Dragonfly Falling (Shadows of the Apt, #2) in Beyond Reality

Oct 27, 2015 Bradley rated it liked it

Shelves: worldbuilding-sf, fantasy, 2016-shelf

The good? Non-stop action. It's war and it's really war, with all the grand deaths you could ever hope, and for me, the world-building of all these insect-ish humans helps drag me *out* of feeling emotionally invested, so I could get through so much death and destruction without falling into a stupor of sadness.

Drephos really stands out as mr. mad scientist and I did really enjoy the hell out of him. The artificers in general got me going pretty good and some of the reversals were rather enjoyab ...more

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Jun 14, 2024 Candace rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: bad-ass-women, second-in-series, fantasy, war

Everything turned up to 11!

This world of the -kinden is growing. This world is complex, awesome, and original.

Whereas in book one, we saw Stenwold and his agents prep for war, book two is WAR with detailed pages of sieges, battles, strategy, and weaponry. I preferred the one-on-one fighting that we saw more of in book one. It highlights the characteristics of the fighter and its kinden in a more specific way.

In book one, I fell in love with many of the main characters and enjoyed their differe ...more

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Jan 19, 2016 Maggie K rated it liked it

Shelves: series-challenge

Wow this had a LOT of battles. War battles, fighting between characters, ambushes. Im not one to read all the details of a fight, so I found this a hard slog. When things happened, though, they were important, just a lot of wading through for me.

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May 27, 2024 Paul Perry rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, read-in-2024, fiction, british-author, english-author, male-author

I'm very much enjoying the Shadows of the Apt series. While perhaps not quite as well written as Tchaikovsky's later work (there is the occasional clumsiness, and I did start rolling my eyes at the number of times swords went in "to the hilt") the plotting and characterisation is excellent - and the world-building, I love in particular that there is much of the world that is unknown to even the most knowledgeable and well-travelled person.

In this second volume, the Wasp empire encounters the Spi I'm very much enjoying the Shadows of the Apt series. While perhaps not quite as well written as Tchaikovsky's later work (there is the occasional clumsiness, and I did start rolling my eyes at the number of times swords went in "to the hilt") the plotting and characterisation is excellent - and the world-building, I love in particular that there is much of the world that is unknown to even the most knowledgeable and well-travelled person.

In this second volume, the Wasp empire encounters the Spiderlands, about whom they know nothing and seems more than a match for them. It felt perhaps like the Romans suddenly butting up to the Seleucid/Parthian empires, the first time they encountered another true world power, one which they would never conquer. The author gives us huge battles, intrigue, treachery, along with personal tragedy and often heart-breaking moments of personal conscience.

I was switching between the paperback and audiobook, and must say that Ben Allen's reading is amongst the best I've come across. He is clearly a classically trained actor, with a superb pacing and delivery, but the voicework is truly extraordinary - the decision to give particular accents to the various factions is perfect, and perfectly executed. So, the Beetles are solid Yorkshiremen, the Spiders upper-class American, right out of Gatsby, the Wasps cut-glass English received pronunciation, and the genius of making the Mantids Northern Irish is exceptional. The only "race" that seems to vary are the Ants, who live in discrete city-states mostly at war with each other - one lot are Lancastrian, another Brummie, the late-arriving Fire Ants a more down-home, working-class US accent. Within these, Allen has the skill to voice several different characters with a subtle variance that keeps the accent but distinguishes the character.

I'm reading this series with Beyond Reality group on Goodreads, and we're reading a volume each month, so will be jumping into part 3, Blood of the Mantis, in a couple of weeks. ...more

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