Tag Archives: Shadows of the Apt

Review: Shadows of the Apt: Heirs of the Blade (+New Writing)

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Review: Heirs of the Blade

“Heirs of the Blade” is the seventh book in Adrian Tchaikovsky’s vast steampunk/fantasy series, “Shadows of the Apt.” For a quick rundown on what the series is about, please see my review of the last installment, “The Sea Watch.”

After the rather rambling detour of the last book, “Shadows of the Apt” gets its groove back in a big way with “Heirs of the Blade,” which I found an exciting emotional roller-coaster from beginning to end.

In contrast to the epic and varied (almost to the point of being scattered) plots of most of the previous books in the series, “Heirs of the Blade” focuses almost exclusively on just three women.

The first is Tynisa Maker, halfbreed child of the forbidden union of a Mantis-kinden man and a Spider-kinden woman. You’ll remember from my previous review that I find the Inapt races the most interesting part of this series, and the Mantids and Spiders the most interesting of the Inapt, so you can probably imagine how I feel about a girl who is half Spider and half Mantis.

Haunted by the ghosts of her past — both metaphorically and literally — Tynisa flees into the exotic lands of the Dragonfly-kinden Commonweal, seeking only death. In the finest tradition of her Mantis ancestors, she isn’t particular about whether she gives or receives it.

The second is Seda, teenage empress of the Wasp Empire. Now, I’ve said before that I find the Wasps very unremarkable as villains go, but Seda is single-handedly turning this perception around. Every scene with her is chilling, as we learn more and more about the depths of her cruelty and her need to dominate the world.

Seda is not just the glorified schoolyard bully most powerful Wasps are. Exposed to the dark power of an Inapt ritual, Seda’s Aptitude has vanished, leaving her in the dark and uncertain world of the Inapt. But rather than fear this change, she has embraced it, learning the blood magic of the Mosquito-kinden and using it to solidify her rule.

She now stands poised to unleash not only the vast Apt armies of the Empire upon her enemies, but also the dark and forgotten powers of the Days of Lore. And her magic grows stronger with every passing day.

The third woman upon whom “Heirs of Blade” revolves is the unfortunately named Cheerwell Maker (called “Che”), Tynisa’s Beetle foster sister. Che was once my least favourite of the major cast members, but she has finally started to carve a place for herself alongside such stellar characters as Seda and Tynisa.

Che was exposed to the same magic that changed Seda, and she now finds herself in the same position as the empress: her Aptitude lost, but a vast well of magical power put in its place. In “Heirs of the Blade,” Che begins to learn the full extent of her new powers, and the lengths Seda will go to to stop them reaching their full potential.

One final thing about Che’s plot that I greatly enjoy is her traveling companion, the rogue Wasp agent Thalric. Thalric is an incredible complex character, and I could write a whole blog just about him, but suffice it to say, the man is awesome.

Each of these three main plots is engaging and exciting individually, and together, they make for a thoroughly enjoyable book. But it is Tchaikovsky’s skill as a world-builder, always his greatest strength, that takes this book from “good” to “great.”

It’s not just the intricate culture of the Commonweal, or the gradual way the reader learns it’s not the fairytale land it’s cracked up to be. It’s the way every kinden is given such a distinct and recognizable personality, and the way those personalities inform every aspect of the novel.

The whole way through Tynisa’s plot, I kept thinking things like, “That’s such a Mantid thing to do” or “What a perfectly Mantis dilemma.” The fact that what constitutes a “Mantid” thing to do is something I readily recognize without needing to be constantly reminded is a testament to the skill with which Tchaikovsky develops the various kinden.

And it’s not limited to Tynisa, either. The way Che and Seda react to their newfound magic is perfectly archetypical of their kindens. Respectable Beetle girl that she is, Che is rather overwhelmed by it all, but being a Beetle, she just keeps stumbling along and somehow finds a way to adapt. Seda, in true Wasp-kinden fashion, sees her magic only as a potential weapon, a way to further her own power and that of the Empire.

If I have one complaint about this book, it’s that it lacks the feeling of epic struggle the earlier novels in the series had. The war with the Wasps has been on the back-burner for three whole books now, and while I somewhat understand why the author has chosen this route, I’m growing rather weary of the calm before the storm. Let’s get to the storm already, shall we?

Overall rating: 8.8/10 An above average installment in an above average series.

All installments of Shadows of the Apt are available on my Amazon Affiliate. I encourage you all to check it out.

New writing:

Weird Worm has posted another of my articles, “Three Weird Guys (Who Could Beat You to a Pulp).” If you ever wanted to watch a large angry man rip apart a door, this is the article for you!

Review: Shadows of the Apt: The Sea Watch

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Review: Shadows of the Apt: The Sea WatchCover for Shadows of the Apt: The Sea Watch

Although this is a very recent book I’m reviewing, I’m also tagging this as a retro review because, in order to properly review it, I’m also going to have to give a lot of info on the series to date, so you can also think of this as sort of a review of the series as a whole. I’m going to try to avoid spoilers, but a few vague ones are inevitable.

“Shadows of the Apt” is a fantasy/steampunk epic by Adrian Tchaikovsky consisting of six seven books (I’ve just discovered a seventh; more on that later): “Empire in Black and Gold,” “Dragonfly Falling,” “Blood of the Mantis,” “Salute the Dark,” “The Scarab Path,” and now “The Sea Watch.” To be honest, its plot, while adequate, has never been anything special. It compensates for this with a high quality cast of characters, and even more importantly, incredibly interesting world-building.

In Tchaikovsky’s universe, humanity is divided into subraces, called kinden, based upon certain totem insects the kinden draw powers and abilities from. There are dozens of kinden, each with unique physical and psychological traits, from the hardy and inventive Beetle-kinden, to the diminutive Fly-kinden, to the melancholy and bloodthirsty Mantis-kinden.

The kinden are further divided into two groups, the Apt and Inapt. The Apt are creatures of light, reason, and science, but the Inapt are creatures of darkness, mystery, and magic. The Inapt are completely unable to understand even the most basic machinery (like doorknobs), but the Apt are wholly ignorant of magic–most don’t even believe it exists. In the “Bad Old Days,” the Inapt ruled with their magic, but the light of reason eventually drowned out their old powers, and now the Apt have overthrown them — excepting the Spider-kinden, who, being Spider-kinden, were able to talk their slaves into believing they wanted to be slaves.

If I have one consistent complaint about this series, it’s that it focuses on the Apt, when the Inapt are clearly far more interesting. Mantids and Spiders are infinitely cooler than those dull, ordinary Beetles and Ants.Cover for Shadows of the Apt: Blood of the Mantis

The main plot of “Shadows of the Apt” centers around the conflict between the city-states of the Lowlands, particularly egalitarian Collegium, and the conquering armies of the Wasp Empire. The Wasps are fairly cliche and generic villains, with the exception of a few specific characters, but it gave the story purpose.

That story seemed to end with “Salute the Dark,” but “The Scarab Path” was quick to establish that the war had merely been postponed. There were many frightening descriptions of the new Wasp empress, who was even more psychotic than her predecessor and might have developed the ability to call on dark Inapt magics in addition to her armies of Apt soldiers and war machines. It was all very intimidating, and looked to add some much-needed spice to the Wasps.

But that brings us up to “The Sea Watch,” and here the series takes an odd left turn. Rather than renewing the Wasp war, Tchaikovsky suddenly pits Collegium against the fleets of the Spiderlands. But even that is just a plot device to (literally) pull the series’ protagonist, Beetle spymaster Stenwold Maker, beneath the ocean into the heretofore unknown world of the sea-kinden, a group of people based upon all the invertebrates of the waters.

Here, once again, he shows himself to be a brilliant world-builder. The underwater kingdom of the sea-kinden is incredibly detailed and well thought-out, and the aquatic kinden are just as diverse and interesting as their terrestrial counterparts. He also does an admirably job of not making the huge amounts of information about the sea-kinden dumped on the reader too overwhelming. For instance, to save time, he lumps most of the sea-kinden into broad groups–all crustacean kinden are labeled as Onychoi, and the various Squid, Cuttlefish, and Octopus-Kinden are classed as Kerebroi.

Unfortunately, as interesting as the sea-kinden are, it all just ends up feeling like a random and unnecessary detour from the main plot. The Wasps are barely even mentioned in this book. It feels like Tchaikovsky just let his love of world-building run amok at the expense of plot.

I’d like to see the sea-kinden prove crucial to the war with the Wasps in some later book, but based on the way this one ended, I don’t see it happening. So I’m left to wonder what the point was.

Also, at the risk of giving away too much, I really wish he’d stop killing off all my favourite characters.

As an aside, those of you who are Warcraft players may be interested to note that the story of “The Sea Watch” is eerily similar to the main storyline for Cataclysm’s Vashj’ir zone. The climax deals with trying to find a rightful monarch and restore him to the throne instead of defending the Abyssal Maw, and Ozumat is named Arkeuthys in this version, but otherwise, I’m hard-pressed to see a difference.Ozumat from Vashj'ir

Overall rating for “The Sea Watch”: 6.5/10 Good characters and excellent world-building fail to fully make up for a plot that seems to go nowhere in the long run.

Overall rating for “Shadows of the Apt”: 8.2/10 Despite recent stumbles, it’s still a very good series overall, and I recommend checking it out.

You can buy every book of “Shadows of the Apt” on my Amazon Affiliate, including a seventh book, “Heirs of the Blade,” which apparently is somehow available already. And I thought I was up to date…

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Now, just watch: an hour after I post this, Blizzard is gonna release the official preview of the Raid Finder or announce Mists of Pandaria or some such.