Empire in Black and Gold - Shadows of the Apt

Book 1

Empire in Black and Gold is the first volume of the fantasy series Shadows of the Apt by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

Adrian Tchaikovsky is a Pen name, real name being Adrian Czajkowski (Czajkowski - difficult to pronounce, right? That's exactly why, he used a new pen name). Like other fantasy stories, there are no elves, orcs, dragons, trolls, dwarfs or "normal humans". Instead, this excellent debut fantasy is set in a quite unusual fantasy world of various human races who long ago adapted to prehistoric insects and are called "insect-kinden" like ant-kinden, beetle-kinden, mantis, dragonfly etc. (Insect-Kinden??? Instead I would have personally preferred animal-kinden, like wolf-kinden, tiger-kinden, bear-kinden ... more cool right?). For more information click here.

Well, each insect-kinden species has their own unique power, or ‘art’ that resembles the insect they represent.

Different types of Art (only for the main characters):

Beetle-kinden: Natural Engineers. They build all kinds of machinery. Not good fighters or fliers. Most of them are highly educated. The main protagonist in the novel is a Beetle-kinden. A sketch of Beetle-kinden.

Spider-kinden: Tricky, untrustworthy, dominated and ruled by women. They are good-looking and charm their way past most people. link

Ant-kinden: All are fighters/hardworking and telepathically linked with their kind. link

Mantis-kinden: Have bony spines on their arms and are deadly skilled fighters. No other race can match them with their skill with weapons. Good eyes to see in dark. A sketch of Mantis-kinden.

Dragonfly-kinden: Proud race and good fighters. No race can match them in a fight in sky. Can see very well in the dark. link

Wasp-kinden: The main antagonists in the story. Wasp-kinden doesn’t do anything (work) other than fighting. Every male wasp is in army and leaves other work to their slaves. Their killing art - can shoot energy balls from their palms, which blasts and burns on contact (according to author, similar to a wasp’s sting). A sketch of Wasp-kinden.

Moth-kinden: once rulers of the free states with mantis-kinden. Hates and doesn't understand machines. Knows magic and loves nature. link

Half-breeds: The insect-kinden normally don't interbreed. If they do, the resulting offsprings are known as Half-breed and are despised by all the other pure breeds.

The Empire of Wasps is expanding their empire with its highly trained armies (their army uniform being black and gold), war machines and its killing Art (wasp-sting). They are currently at peace after war with Commonweal states ruled by Dragonfly-kinden. Collegium and Helleron are technologically advanced free city-states of Lowlands ruled democratically by beetle-kinden. They flourish by trading machines, weapons to other city-states and even to Empire of Wasps. The Empire of Wasps is the biggest trade partner of Helleron. The city-states don't have an army of their own, but have paid mercenaries to do the job. They believe in peace and just earning wealth through trading.

The story revolves around Stenwold Maker (beetle-kinden), his students - his niece Cheerwell Maker (beetle-kinden), his ward Tynisa (spider-kinden?), the apprentice artificer Totho (half-breed b/w beetle and ant), Salma Dien (a prince of dragonfly-kinden), his trusted friend and great fighter Tisamon (mantis-kinden).

Stenwold is a master-artificer in a college academy in Collegium. For last seventeen years he has been trying hard to warn people of lowlands about the threat posed by the wasps to the city-states. But those words fell into deaf ears and as greedy beetle-kinden merchants and power hungry politicians believed wasps to be their best trading partners, and nothing to gained by going against them. But Stenwold feared, in time wasps will invade free states with their own weapons. Stenwold has a string of spy network to gather news and prevent wasps to gain an upper hand. Now wasps have started moving their own spies obliterating Stenwold's network. Stenwold knew that the time has come, he was forced to send his beloved students as reinforcements to Helleron from where the attack would come.

In the industrial city of Helleron, everything goes awry and the four friends gets separated. Salma and Cheerwell gets captured by Wasps and were taken deep into enemy territory. Stenwold, Tisamon, Totho and Achaeos (moth-kinden) (once rescued by Cheerwell) regroup for the rescue. They track down the prisoners, and rescue them. Their efforts were seriously hampered by a shape-shifter (hired by wasps) who can impersonate any person.

In enemy territory they learn about the plans on attack on Collegium. The wasps believe that by taking Collegium they can end any chance of the Lowlands uniting together against them. There is a new railroad being built between Helleron and Collegium with a state-of-art fast and powerful engine called Pride to pull the passenger compartments. It was technological break through, which everyone was eager to see it started. The railroad when finished would reduce the travel time to a couple of hours. The Wasps were waiting to use this railroad to mount a surprise attack on Collegium. Stenwold hatches a plan to destroy the engine, before it can be used. After a thrilling fight and with some luck, Stenwold and his friends managed to destroy the engine and cast suspicion on the Wasp-Kinden.

The story ends with Salma and Totho arriving at Tark (a ant city-state) to save a butterfly-kinden from slavery.

The novel is fast-paced and action driven. The author takes you to a ride in a fantasy world created by him. Politics, love, loyalty and betrayal converge in some delightful twists. A great fantasy highly recommended for reading.

The sequel to it is "Dragonfly Falling" (already published) and the "Blood of Mantis".