Book description
The first volume in a dramatic and colourful new fantasy series,
'Shadows of the Apt', concerns the fight for survival against a
menacingly regimented empire. Seventeen years ago Stenwold witnessed the
Wasp Empire storming the city of Myna in a brutal war of conquest. Since
then he has preached vainly against this threat in his home city of
Collegium, but now the Empire is on the march, with its spies and its
armies everywhere, and the Lowlands lie directly in its path. All the
while, Stenwold has been training youthful agents to fight the Wasp
advance, and the latest recruits include his niece, Che, and his
mysterious ward, Tynisa. When his home is violently attacked, he is
forced to send them ahead of him and, hotly pursued, they fly by airship
to Helleron, the first city in line for the latest Wasp invasion.
Stenwold and Che are Beetle-kinden, one of many human races that take
their powers and inspiration each from a totem insect, but he also has
allies of many breeds: Mantis, Spider, Ant, with their own particular
skills. Foremost is the deadly Mantis-kinden warrior, Tisamon, but other
very unlikely allies also join the cause. As things go from bad to worse
amid escalating dangers, Stenwold learns that the Wasps intend to use
the newly completed railroad between Helleron and Collegium to launch a
lightning strike into the heart of the Lowlands. Then he gathers all of
his agents to force a final showdown in the engine yard . . .
Adrian Tchaikovsky, born in Lincolnshire, studied zoology and
psychology at Reading, before practising law in Leeds.
