Malazan Empire: Shadows Of The Apt Series - Adrian Tchaikovsky - Malazan Empire

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Shadows Of The Apt Series - Adrian Tchaikovsky Old thread, repurposed for discussion of the series.

#1 User is offline   QuickTidal 

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Posted 21 October 2008 - 08:04 PM

Damn damn damn, we've all been remiss about this one. Came out two months ago and the buzz is only starting to build. We should have been on this one sooner folks.

I bought this book the night before last. I went to the bookstore to grab a copy of "Red Wolf Conspiracy" by Robert V.S. Redick, and whilst there I recalled seeing a new author and his book in Pat's site, so I went looking for it.

Found.

Empire In Black and Gold by Adrian Tchaikovsky. The premise to this book set it immediately apart from other stuff I have read recently and piqued my interest. For those who don't know...

<i>Seventeen years ago Stenwold witnessed the Wasp Empire storming the city of Myna in a brutal war of conquest. Since then he has preached vainly against this threat in his home city of Collegium, but now the Empire is on the march, with its spies and its armies everywhere, and the Lowlands lie directly in its path. All the while, Stenwold has been training youthful agents to fight the Wasp advance, and the latest recruits include his niece, Che, and his mysterious ward, Tynisa. When his home is violently attacked, he is forced to send them ahead of him and, hotly pursued, they fly by airship to Helleron, the first city in line for the latest Wasp invasion. Stenwold and Che are Beetle-kinden, one of many human races that take their powers and inspiration each from a totem insect, but he also has allies of many breeds: Mantis, Spider, Ant, with their own particular skills. Foremost is the deadly Mantis-kinden warrior, Tisamon, but other very unlikely allies also join the cause.</i>

Insect-totem humans (ie. Mantis-kinden look human, but also have bonelike claws protruding out of the backs of their forearms to attack with, and wear a glove on their other hand that has a spring mounted blade that protrudes from between the knuckles attached)....VERY cool idea, not something that has come along often. The world is also very steampunk-ish fantasy, and so that adds to my like of it.

I worried about the new author syndrome, as I've been stung by some before that were below the sub par level, and made me want to throw the book across the room. It seems as if every new year, we get a slew of new authors in the fantasy genre, but only 2 or 3 make the grade.

Goddamn this book is good!

Tchaikovsky is not only one of the ones that makes the grade, but I wager to say that I am enjoying his first book more than any other new author's work this whole year....I even like it more than last years "Name Of The Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss, and it sits about on par with how much I enjoyed "The Lies of Locke Lamora" by Scott Lynch the year before that.

Now, PLEASE bear in mind (those that have read this book all the way through) that I am on about Page 120 and so if you want to talk about stuff, spoiler tags is likely the way to go.

The storyline in the book is template-like. Invading empire, war, old hero's helping new ones against a common foe, ect.....but he adds the insect idea overtop and it feels fresh here. The characters are interesting, and I find myself involved enough with them (the side running characters feel fleshed out without being overdone), but where this novel REALLY, really shines (so far) is in the pacing and prose. I find myself not being able to put this book down at all, and when I do I find I can't wait to get back to it. It starts off with an attack and from there moves at a quick clip and Tchaikovsky has suffered none of the over-descriptiveness that a lot of new writers seemed to fall victim to, and we get a nice clean prose that helps with pacing as well. I find that at every corner in this book so far is something that keeps me rapt.

A great book so far, and I hope it continues to be so. I'll let you know, but I thought we ought to have a thread about it so others might discover this guy, and this great book! Check it out.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 09 April 2012 - 05:50 PM

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#2 User is offline   polishgenius 

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Posted 21 October 2008 - 09:10 PM

I read it a while back. While I won't go in depth till you finish, see if you agree on my reasoning, I found it slightly disappointing in that there were the hints of a great story but instead we only got a good one as the author pulled back from taking risks.

Still, there's great potential and it is good, and like you say very readable.
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#3 User is offline   caladanbrood 

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Posted 21 October 2008 - 09:18 PM

The backdrop sounds quite Mieville-esque, which is not an easy thing to pull off.
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#4 User is offline   polishgenius 

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Posted 22 October 2008 - 12:04 AM

Interesting comparison, but it's not really - not nearly as detailed or inventively varied. It's not trying to be though.

I'm not sure if I've used this comparison on this site before, but it'll seem familiar to anyone who's read James Lovegrove's Worldstorm. The Insect abilities make for a similar makeup of the world to the elemental-based abilities there.

This post has been edited by polishgenius: 22 October 2008 - 12:08 AM

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#5 User is offline   Myshkin 

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Posted 22 October 2008 - 12:21 AM

I read this one right after it came out, and I loved it. It's my second favorite debut of the year (behind Felix Gilman's Thunderer). Tchaikovsky is going to be an author to watch, and his debut is on par with the other recent big debuts by Lynch, Abercrombie, and Rothfuss.
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#6 User is offline   polishgenius 

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Posted 22 October 2008 - 12:29 AM

I've been hearing a lot of talk about this Thunderer recently. It's intrigued me, because having a look it came out in the UK nearly a year ago, but there was no hype whatsoever and I never saw it in a shop. The MMPB came out three weeks ago, and has gone equally unnoticed.

What's it about?
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#7 User is offline   Myshkin 

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Posted 22 October 2008 - 04:22 AM

View Postpolishgenius, on Oct 21 2008, 05:29 PM, said:

I've been hearing a lot of talk about this Thunderer recently. It's intrigued me, because having a look it came out in the UK nearly a year ago, but there was no hype whatsoever and I never saw it in a shop. The MMPB came out three weeks ago, and has gone equally unnoticed.

What's it about?

It's a very surreal book set in an endless labyrinthine city where magic and science but heads, and gods walk the streets. It's about a man who comes to the city in hopes of finding the god who abandoned him and his people, but ends getting embroiled in the politics and religions of the city. It's a hard book to explain, but it's the best book I've read this year, and one of the best sff books I've ever read.
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#8 User is offline   Dag 

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Posted 22 October 2008 - 06:24 AM

As I wrote somewhere in the purgatory, I got this book from Mr. B with a comment it was a nice, enjoyable snack inbetween, easy to read, some good ideas. At first I thought he was joking - it took me weeeeeeeks to get past the first 200 pages (and I usually read books in matter of days or even hours). Of course I liked the idea of numerous city-states populated by different races bearing resemblance to their insect-totems in maters of social organisation and in the character of their "art" (Ants that are all connected by telepathy, Spiders weaving their webs of intrigues etc.) but the main characters felt flat and boring and the story seemed to be going nowhere (Stenwold's moaning "They're too early, I'm too late..." was annoyingly repetitive).

BUT:

When my iron will finally got me throught those 200 pages, I couldn't put the book down. The story begins to move forward, characters begin to develop, and... well, I don't want to spoil anything for those of you who haven't read it yet, so I'll wait with further comments for a while. But I will definitely buy the book and the sequels, and would also recommend it further. Mind you, not as one of the greatest books I have ever read, but - for the reasons polishgenius has already mentioned above - as a very good book that is certainly worth reading.

This post has been edited by Dag: 22 October 2008 - 06:25 AM

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#9 User is offline   polishgenius 

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Posted 22 October 2008 - 05:05 PM

View PostMyshkin, on Oct 22 2008, 05:22 AM, said:

View Postpolishgenius, on Oct 21 2008, 05:29 PM, said:

I've been hearing a lot of talk about this Thunderer recently. It's intrigued me, because having a look it came out in the UK nearly a year ago, but there was no hype whatsoever and I never saw it in a shop. The MMPB came out three weeks ago, and has gone equally unnoticed.

What's it about?

It's a very surreal book set in an endless labyrinthine city where magic and science but heads, and gods walk the streets. It's about a man who comes to the city in hopes of finding the god who abandoned him and his people, but ends getting embroiled in the politics and religions of the city. It's a hard book to explain, but it's the best book I've read this year, and one of the best sff books I've ever read.



Cheers. It sounds interesting, and as I can't get it in the shop, I'll be getting it on Amazon as soon as Steph Swainston's Modern World comes out in MMPB in early November, to save myself postage costs. Hopefully it won't go back up in price by then... >_>
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#10 User is offline   globish rip 

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Posted 24 October 2008 - 03:31 AM

where this novel REALLY, really shines (so far) is in the pacing and prose

really??? this dude writes some of the worst pov transitions ever and his cliff-hanger chapter endings are pretty hack-y. aside from one a+ use of gormless dude has a pretty limited way with adjectives. as well the mechanical stuff is... not good, i think.

i did really like the kinden stuff and kept wanting to hear more about the different more exotic kinds. what powers would a slug kinden have?
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#11 User is offline   Osric 

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Posted 24 October 2008 - 07:41 AM

Well that's not too bad then, I picked this book up like 10 times in the book store but never bought it since I figured it didnt look that good and I didnt know the author, think I'll buy it next time I pick it up. ;)
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#12 User is offline   dreamscape 

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Posted 24 October 2008 - 01:11 PM

I bought this blindly after reading his rant on Pat's site, then checking out his blog. Good sense of humour, and writes well. Was hoping that would shine through in the book too. Its on top of my pile to read next...
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#13 User is offline   QuickTidal 

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Posted 24 October 2008 - 03:13 PM

View Post2PISTOLSWRITTING, on Oct 23 2008, 10:31 PM, said:

where this novel REALLY, really shines (so far) is in the pacing and prose

really??? this dude writes some of the worst pov transitions ever and his cliff-hanger chapter endings are pretty hack-y. aside from one a+ use of gormless dude has a pretty limited way with adjectives. as well the mechanical stuff is... not good, i think.

i did really like the kinden stuff and kept wanting to hear more about the different more exotic kinds. what powers would a slug kinden have?



Well it all works for me. To each their own I suppose. I am really enjoying it!
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“Someone will always try to sell you despair, just so they don't feel alone.” ~Ursula Vernon
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#14 User is offline   Cause 

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Posted 24 October 2008 - 03:14 PM

I thought it was terrible. I wont be picking up the sequels. Put simply i dont care how it ends. It seemed childish to me. I bought it based on the blurb and the first chapter but than it failed to deliver
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#15 User is offline   QuickTidal 

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Posted 20 November 2008 - 04:11 PM

Okay, after entering the latter half of the book everything slowed down, and I started to have to slog. Stuff I thought was clever before became VERY tiring and weary, and by page 320 or so I gave the hell up. I may go back to it at some point, but the fact that I picked up Red Wolf Conspiracy by Robert V.S. Redick right after I gave up on this one and devoured it enjoying every page means that Tchaikovsky's effort really does fall into the generic fantasy category, and nothing of huge merit happened....so much so that I don't care about the ending.

Boo. Sorry guys, I should have finished the book before commenting.
"When the last tree has fallen, and the rivers are poisoned, you cannot eat money, oh no." ~Aurora

“Someone will always try to sell you despair, just so they don't feel alone.” ~Ursula Vernon
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#16 User is offline   Deornoth 

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Posted 20 November 2008 - 04:40 PM

I loved this book and can't wait for the sequel. But...

The ending was really anti-climatic, especially when compared to the jail break scene which came across as a lot more dynamic and exciting. That left me a little bit :p
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#17 User is offline   polishgenius 

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Posted 15 February 2009 - 12:47 AM

I've just finished the second book of this series, Dragonfly Falling. It's better, and the plot goes in more interesting directions, although he could still have been a bit more daring. Paddling as it does in the arenas of epic-scale war and multi-stranded politics (moreso than the first one), mental comparisons to both Malazan and aSoIaF may be inevitable (they were for me), to which it doesn't quite stand up, but taken on its own merits it's good stuff, and, as I say, a distinct improvement on the first.

Definitely a middle book though.
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#18 User is offline   Aptorian 

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Posted 15 February 2009 - 08:09 AM

Like QT I started the book and thought it was awesome, then got about 1/3 into it and everything just slows down to a crawl. It became so tedious that I just left the book for toilet reading.

I think this book has two problems. One that it suffers from Epic Fantasy Travel Syndrome, a hell of a lot of going from one place to another for no real reason, somebody gets captured and the rest follow. I was bored to tears. Second problem is that the first part tells us of war and intrgue, and other "stuff", making you think it's going to be delivering unseen levels of awesome as it builds up. But it doesn' build up, it just reaches a certain high and then putters along for 500 pages. Oh, sure, there's some swordplay in there, a little magic (very poorly handled), some character development, etc. but it's all just so underwhelming.

Somebody compared it to Mieville and his Baslag. I agree that it certainly has some of those qualities, but none of the scope. The author could have done so much more with this world, but instead of letting the world directly effect the plot it's just a part of the background.

The characters are mostly forgettable, but there are some cool ones, like the moth ninja sorcerers, or the killer mantis guy Tisamon, good lord he kicks so much ass. But the author makes one great sin in my book. We are forced to follow one particular POV a lot which just so happens to be the moaning, spoiled, selfdepricating, bitch of a woman Cheerwell. God I wanted to skip every part with her in it, unfortunantly those where also sometimes the parts with Thalric the Bee Nazi, and I loved that guy-

I will say though that I'll be reading the other books, some day, for one simple reason. It's a series where the bad guys are NAZI BEE'S! NAZIES! THAT ARE BEE'S! Fuck I loved reading about the Gold and Black, and while the Captain... Thalric? was a bit boring at the beginning he really grew on me. He reminds me somewhat of Ganoes Paran.

Anyway, I hope the second book gives us more war
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#19 User is offline   Wry 

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Posted 07 July 2009 - 02:59 PM

I had seen this in book shops for ages and never picked it up - i thought the insect totem idea would be a bit too gimmicky. But Last week i was out and needed a book, and found this was the only one i'd not read. So i gave it a shot.

Turns out the problem was not with the insect idea, that was ok (although not explored or given as much depth as i thought). Instead it was just bland, generic , poor fantasy. And the author commits the major crime of the genre - bending the characters to fit the plot, rather than having the plot evolve from realistic characters.

The author has no ability to create any sense of drama, and is frankly a coward in his writing. He has characters getting captured by the supposedly evil empire, kept as slaves for weeks and the only mistreatment they suffer is one gets slapped twice. Not a single character is ever in danger for their lives, there's no sense of peril, and no emotional involvement for the reader at all. Several times the author would create scenes with amazing potential for some original outcomes and you can see him veer away into clichéd, pointless territory once again.

So in agreement with polish genius, and apt, this is toilet fodder.

This post has been edited by Wry: 07 July 2009 - 03:00 PM

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#20 User is offline   Morgoth 

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Posted 08 July 2009 - 05:51 AM

this book was mediocre but still vaguely interesting until about halfway into the first book you discover a pattern that, by the end of book two, the author never deviates from:

Spoiler


Sufficient to say I will not read the third and I can't understand why I read the second
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