Book Review: Empire in Black and Gold, by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Steampunk epic fantasy with bug-people.
Tor Books, 2008, 612 pages
The days of peace are over....
The Lowlands’ city states have lived in peace for decades, hailed as bastions of civilization. Yet that peace is about to end. A distant empire has been conquering neighbours with highly trained soldiers and sophisticated combat techniques. And the city states are its desirable new prize.
Only the ageing Stenwold Maker - spymaster, artificer and statesman - foresees the threat, as the empires’ armies march ever closer. So it falls upon his shoulders to open the eyes of the cities’ leaders. He sees that war will sweep through their lands, destroying everything in its path.
But to warn his people, he must stay alive.
I loved Adrian Tchaikovsky's science fiction, and I've heard that he writes SF to sell and writes fantasy for fun. I don't know how true that is, but Empire in Black and Gold was his debut novel, and it's pretty fun. It's also the first book in a ten-book series.
Tchaikovsky is kind of a B-lister next to more popular epic fantasy authors like Brandon Sanderson, George R.R. Martin, and Steven Erikson. There is a lot in Empire of Black and Gold that reminds me of Sanderson, specifically, and I am now going to make an argument that while Sanderson may be a more a fun writer, Tchaikovsky is a better one.
Empire in Black and Gold takes place in a world with steampunk-ish technology on the verge of an industrial revolution. People are starting to build steam engines, flying machines, and railroads, and gunpowder is making an appearance.
Also, everyone is a bug-person.
Humans share the world with very large insects. In prehistoric times, apex predators were giant bugs rather than sabretooth tigers. Mankind is now divided into "kinden" races, each one affiliated with some type of bug, and gifted with abilities known as the Ancestor Art. (Some of them can fly!) So far there's been no explanation for this strange evolution of humanity (for that matter, it's never explicitly stated that these people are human). Besides the "Ancestor Arts" there are hints that magic exists, though most people consider that superstitious nonsense...
In ancient times, Moth-kinden, with their Dragonfly and Mantis allies, enslaved everyone else. Then the Beetles and Ants invented technology, revolted, and drove the Moths into caves in the mountains where they've been sulking for centuries. Those kinden who can use technology are known as the Apt; those who can't (like Moths) are known as Inapt.
It's an interesting twist on standard fantasy races, with bug-kinden replacing elves, dwarves, orcs, mermen, and so on. In many ways, they conform to standard fantasy tropes; each kinden has certain physical and personality traits, but they are still people, and by the end of the book, I definitely had a feeling for what a "typical" Beetle-kinden or Mantis-kinden is like, but the characters were all individuals, not just racial archetypes.
There are a lot of kinden introduced in volume one, with others not yet encountered but hinted at. Beetle-kinden tend to be tough, tubby, and good at engineering. Mantis-kinden are lethal fighters with bone spurs in their forearms. Ant-kinden are great soldiers and can mentally "network" with each other. Moth-kinden are reclusive nocturnal mystics. Spider-kinden are sneaky and sexy and can sort of read minds.
And wasps...
Wasps are assholes.
The bad guys of the series are the Wasp Empire, which until recently was a bunch of savage hill tribes, but now suddenly is an expanding imperial power trying to take over the world. They run a brutal, fascist police state that makes no bones about enslaving their conquered subjects.
Empire in Black and Gold opens with a group of friends who have seen the growing Wasp threat and tried to warn against it witnessing the first siege of a city in the Lowlands, a region of independent city-states. They make a heroic last stand, there is a betrayal, some of them die, and seventeen years later, one of the survivors, a Beetle-kinden named Stenwold Maker, has become a spymaster and is trying to persuade the rest of the Lowlands city-states to take the Wasp threat seriously. No one is listening. Over the course of the book, his old friends, some new recruits, and his adopted niece all keep trying to raise the alarm while foiling the schemes of Wasp agents. The Wasp Empire has been biding its time, sending diplomats and traders and making friends everywhere and swearing that goodness no, of course they have no more plans for military expansion, they just got done fighting a war with the Dragonflies to the north, don't you know?
One of the more interesting villains was Captain Thalric, a Wasp officer who fits the "Honorable Nazi" archetype. He serves the Empire, prides himself on being a loyal cog in the imperial machine, and accepts his place in it, even if in his darker moments he has doubts. Other Wasp officers gleefully rape, torture, and stab friends in the back; he has just enough scruples to find such behavior unpleasant, but not enough to actively rebel. His character arc may or may not prove to be one of redemption.
This is a long book with many characters and subplots. In some ways it will remind fantasy readers of Brandon Sanderson; same general feel of a ragged band of heroes trying to hold back the forces of evil, a bunch of class-based "magic" abilities, and many interlocking character subplots. Romance, subterfuge, espionage, betrayal, badasses fighting, big reveals about mystical secrets, and of course nine books to go after the climactic battle at the end of this one.
So, I've compared Tchaikovsky to Brandon Sanderson and said Tchaikovsky is a better writer. Why? In a word, it's maturity. Sanderson's books mostly feel like YA novels, even the doorstopper epic fantasies like the Stormlight Archive. Sanderson writes to please his fans; he's built his brand, and everything is nicely packaged and PG-rated and the complications are in the form of easter eggs to figure out his metaplot. Tchaikovsky's books feel more like he's writing to please himself. He does not deliver the same sort of Crowning Moments of Awesome that Sanderson does, but the characters feel like they are fighting a war, not running through an epic fantasy RPG adventure.
This is very much a war story. It's also a fantasy story, with promises of more bug-kinden and eldritch secrets to come. It wasn't the best epic fantasy I've ever read, but it does make me want to keep reading and right now I am more enthusiastic about investing myself in this series than I have been about Brandon Sanderson's last few series.
Also by Adrian Tchaikovsky: My reviews of Children of Time and Children of Ruin.
My complete list of book reviews.
Tor Books, 2008, 612 pages
The days of peace are over....
The Lowlands’ city states have lived in peace for decades, hailed as bastions of civilization. Yet that peace is about to end. A distant empire has been conquering neighbours with highly trained soldiers and sophisticated combat techniques. And the city states are its desirable new prize.
Only the ageing Stenwold Maker - spymaster, artificer and statesman - foresees the threat, as the empires’ armies march ever closer. So it falls upon his shoulders to open the eyes of the cities’ leaders. He sees that war will sweep through their lands, destroying everything in its path.
But to warn his people, he must stay alive.
I loved Adrian Tchaikovsky's science fiction, and I've heard that he writes SF to sell and writes fantasy for fun. I don't know how true that is, but Empire in Black and Gold was his debut novel, and it's pretty fun. It's also the first book in a ten-book series.
Tchaikovsky is kind of a B-lister next to more popular epic fantasy authors like Brandon Sanderson, George R.R. Martin, and Steven Erikson. There is a lot in Empire of Black and Gold that reminds me of Sanderson, specifically, and I am now going to make an argument that while Sanderson may be a more a fun writer, Tchaikovsky is a better one.
Empire in Black and Gold takes place in a world with steampunk-ish technology on the verge of an industrial revolution. People are starting to build steam engines, flying machines, and railroads, and gunpowder is making an appearance.
Also, everyone is a bug-person.
Humans share the world with very large insects. In prehistoric times, apex predators were giant bugs rather than sabretooth tigers. Mankind is now divided into "kinden" races, each one affiliated with some type of bug, and gifted with abilities known as the Ancestor Art. (Some of them can fly!) So far there's been no explanation for this strange evolution of humanity (for that matter, it's never explicitly stated that these people are human). Besides the "Ancestor Arts" there are hints that magic exists, though most people consider that superstitious nonsense...
In ancient times, Moth-kinden, with their Dragonfly and Mantis allies, enslaved everyone else. Then the Beetles and Ants invented technology, revolted, and drove the Moths into caves in the mountains where they've been sulking for centuries. Those kinden who can use technology are known as the Apt; those who can't (like Moths) are known as Inapt.
It's an interesting twist on standard fantasy races, with bug-kinden replacing elves, dwarves, orcs, mermen, and so on. In many ways, they conform to standard fantasy tropes; each kinden has certain physical and personality traits, but they are still people, and by the end of the book, I definitely had a feeling for what a "typical" Beetle-kinden or Mantis-kinden is like, but the characters were all individuals, not just racial archetypes.
There are a lot of kinden introduced in volume one, with others not yet encountered but hinted at. Beetle-kinden tend to be tough, tubby, and good at engineering. Mantis-kinden are lethal fighters with bone spurs in their forearms. Ant-kinden are great soldiers and can mentally "network" with each other. Moth-kinden are reclusive nocturnal mystics. Spider-kinden are sneaky and sexy and can sort of read minds.
And wasps...
Wasps are assholes.
The bad guys of the series are the Wasp Empire, which until recently was a bunch of savage hill tribes, but now suddenly is an expanding imperial power trying to take over the world. They run a brutal, fascist police state that makes no bones about enslaving their conquered subjects.
Empire in Black and Gold opens with a group of friends who have seen the growing Wasp threat and tried to warn against it witnessing the first siege of a city in the Lowlands, a region of independent city-states. They make a heroic last stand, there is a betrayal, some of them die, and seventeen years later, one of the survivors, a Beetle-kinden named Stenwold Maker, has become a spymaster and is trying to persuade the rest of the Lowlands city-states to take the Wasp threat seriously. No one is listening. Over the course of the book, his old friends, some new recruits, and his adopted niece all keep trying to raise the alarm while foiling the schemes of Wasp agents. The Wasp Empire has been biding its time, sending diplomats and traders and making friends everywhere and swearing that goodness no, of course they have no more plans for military expansion, they just got done fighting a war with the Dragonflies to the north, don't you know?
One of the more interesting villains was Captain Thalric, a Wasp officer who fits the "Honorable Nazi" archetype. He serves the Empire, prides himself on being a loyal cog in the imperial machine, and accepts his place in it, even if in his darker moments he has doubts. Other Wasp officers gleefully rape, torture, and stab friends in the back; he has just enough scruples to find such behavior unpleasant, but not enough to actively rebel. His character arc may or may not prove to be one of redemption.
This is a long book with many characters and subplots. In some ways it will remind fantasy readers of Brandon Sanderson; same general feel of a ragged band of heroes trying to hold back the forces of evil, a bunch of class-based "magic" abilities, and many interlocking character subplots. Romance, subterfuge, espionage, betrayal, badasses fighting, big reveals about mystical secrets, and of course nine books to go after the climactic battle at the end of this one.
So, I've compared Tchaikovsky to Brandon Sanderson and said Tchaikovsky is a better writer. Why? In a word, it's maturity. Sanderson's books mostly feel like YA novels, even the doorstopper epic fantasies like the Stormlight Archive. Sanderson writes to please his fans; he's built his brand, and everything is nicely packaged and PG-rated and the complications are in the form of easter eggs to figure out his metaplot. Tchaikovsky's books feel more like he's writing to please himself. He does not deliver the same sort of Crowning Moments of Awesome that Sanderson does, but the characters feel like they are fighting a war, not running through an epic fantasy RPG adventure.
This is very much a war story. It's also a fantasy story, with promises of more bug-kinden and eldritch secrets to come. It wasn't the best epic fantasy I've ever read, but it does make me want to keep reading and right now I am more enthusiastic about investing myself in this series than I have been about Brandon Sanderson's last few series.
Also by Adrian Tchaikovsky: My reviews of Children of Time and Children of Ruin.
My complete list of book reviews.