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Blood of the Mantis

(Shadows of the Apt #3)

Adrian Tchaikovsky (Goodreads Author)

3.93 · Rating details · 3,318 ratings · 116 reviews

Driven by the ghosts of the Darakyon, Achaeos has tracked the stolen Shadow Box to the marsh-town of Jerez, but he has only days before the magical box is lost to him forever. Meanwhile, the forces of the Empire are mustering over winter for their great offensive, gathering their soldiers and perfecting their new weapons. Stenwold and his followers have only a short time t ...more

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Kindle Edition, 320 pages

Published July 1st 2009 by Pyr

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Apr 28, 2019 Olivia rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

This is the third book in the Shadows of the Apt series by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

He’s one of my favourite authors. If you're reluctant to dive into a long series without first getting to know an author, I've got a few recommendations. Fantasy: Guns of the Dawn (Austen's Elizabeth Bennet goes to war); Sci-Fi: Children of Time and Dogs of War.

The premise of the Shadows of the Apt series (which spans ten books) is simple: every species in this fantasy series is an insect-kinden, and has got the manner ...more

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May 22, 2013 Patremagne rated it really liked it

This is easily becoming one of the best series I have ever read.

In my reviews of Empire in Black and Gold and Dragonfly Falling, I wrote of how hesitant I was beginning the Shadows of the Apt series. Insects are something that had never really made a presence in fantasy. They’re (mostly) disgusting creatures and the thought of reading a series where the oprhan boy has been replaced by all of these bug-like people was a complete turn-off for me. Like I said, I gave it a shot. I couldn’t be happie This is easily becoming one of the best series I have ever read.

In my reviews of Empire in Black and Gold and Dragonfly Falling, I wrote of how hesitant I was beginning the Shadows of the Apt series. Insects are something that had never really made a presence in fantasy. They’re (mostly) disgusting creatures and the thought of reading a series where the oprhan boy has been replaced by all of these bug-like people was a complete turn-off for me. Like I said, I gave it a shot. I couldn’t be happier that I did, especially after Blood of the Mantis. The series is quickly becoming one of the best I have ever read, sitting right next to the Malazan series. What makes me have even more drive to read Apt rather than Malazan is the fact that the latter books are tomes. They’re huge. Tchaikovsky keeps his books at a more feasible length for the most part.

By now, if you’ve read the series at all or my reviews, you know the deal with the different kinden and how they’re all humans with insectoid traits – as well as their Apt and Inapt abilities. The plot from Dragonfly Falling continues, with Achaeos, Tisamon, Tynisa, Thalric, and Gaved tracking the deadly Shadow Box to a remote town in the Wasp Empire called Jerez. Jerez is home to another fantastically unique race, the Skater-kinden. The kinden, like the bugs themselves, have very long limbs and can literally skate across the water. The town is full of these kinden as well as other shady thugs and mercenaries looking to do business in the black market. Nero and Che have traveled all the way to Solarno, a city on the Exalsee that remains free from the grip of the Empire. Solarno distinctly reminded me of Renaissance Italy, with many different factions vying for control over the council that rules the city as well as the way they address eachother, Bella for a woman and Sieur for a man. Stenwold travels to Sarn for the conference he hopes will cement the alliance of the various peoples opposed to the Wasps and Uctebri has his own sinister plans involving the royal family in the capital of the Empire.

Read the rest here: http://abitterdraft.com/2013/08/blood... ...more

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Aug 26, 2017 Chris Berko rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Let me begin this review with a five minute standing ovation...

Okay, wow. That was fantastic. The story remains huge, and I mean really big, but this book felt more personal and intimate. Amazing multiple story lines with tons of hot, wet, dripping imagination stuff running around. I mean seriously, c'mon if you've made it this far in the series you know what I'm talking about. Highly original and boatloads of awesomeness, definitely a series to invest in. You truly get to appreciate the scale ...more

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Dec 30, 2015 Kevin rated it really liked it · review of another edition

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT FANTASY LITERATURE

WARNING: one spoiler in last paragraph

After Dragonfly Falling, I was pretty excited for the next instalment in Adrian Tchaikovsky’s SHADOWS OF THE APT series — and Blood of the Mantis didn’t disappoint. In this third book, Tchaikovsky sends Cheerwell and Nero to the city of Solarno, where they meet the fly-kinden pilot Taki as they resist the Wasp Empire’s unquenchable thirst for conquest. Meanwhile, Thalric, Tynisa, Tisamon, and Achaeos are off hunting the ORIGINALLY POSTED AT FANTASY LITERATURE

WARNING: one spoiler in last paragraph

After Dragonfly Falling, I was pretty excited for the next instalment in Adrian Tchaikovsky’s SHADOWS OF THE APT series — and Blood of the Mantis didn’t disappoint. In this third book, Tchaikovsky sends Cheerwell and Nero to the city of Solarno, where they meet the fly-kinden pilot Taki as they resist the Wasp Empire’s unquenchable thirst for conquest. Meanwhile, Thalric, Tynisa, Tisamon, and Achaeos are off hunting the Shadow Box in Jerez, a magical artifact of great, dark power. While Justin doesn’t seem to like Blood of the Mantis quite as much, I personally thought it was the best book in the series so far.
One of the first things that I noticed was the structure of Blood of the Mantis: it begins in media res, with the first chapter two months ahead of the next few. Tchaikovsky does something similar later on in the novel as well. I know I noted that the structure of book one wasn’t quite to my satisfaction, but what’s changed with Blood of the Mantis is simply that I’m now more familiar with Tchaikovsky’s world and better situated to understand what’s going on plot-wise, whereas this wasn’t quite true in Empire of Black and Gold. As a result, the temporal differences in Blood of the Mantis worked perfectly for me both times because Tchaikovsky is able to create suspense and drama with this technique; there was some excitement to look forward to even as the action slowed a little, and that kept me turning pages.
’d like to add here that as Justin noted in his review, Blood of the Mantis has slowed down significantly compared with the earlier books. While I agree with him completely, I’m not sure it’s such a bad thing: the characters combined with some other factors more than make up for a slower book. For me, Blood of the Mantis is all about the characters; Tchaikovsky brings them to the forefront and forces us to confront their existential crises: will Totho return to Collegium or will he cast his lot in with Colonel-Auxilian Drephos and the Wasp Empire? Will Thalric turn traitor once more and betray Stenworld or remain exiled from the Empire? When Tchaikovsky lets us ask these questions, he brings out a level of internal conflict previously almost nonexistent in SHADOWS OF THE APT. By the end of Blood of the Mantis, I felt like I knew all the characters intimately and understood their psychologies. Not only did this character-building add a new level of depth and complexity to the series, it more than made up for the weak subplots and lack of action, which helped Blood of the Mantis form a welcome contrast with its action-packed predecessors.
One final aspect of Blood of the Mantis that I enjoyed was Tchaikovsky’s scope. By sending his characters on quests in distant lands, he exposes his readers to new cultures, new insect-kinden, new ways of thinking, and of course, new factions in politics. Having finished book four as of this writing, I can also say Blood of the Mantis does a fantastic job setting up its successor and expanding the scope of the series. Throughout Blood of the Mantis, it’s just fascinating to meet all the new people in Tchaikovsky’s world, so if you’ve read book two — don’t stop there! Perhaps the only thing I’m not sure about yet is what purpose the (view spoiler) serve. Hopefully we’ll find out in the next few novels. Onward toward book ten we march! ...more

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Feb 23, 2018 Eric rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, adrian-tchaikovsky

3.5 Stars

Rounding up to 4 stars. Blood of the Mantis was a solid addition to the Shadows of the Apt series that didn’t quite live up to the first 2 books. In some ways it felt like a bridge book setting up future events.

The book opens with Stenwold and his allies sorting through the aftermath of the attack on Collegium. There is a reunion between Stenwold and Che but it doesn’t last long as events force our little group apart once again. Achaeos leads a group north to recover the stolen Shadow 3.5 Stars

Rounding up to 4 stars. Blood of the Mantis was a solid addition to the Shadows of the Apt series that didn’t quite live up to the first 2 books. In some ways it felt like a bridge book setting up future events.

The book opens with Stenwold and his allies sorting through the aftermath of the attack on Collegium. There is a reunion between Stenwold and Che but it doesn’t last long as events force our little group apart once again. Achaeos leads a group north to recover the stolen Shadow Box while Che heads south to the Spider city of Solarno, the next battlefield against the Wasps. Meanwhile Stenwold works to consolidate the tentative alliance brought together in defense of Sarn and Collegium and hammer it into something resembling a unified front against the next Wasp offensive.

There was a lot to like in this book. The world the author has created continues to grow, with much of the book spent in areas previously unexplored. I particularly enjoyed seeing the Spider city of Solarno, which is the closest look so far into their culture. It also introduced a few interesting new characters. The whole atmosphere of a city on edge, not allied one way or another yet, was fun to read.

Seeing Stenwold work to muster support was also enjoyable. I think the author did a good job showing the difficulty of getting very different groups of people to come together, even in the face of an existential threat. There was also an event that illustrated that even their allies aren’t quite as pure as they might like, making the war less simplistic than the good Lowlanders fighting the evil Wasps, which gives the whole conflict some depth.

The biggest issue with Blood of the Mantis is that not a lot really happened, especially compared with the nonstop action of Dragonfly Falling. While the author’s writing style of short POV passages that switched frequently kept the pacing moving along, the story itself didn’t advance much. I also wasn’t a huge fan of the plot thread at the Skater town at Jerez. I realized at one point that whenever the story moved to what was happening there I was disappointed as I found the other aspects of the plot more interesting.

While Blood of the Mantis was my least favorite book so far in the series, it was still entertaining and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next in the fourth book, Salute the Dark. ...more

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Nov 04, 2016 Maggie K rated it really liked it · review of another edition

After reading part 2 of this series, I was hesitant to get into this book, and now that I have finally read it, Im sorry I waited so long!

The various principals are all in their places, and the storyline progresses as their progress moves both forward and backward. Fabulous story!

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Jul 08, 2012 Daniel rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is what I'm talking about: move away from the big, empire-sized plans and send your protagonists on small, covert missions to backwater locations that we have yet to visit on the map. This was Tchaikovsky's approach in the first book--which was by far the stronger of the first two--and it serves him well here.

Spoiler tags follow, as I touch up material that would ruin it for the unread.

(view spoiler) This is what I'm talking about: move away from the big, empire-sized plans and send your protagonists on small, covert missions to backwater locations that we have yet to visit on the map. This was Tchaikovsky's approach in the first book--which was by far the stronger of the first two--and it serves him well here.

Spoiler tags follow, as I touch up material that would ruin it for the unread.

(view spoiler)

At some point while reading this, I realized that I was reading a book that has a juvenile mindset in the genre. Yeah, Mr. Tchaikovsky does bring up some mature topics, such as the mechanization of weaponry in early warfare and what it means to bear the deaths of soldiers you send into war; unfortunately, when Mr. T does go into these topics, he leans on "telling" far more than "showing" in his prose--a fact which is telling in and of itself. When it comes to moving the plot along and spinning mysteries about these insect totem-bearing people, Tchaikovsky writes confident prose that reads well, and it is this material that keeps me coming back for the next installment. ...more

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Mar 08, 2010 Jason rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2010, e-books

I am not happy that I feel that 3 stars for book 3 might actually be too much. I gave the first 2 books of this ambitious series 5 stars each, and loved every bit of them. This, the 3rd in the series basically stops doing what the other 2 did best, and that is character development. This series is strong because of the amazingly diverse cast of characters, coupled with the thought provoking race that is the insect kinden. I feel that Tchaikovsky focused this book on a few plot twists and action ...more

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Sep 10, 2017 Highness Atharva rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shadows of The Apt Book 3
*Blood of the Mantis* by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Chapter Analysis

1.A wonderful start with an unexpected beginning. Some secondary new characters are introduced. Taki, saves a Lowlander ship from pirates on which Che is travelling to Solarno, a miniature Spider City. Taki and Che have a good dialogue but Che�s motive to travel to Solarno is not yet revealed. A wonderful beginning.
2.The story shifts two months back as we see the reunion of Salma and Che with the Collegium membe ...more

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Mar 01, 2020 Will R rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

Here we get a lift in the action. Characters are coming into their own and the stakes are revealing themselves, as our perspective on the Wasp Empire and the lands beyond its borders widens. The Skater-kinden are a particularly inspired race of untrustworthy water dancers. Tchaikovsky doesn't seem to be driving towards any particular thematic depths, but the action is well-written and the cultures continue to be interesting. ...more

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Sep 10, 2009 Christina rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, fiction, series, fantasy

In this the third volume in Adrian Tchaikovsky's fantasy series The Shadow of the Apt, we dive even deeper into several sub-stories of the overall storyline. Once again, Stenwold Maker sends his allies, his friends, family and students, out in the world to find out what the wasp Empire is up to.
We follow Cheerwell on a mission to the skater city of Solarno to try and tell them what's going on, we follow Stenwold himself on a journey to the ant city of Sarn to try and create a unity against the w In this the third volume in Adrian Tchaikovsky's fantasy series The Shadow of the Apt, we dive even deeper into several sub-stories of the overall storyline. Once again, Stenwold Maker sends his allies, his friends, family and students, out in the world to find out what the wasp Empire is up to.
We follow Cheerwell on a mission to the skater city of Solarno to try and tell them what's going on, we follow Stenwold himself on a journey to the ant city of Sarn to try and create a unity against the wasps and we follow Archaeos along with Tisamon and Tynisa travel to Jerez, trying to find the Shadow Box containing the soul of The Darakyon, the former Mantis stronghold.
Alongside this, we also get a closer look at the Wasp Emperor's attempt to avoid having to marry and have children and thus create rivals for himself by going along with his mosquito 'slave' Uctebri's plan to give him eternal life - a plan, that involves both the Shadow Box as well as the Emperor's sister, kept around partly so the Emperor always knew where the threat would come from but also for his amusement. But Uctebri is old, wise and sinister and has plans of his own. It is never certain if he is really a slave or not - even to himself - but it is certain that his powers extends far beyond his prison cell.
They extend so far as to create a revolution among the bees, the formerly so docile people suddenly rising against the wasps - thereby creating a for Uctebri most needed distraction for the Emperor.
But things are not what they seem in this book, we are not given many answers and things are definitely not always what they seem - and this book leaves us with the series' first really cliff hanger.
Once agin, Tchaikovsky dives into subjects larger than just this fantasy story of unlikely heroes. He dives into the question of loyalty - even when you have been cast out, you might try to get back in because your loyalty is not gone - exemplified by Thalric's storyline, former wasp officer and Major in the Rekef, now deemed useless because of inner Rekef power struggles. He is part of Stenwold's group, all of a sudden, but will he be able to shake his lifelong loyalty to the Empire?
And what about war and power in itself? When is power right? "They put the brand of the Empire on yet another lesser people, and believed only that their ability to do so was all the right they needed." (p. 357). Tchaikovsky has his black and white characters - where in former books, Thalric and Stenwold were the two opposites, Stenwold's opposite now must be the Emperor himself - although so far away as to be fully unknowing about Stenwold's existence. But Stenwold is the ringleader for the Lowlands, the center for the opposition against the wasps. But between these two poles, an area of grey exist where a lot of the rest of the characters in this series are. People switch alliance, they are not always what they seem, and even the good have bad sides. This makes the series seem very real and makes it interesting - alongside the insect kinden which is still fascinating enough to keep my interest - although I wouldn't mind if we didn't meet any new insect kinden in the next book but stuck to the ones we have already met. There's plenty of action to come with the plots hinted at or started so far even if no new players are introduced and it would be nice to get some closures to some of these storylines.
Still, the book is really good once again and another solid 4 stars read.
Finally, I just want to applaud the artist who are creating the covers for these books. They are truly extra-ordinary and really captures the various insect kinden named in the titles as well as being just very aesthetically pleasing and engaging. They really draw you in and will definitely make many pick up these books when lying in book stores. ...more

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Nov 30, 2017 Swuun rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Continuing to enjoy the series. This installment had some interesting developments, and I enjoyed the addition of Taki to the cast.

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Jul 26, 2014 D.w. rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed, fiction

As many rating this book will note, Tchaikovsky's unique world is suffering. What started well has bogged down. Mr. T has created a General who in turn has trusted his lieutenants to become Generals and thus fragment the story by causing it to loose focus.

We had a world realizing that it was about to be conquered by a race that had lied about its friendliness. And so our General was about to rally the forces to resist, when now the tale is all over the place and his trusted aides have gone to v ...more

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Jul 05, 2010 Elliot rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This was the first book I have read on my Kindle app, and I would say I enjoyed the experience. I recommend it.
On the topic of this book, I have little to say. It keeps(and improves on) the expected character development and world-building that Adrian has showed us in the first two books. This book immediately opens up many new plots, an keeps doing so throughout the book. This can make it harsh reading at times, but Adrian seems to do well with it anyway. He chooses suitable cliffhangers, so t ...more

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Jul 23, 2011 Ruth rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: spec-fic

P2009. Absolutely brilliant. The plot and characters remain strong and I am even getting to like poor old Thalric. I am hoping against hope that Mr Tchaikovsky is not going to be long in writing the next one which I am terrified that I will miss out on for some reason. This really is a well written series of books and I can not recommend highly enough. Sci Fi Now said "A new universe populated by unique characters" which is really an understatement. "Fear is the greatest motivator, fear can make ...more

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Apr 16, 2011 Tadhg Mahon rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Wow, did not see THAT coming! I loved it :)

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Sep 10, 2012 Steve rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A fantastic series. This and Game of Thrones have gotten me back into reading after quite a respite from reading. Just brilliant.

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Aug 02, 2010 Reader73 rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011

Very very good, will start on the next part today.

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Apr 23, 2016 Katy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A very nice addition to the series. This one is full of intrigue and a great cast of characters.

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Oct 17, 2015 Madhurabharatula Pranav Rohit Kasinath rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: great-plotting, fantasy, great-books, military, political, war, science, female-protagonist, espionage

This is a review of the entire series - there are NO spoilers.

When I look back at the Shadows of the Apt, what strikes me at first might seem incongruous to most.

There are no unnecessary descriptions of food.

None at all.

10 books, each of them 400 to 700 pages in length - covering battles, history and multiple points of view - and not a single one of them had any descriptions of food.

Or sex, clothing, family crests, whores or incest.

And I loved it.

Not a single wasted line.

There may be many ...more

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May 13, 2017 Adam Whitehead rated it liked it · review of another edition

With the Wasp armies' advance stalled by the arrival of winter, Stenwold Maker takes advantage in the lull to send his agents on dangerous missions. Achaeos, Tisamon and Tynisa are dispatched to Jerez, a marsh-town on the edges of the Empire, in pursuit of the stolen Shadow Box, which holds an evil that cannot be unleashed back onto the world. Elsewhere, Che and Nero are sent to Solarno, a city on the distant Exalsee, which is also under threat from the Empire's expansion. However, the feuding p With the Wasp armies' advance stalled by the arrival of winter, Stenwold Maker takes advantage in the lull to send his agents on dangerous missions. Achaeos, Tisamon and Tynisa are dispatched to Jerez, a marsh-town on the edges of the Empire, in pursuit of the stolen Shadow Box, which holds an evil that cannot be unleashed back onto the world. Elsewhere, Che and Nero are sent to Solarno, a city on the distant Exalsee, which is also under threat from the Empire's expansion. However, the feuding political factions of Solarno seem rather unmoved by the threat they face.

Blood of the Mantis is the third volume in the Shadows of the Apt sequence and the penultimate book in the opening story arc. In this novel, Tchaikovsky abandons the large-scale war stories and huge battles of Dragonfly Falling to return to the back-alley intrigue and politicking of the first novel in the series. He also reigns in the book's length, delivering a relatively slim 400-page novel that certainly benefits from a greater focus following three storylines in tandem: events in Jerez, the intrigue in Solarno and Stenwold's attempts to forge the Wasps' myriad enemies into a single, cohesive force. This growing focus means some characters get short shrift - Totho and Salma's storylines are put on the backburner for now - but those characters who are featured benefit from more page-time and development.

Tchaikovsky also (for the first of at least two times in the series) widens the scope of the worldbuilding, introducing a whole new area of the world (the Exalsee or Sea of Exiles and its surrounding city-states) and establishing a whole new set of characters and politics. This is achieved reasonably well, although the Exalsee cities aren't vastly different from the established Lowlands locations and the blindness of Solarno's rulers to the Wasp threat is perhaps a little too reminiscent of Collegium's similar scepticism in Empire in Black and Gold. That said, some of the new characters, such as Taki the pilot and Cesta the assassin, are well-drawn and welcome additions to the (already very large) cast.

The book is certainly enjoyable and page-turning, with the weird and steampunk elements raising what would otherwise be a pretty standard epic fantasy to some interesting new heights, but the Shadow Box is a disappointingly traditional 'evil magical talisman of doom' and it's hard to invest too much in that storyline, especially as Jerez is not a particularly interesting locale (though some late developments near the end of the book may cause some reappraisal of that). Another weakness is that Thalric has, extremely reluctantly, become an ally of the good guys and immediately lost some of the elements that made him more interesting in the first novel. Stenwold's attempts to merge disparate allies into a cohesive alliance against the Wasps is also rather over-familiar and perhaps too easily achieved given the daunting difficulties he faces.

Blood of the Mantis (***½) continues to develop this enjoyable series and benefits from a shift in focus away from the battle-heavy second volume. However, some weaknesses mean that it continues to fail to fully achieve its potential. ...more

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Jul 18, 2017 Dion rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Another corking book from Adrian Tchaikovsky. I wish I had the freedom to plough through Shadows of the Apt one after the other, as it is all effectively one epic story, but my teetering BookStack still threatens to crush me with guilt. And the sheer weight of the books, obvs.

On its own, Blood of the Mantis is a pea and cup game, a Maltese Falcon if you like, wherein it seems all of the Kinden (humanoid races with insect-like abilities) seek the Shadow Box - an ancient weapon of vastly destructi ...more

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Aug 09, 2017 Sean Bester rated it it was ok · review of another edition

This one was a real mixed bag.

On the one hand, Tchaikovsky's writing was much better than the previous two outings, and way more consistent. Certain passages even had me stopping to re-read in awe of how insightful and well constructed they were. Dude still needs an editor though, because the errors and types are still all over the place.

I liked that the story went back to basics, with the main cast somewhat split up as they were in the first book. However, not a lot of much significance actuall ...more

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Sep 26, 2020 Koit rated it liked it · review of another edition

Recommended to Koit by: Claus Appel

The third volume was weaker than the second one. While the sub-plot involving the magic box started off interesting, it quickly lost its impetus and stalled. The knife-and-dagger action in Jerez was nevertheless the best part of this book, with Stenwold’s story weaker than ever before and Solarno leaving me unimpressed.

The problems, as encountered, are that while the Jerez adventure creates a wonderful sub-plot to compete with the primary war story, the characters don’t hold up their end of it. ...more

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Nov 28, 2017 bkwurm rated it liked it · review of another edition

I loved the wider world beyond the lowlands. And with the introduction of more types of insect kinden, I immediately start thinking of what other insects there are out there which could show up and I cannot wait for the next book.

The non stop action continues. Character development is a little cliched but not overly so. The industrialisation of war seems to be a major theme.

And the layers of intrigue have also multiplied considerably. What exactly does the representative of the Spiderlands want ...more

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Jul 13, 2020 Nia Sinjorina rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Characters continue to develop, with several deepening as events force them to make choices and mature, not in a binary way but in considered and believable directions that mark the author out as a writer rather than a scribbler.

Political machinations now begin to weave their way through an expanding world, opening up new lands and introducing new intrigues. I love the way Tchaikovsky slowly builds his worlds, painting them with different architectures, culture, and characters where a weaker wr ...more

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Nov 04, 2020 Lari rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Aug 06, 2017 Siegfried Hofman rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Keeping pace

The writer succeeded in bringing new twist to the storyline after finishing the main plots from part one. Hand in hand with the story the characters continue to evolve, sometimes in ways one did not expect. The overall feeling of uneasiness spreads to a degree where one simply can not refrain oneself from continuing in the series. More than a good job.

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Sep 16, 2018 Joy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fantastic-fiction, series, magic-user

The evil magic users who survived centuries in the shadows have made their play for an object of great and dark magic. The builders of machines who are engage in a world war are blind to it but a few of the older races feel and fear its draw.

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Oct 22, 2018 LJ Waguespack rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Finished the first three books of a very promising series. I continue to be blown away by the totality of this authors writing, Thank you Adrian Tchaikovsky! Again, I look forward to continually reading this engaging, well written, always surprising series.

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About Adrian Tchaikovsky

Adrian Tchaikovsky

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ADRIAN TCHAIKOVSKY was born in Lincolnshire and studied zoology and psychology at Reading, before practising law in Leeds. He is a keen live role-player and occasional amateur actor and is trained in stage-fighting. His literary influences include Gene Wolfe, Mervyn Peake, China Miéville, Mary Gently, Steven Erikson, Naomi Novak, Scott Lynch and Alan Campbell.