Fofo’s #CBR4 Review #25: Salute the Dark by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Target: Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Salute the Dark (Shadows of the Apt #4)

Profile: Alternative Fantasy, Steampunk, Epic Fantasy

This review contains some minor spoilers.

Salute the Dark brings the first major story arc of Shadows of the Apt to a conclusion.  The book is so final it could easily be confused for the end of the series.  Protagonists die off left and right, and plotlines get resolved or shoved under expositional carpets.  But because none of the major arcs are really resolved, there is a real sense of dissatisfaction coming from the final chapters.  The Wasps are still there, stopped for the moment but far from beaten. The Emperor’s quest for immortality ended with many questions unanswered and a mess of major antagonists dead.  And Thalric changed sides four or five more times.

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Fofo’s reviews of the rest of the Shadows of the Apt series

Fofo’s #CBR4 Review #15: Blood of the Mantis by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Target: Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Blood of the Mantis (Shadows of the Apt #3) 

Profile: Alternative Fantasy, Steampunk, Epic Fantasy

Despite the fact that all but the 7^th book in the Shadows of the Apt series were written before I started reading the first one, I can’t help but feel that Adrian Tchaikovsky somehow channeled my review of Dragonfly Falling when he was writing Blood of the Mantis.  It is far more likely that Tchaikovsky saw for himself where his story was going off the rails and acted to correct the problem, but the reviewer in me is a little smug about being right, even if it was 3 years after the fact.

Mantis addressed all the problems I had with Dragonfly, from the sprawling story that proved harder to follow, to the bland characters, and even the minor focus issues that plagued the battle sequences.  Unfortunately, he also overcorrected for some of these problems.  An expansive world with more than a half-dozen plots is suddenly replaced with a tight narrative at the expense of several unresolved stories and lost PoV characters.  The remaining cast starts to flesh out a little, but become strangled by their reduced plotlines.  Tchaikovsky also hasn’t stopped introducing new concepts and characters to the still complex setting.  These new elements feel flat at best and extraneous at worst.  In spite of these weaknesses, the book completely succeeds in its task: prolonging the series and setting up the next book.

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Fofo’s reviews of the rest of the Shadows of the Apt series

Fofo’s #CBR4 Review #07: Dragonfly Falling by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Target: Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Dragonfly Falling (Shadows of the Apt #2)

Profile: Alternative Fantasy, Steampunk, Military Fiction

It’s been almost 10 months since I’ve touched Tchaikovsky’s Shadows of the Apt, and in the intervening time, I’ve read a lot of mediocre books.  So I was pleased to come back to this surprising series that really got me thinking last time around.  Tchaikovsky doesn’t disappoint, providing a worthy successor to Empire in Black and Gold and a solid second book in what promises to be an expansive series.  There are still flaws to be addressed and the characterization is still depressingly weak, but there are improvements to be found and just enough new facets to explore that I’ll be sure to read the next entry.

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Read Fofo’s review of Shadows of the Apt #1 here…