Shadows of the Apt 1-3

[schneefink]

frith_in_thorns and sholio recently recommended the "Shadows of the Apt" books by Adrian Tchaikovsky (here and here), and because I know they have good taste and because for some reason I thought another distraction from all the things I should be doing would be a good idea, I started reading them. I've read the first three books, "Empire of Black and Gold", "Dragonfly Falling", and "Blood of the Mantis", and I enjoyed them.

I liked the "old" vs. "new" generation set-up in the beginning, contrasts etc. I suspect Stenwold, Marius, Tisamon, and Atryssa (and Nero) had a lot of fun adventures, too bad two of them are dead. (Did we ever find out who betrayed them at Myna? Probably a random Rekef agent.)
At least the "new" group as introduced in the first book – Salma, Tynisa, Che, and Totho – also has a lot of potential, and they all have their own interesting storylines. I really liked how they all relate to each other.

I really liked Salma's general arc, from a student relatively removed from what's going on to leader of his own mercenary group. I didn't like his obsession with the butterfly-kinden woman and that he went on a crazy mission to Tark to free her (even though she was already not a slave anymore), that seemed very out of the blue. (Yes she later said she released the spell, but I don't completely buy it. They barely knew each other.)

Tynisa got her Weaponsmaster badge much sooner than I thought, I thought it would require more training. I didn't like how the reveal went that Tisamon and Atryssa are her biological parents: for a good while it shifted her inner conflict from "how do I feel about the fact that I kind of enjoy fighting and killing people" to "I want my father to acknowledge me," not even to the fact that she's a spider-mantis halfbreed, an 'abomination.' Then she just accepts the bloodlust as part of her heritage. She grew up among beetles, so her connection to Spider culture has presumably never been that strong. But in general I like her.

Che! Originally an afterthought, even Stenwold only takes her for a ward to keep Tynisa company. But she's growing up! She had to, with all that she experienced, and it made her stronger. I'm really looking forward to seeing her interact with Tynisa and Salma more in the future, when they're on more equal footing.

Totho – oh boy. I do feel sorry for him, and Drephos made a good "work for me or die" argument, but he went a bit far for self-preservation. Even before that I didn't like him following Salma to Tark: it would have been more understandable if he'd been upset about the lack of opportunities in his life, and it was well done that even Stenwold isn't immune to racial prejudice even though he raised a halfbreed daughter but of course it hurt Totho to see it. But the narrative concentrated on his poor broken heart because Che doesn't love him, which okay hurts but wasn't the part of his story I was most interested in.

I'm not quite sure what to do with Achaeon yet. He has potential, I guess. It didn't help that he was introduced with a huge crush on Che in the later part of book 1 when I was getting annoyed by suddenly so many romance-based actions.

I was almost completely sure that Thalric would flip. It would have been even better if he had a better reason for being loyal to the Empire than "he just is." I almost was more convinced by his former loyalty after he defected, when he got homesick. He's a clever bastard, I look forward to seeing what else he'll do. Not wanting to die for a corrupt Empire is one thing, but actively working against it… He survived Felise for now, at least.

I'm looking forward to seeing more of Tisamon and Felise Mienn together. He with his generally dark outlook on life, she with her even more tragic past and PTSD, and they both have a big crush on how well the other fights, for some reason I think that's adorable. Hopefully they can at least become very good friends if not more.

I'm also curious if Stenwold and Arianna are going anywhere, I kind of like them for now but they don't seem very solid yet or in the future. Stenwold needs as much support as he can get, but he also needs as many agents as he can get and he only has so many people he can trust. Though he's good at recruiting.

I like what we get to see of the Wasp Empire and their internal politics. Now manipulated by a mosquito-kinden, and the mosquito-kinden are clearly evil. Even more so than the probably last assassin-bug-kinden.
I really like that there's an anti-war-faction inside the Wasp Army, that makes sense. (Broken Sword is a funny name because even with a broken sword wasps still have their sting.)

There are several other very interesting minor characters. (Taki!) I'm already making guesses who will survive and who won't. I'm usually completely wrong, but it's fun.

I like the plot too, it's war and it's messy. But: alliances! Collegium survives with the help of the spider-kinden and the survivors from Tark, Sarn with the help of the moths and mantids, and Tisamon and Tynisa get the mantids to basically destroy the Fourth Army, heck yeah. Stenwold even managed to solve the snapbow problem. Meanwhile, bee-kinden uprising in Szar!

I like seeing all the different kinden and what they can do, and I wonder what else will appear. There are a lot of insects! Spiders are technically not even insects, maybe that's why there seems to be only one kind of them, unlike the several kinds of bug- and beetle-kinden. Centipedes aren't either, so maybe it's more "small crawling things usually called insects." Kinden I still expect to show up are bumblebees, maybe plant lice, maybe harvestmen, or termites. Maybe even crabs, or earthworms. Probably some will appear that I'm not thinking of at all.

I hope we'll get a better look at halfbreeds. They're scorned, in some regions more than in others, but sex between people from different kinden is apparently nothing extraordinary, I'm not quite sure how that fits together. Is there excellent birth control? The gruesome alternative is that many halfbreed children die shortly after birth. Or maybe relationships between different kinden are generally frowned upon and I just got the wrong impression because most of the main characters grew up in Collegium, which is less strict in such matters.

I'm looking forward to the next few books! (though at the same time I hope I'll have the restraint not to read them right now… we'll see.)