complex filled with wondrous peoples and different societies and political systems. I really can't praise this series enough, it is definitely one of the best fantasy series around.

This installment has all of our favourite characters from the previous novel and many more to sink our teeth into, I think my favourite is the Emperor of the Wasps Alvdan The Second. We get to see an insight into his life and the brutality in which he lived, we also see an insight into the Wasp political structure and the back biting of the Generals and Nobles. On the opposite side of the world the Lowlands are rocked with battles and sieges and assassinations as the Wasp armies and their allies attempt to further their Emperors dreams of domination.

This is an action packed Fantasy book that any Fantasy lover will like, so if you're waiting for the New Martin or Erikson and find yourself at a loss for a good read, read this and his previous novel. You'll be in for a hell of a surprise!

Adrian Tchaikovsky continues his tale of invasion begun in "Empire of Black and Gold". In Tchaikovsky's mythical world tribes have developed abilities and attributes based upon specific insects: Wasp, Dragonfly, Mantis, Beetle, Moths and a whole host of others newly introduced in this mid-trilogy novel. While this idea could potentially come off as silly Tchaikovsky continues to handle this an entertaining (and maybe more importantly) believable way.

The young Collegium students from the first novel have taken their own paths, each looking for a way to fight against the Imperialistic desires of the Wasp nation. Cities have fallen, allies are gained and lost and finally the Wasps are at the gates of Collegium.

While the world that Tchaikovsky has created is vastly different then our own, it is stunningly the same. The issues of race, spiritual belief and xenophobia that seperate the Kinden (tribes of people) are the same issues that seperate us in our world. There are great lessons for our time in these books and Adrian Tchaikovsky writes crisp dialog, detailed and gruesome battle scenes and has a firm grasp of human nature and how it manifests as political fear and hatred.

Highly recommend this series and anxiously await the final book scheduled for release this summer.

The second book in the 'Shadow of the Apt' series by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

This novel continues where book one left off; we continue to follow several characters on a sequential basis as they try to stem the tide of conquest by the Wasp Empire. A faction that has continually displayed covert yet aggressive intentions towards the rest of the continent (The Lowlands).

This book is quite exceptional...let me explain. I've read many trilogies/series in which the second book has some minor improvements compared to the first; better because the author has had some time to more clearly defined his ideas for both his story and characters. And often the quality of writing and story telling have improve slightly as well.

However, what impressed me most about this second effort is the degree of improvement found in this book compared to the first; improvement mainly in the quality of the prose that is used. The writing is more concise and written in such a way as to add to the suspense and intrigue of the situations that the main characters find themselves in. The narrative in this work just flowed better; if the story telling in book one was good, then it could easily be described as great for this second effort.

Also, as I mentioned before, the tale is told on a sequential basis, following about a half dozen or so characters in turn. As I approached the end of this book, I began to realize another unusual quality of this book. That being, that none, not one, of these tales was dull, boring or just plain 'fill'; all were intense, exciting and riveting. Few novels I've read with this 'sequential' format have ever accomplished this feat so well, as most have one or two segments that drag or hold little interest. Not so with this book!

Of course the above effect was enhanced by the fact that every section seemed to end in a 'cliffhanger' of sorts. This made me sorry to leave this chapter and eager to return to this particular thread. Honestly, few books that I've read recently (with the exception maybe of Joe Abercrombie's first two books in 'The First Law' trilogy) have had me so eager to keep reading or trying to find time to get back to a book; the book was simply that good.

Even the concerns I had regarding the written description of some of the one on one fights scenes in book one (see my review of 'Empire in Black and Gold' Sept 19/09), were no longer an issue in this second book.

Other positive features were
1.) a very good map
2.) a brief list of names, places and organizations (with brief descriptions) at the beginning of the book, that really helps to identify the characters etc. within.

Conclusion:
An exceptionally second book in the series, that not only has it all the ingredients for high fantasy and adventure, but also was presented in such a way that will make you want to read on and on. And for any book, who could ask for more. Easily 5 Stars...more if I could.

Ray Nicholson

I loved both books. Hard to tell which was best. Absolutly great characters. Keep it up.

War has come to the Lowlands. Three great cities - Tark, Collegium and Sarn - are in danger of assault from the Wasp Empire and their allies, with the Empire hoping to seize all of the Lowlands in a single, swift campaign. In Collegium, the spymaster Stenwold Maker finds himself pressed into leading the defence of the city of students and artificers against the disciplined Ant-soldiers of Vek. In Tark, Salma and Totho find themselves aiding the defence against the Wasp onslaught, whilst in Sarn Che and Achaeos are hoping to find new allies amongst the Ant-kinden and their Moth and Mantis neighbours.

But in Capitas, in the heart of the Empire, the young Emperor has found himself a new prisoner, one with access to dark and powerful sorcery which he has offered to put at the Emperor's disposal...

The second volume of The Shadows of the Apt series picks up where Empire in Black and Gold left off, with the Wasp-kinden and their allies launching their invasion of the divided Lowlands in force. Whilst Empire was a story of back-alley knife-fights, political intrigue and clandestine dealings, Dragonfly Falling is an outright war story. Great armies and naval fleets clash, walls are defended and all manner of heroic last-stands and unexpected reversals (for both sides) take place. The slightly over-familiar military activity (Tchaikovsky is good at this stuff, but nowhere near as good as say David Gemmell or Paul Kearney) is livened up by all manner of steampunk battiness: airships, gyrocopters and even primitive submarines join the battles, one engagement turns on the deployment of a primitive air-rifle, troops are rushed into the warzone by steam trains and so on. This gives the scenes of combat and battle some much-needed freshness, as do the different kinden using their racial abilities in a massed form on the battlefield.

All of this action comes at the expense of some of Empire's quieter moments of intrigue, scene-setting and characterisation. Tchaikovsky hasn't got the time, even in a book almost 700 pages in length, to dwell on some moments like he did in the first volume and some elements are under-developed as a result (and some, like the formation of the Ancient League and the growing concerns of the Spiderlands over the Empire's expansion, take place entirely off-page). That said, there are some very well-developed subplots. Totho, one of the less-visible characters in the first novel, gets his own story here which may be nothing new (the corruption of power and ambition) but is told extremely well and based on his character development through the first two novels. Salma, the foppish swordsman of the first book, finds himself reluctantly becoming a Robin Hood figure behind enemy lines, whilst Major Thalric of the Wasp intelligence service finds himself drawn into political infighting whilst being relentlessly hunted by a murderous old nemesis.

These storylines are handled well and come together satisfyingly at the end in a solid convergence. However, after several hundred pages the battles do start blurring into one another and the relentlessly fast pace with barely a room for breath is somewhat wearying at times. In addition, the sudden deployment of a magical deus-ex-machina talisman into this steampunk story feels a bit redundant, especially since it seems mainly to be scene-setting for the next book. Still, this is for the most part a page-turning, inventive read.

Dragonfly Falling (***½) isn't quite as inventive as the first novel, but remains an enjoyable and different slice of epic fantasy. It is available now in the UK and USA.

Dragonfly Falling is the amazing follow-up to Adrian Tchaikovsky's Empire in Black and Gold. The story directly follows the events of book 1. The wasps have increased their hold on the lowlands, and the position of our heroes is much more precarious. The empire has begun its assault and the blood is flowing. Tchaikovsky's battle descriptions are nothing short of epic, bloody, and gritty, with nail-biting sequences that seem to run for pages. Empire in Black and Gold introduced you to the players, and set the overall stage. I struggled a bit with its pacing, but had none of that problem here. Dragonfly Falling is truly when the dung beetle hits the fan.

The characters continue to grow and change in amazing ways. Like Empire in Black and Gold, Dragonfly Falling explores the many facets of the various characters. Who's good and who's bad is not always so clear cut, and that's refreshing. I've also come to realize that there are just as many "Insect Kinden" in Tchaikovsky's world as there are insects. I stopped keeping track of them about a quarter of the way through the book. As nice as it is to have a diverse population in your story, you lose a bit by always having a convenient race to solve various issues. It's not a device often used in the story, but the potential for abuse is there. I wonder if it will become a little more prominent as the series progresses.

I am so glad Pyr has decided to release the SHADOWS OF THE APT series in the US, as so far it has been incredibly well written and unique. Dragonfly Falling raises the stakes in every way possible, and I'm excited to see how everything progresses in book 3, Blood of the Mantis. Dragonfly Falling does everything right, and I really can't find many faults. Tchaikovsky's writing is top notch and seems to be getting even better. In a genre where a lot of ho-hum stuff gets over-hyped, do not let SHADOWS OF THE APT fly under your radar. --Justin from FantasyLiterature.com

This book was thing short of stellar. The characters are engaging, the setting is well flushed out and unique, the action is entertaining, and the dialogue is believable. All of this without coming across as corny or cliche, which is often rarer. Of the Shadows of the Apt series, this one was my favorite, and has earned itself a position on my "Favorites" shelf of books I'll actually bother to re-read. A worthwhile purchase.

To say that Dragonfly Falling is better than the Empire is putting it too lightly. After Empire my expectations were pretty high for Dragonfly Falling and it didn't just meet them, but knocked them out of the park with its decidedly militaristic tone. Dragonfly Falling picks up soon after the action of Empire In Black and Gold, which was a prelude of so much. While the first volume acted well to introduce a part of this incredibly rich world, some of its cultures, and an endearing cast of characters Dragonfly Falling blows everything up into Epic proportions. The battles get bigger, bloodier, and more intricate.

The Wasps while thwarted in their original plans are nonplussed as they change tactics from subversive to more straight forward means as they pit the Ant-kinden city-state of Vek against Collegium while they attempt to conquer other Ant-kinden holdings. Master Maker Stenwold's cadre of apprentices and wards again are cast to the wind as they try to unite the lowlands and defy the Wasps. This is no easy feat, but there are rumblings of troubles within the Wasp upper echelon as generals grab for power, which leads to some unexpected Wasp allies.

The majority of Dragonfly Falling is one big beautiful battle after another. We finally get to see the Collegium's techno innovations turned against other groups that shake their creators to their core with the repercussions. We also meet a few new characters who become very important as the series goes on including a very mad Dragonfly-kinden woman who is after a certain Wasp Major. Tynisa and Tisamon finally get some alone time with one another as they journey to the training ground of the Mantis-kinden in hope of Tynisa earning her heritage. If it is one things Mantis-kinden know it is how to make someone pay.

What becomes of Totho while not totally unforeseen plays out very nicely as his allegiance is tested time and again, but he finally gets to prove his worth even if it is for the wrong reasons. On the other hand Salma's role in things is all too predictable. I saw this coming from the moment he was first captured in Empire. and Cheer is being built up for a lot, but it still doesn't seem to be apparent just exactly what. This volume also has the B story of the Shadow Box being sought after by the Wasp Empire and Achaeos trying to stop them. The Shadow Box is ancient and has a one ring kind of vibe to it at the moment where everyone wants it, but don't know precisely what to do with it. Even though this is a long series in the planning each volume has a definitive end and beginning with a few things left over for the next go around.

Overall this is a series that doesn't disappoint. It has got everything a lover of Epic Fantasy could want plus offers many new and fresh innovations with steam-tech, but it is the world and cultures you'll keep coming back for as you meet the whole pantheon of insect Kindens throughout the lands and delve deeper into the back story as it unfolds. It definitely pays to read these books close together so some of the details and nuances of the characters aren't lost. The only problem with the series is the constant jumping around of points of view, but the author knows this is a big world and he is anxious to give you all the details.

The Empire in Black and Gold, the first book in this series started extremely slow but piqued my interest at the halfway point.

Book two blew away the first book. New characters, new allies, and non stop action kept me glued until this book was done. I haven't put this much time into a book since the Night Angel Trilogy.

I ordered Blood of the Mantis the second I finished this book and no matter what book I am into I will drop it to find out what happens to Stenwald and Co.