Hammer and tongs!
Empire in Black and Gold
This year, I’ve set myself a couple of challenges. If you read my first post, you’ll know I spent all of last year reading books by David Weber. So for 2020, with it being a new year and a new decade and all that, I’ve challenged myself to read at least a book a month. Easy, right?
I want to say here that this shouldn’t contain any spoilers, though it will explore some of the plot points and certain characters, their traits and the world in general. If you’re squeamish, look away now…
Let’s start with some context
Rather than go cold into something completely different, I decided to stick with speculative fiction, making the switch over to fantasy, something I’ve struggled to enjoy for the last few years.
You should know, I loved fantasy as a teenager.
It was hard not to when Peter Jackson was busy making The Lord of the Rings accessible for everyone to enjoy, and my love for it was nurtured by my Mum’s husband, Paul, who bought me the first 3 Dragonlance (published 1984/5) books for my 14th birthday. I’m really lucky that I can remember so many summer family holidays lying on a sun lounger somewhere in Spain reading Dragonlance or Paolini’s Eragon (2003) or Garth Nix’s Old Kingdom (1995 – 2003) trilogy. Fantasy was all I wanted to read, then.
But as I got a bit older, and moved onto science fiction, I always found it hard to get back into fantasy. I tried a few times with various authors and franchises, but it wasn’t until I read Lies of Locke Lamora (2006) a few years ago that I found myself able to enjoy it again.
So why Empire in Black and Gold? Well, I read Children of Time (winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 2016) by Adrian Tchaikovsky in 2017 and was both blown away by, and horrified of, his personification of the ants and spiders. Ugh. Great book. Then on another summer family holiday in 2018, I picked up The Tiger and the Wolf which was the first time I’d read any sort of Iron-age fantasy and was again made up with the way he described and characterised animals.
And so knowing he could do both science-fiction and fantasy, he seemed like the perfect crossover author to begin this year with.
Shadows of the Apt Book 1 – Empire in Black and Gold
Let me say straight off the bat that I enjoyed reading Empire. It was a good book. But there are some gaps that I’d like to get into further on.
There was lots to like including Tchaikovsky’s vision of a post-Industrial Revolution-style of fantasy fiction, his central kinden idea and the simmering race conflict that he manages to embed into his cast of characters.
I also enjoyed the trust he put in me as his reader. Now this might be something he’s done before but this was definitely the first time I noticed. In places, he almost channels Hemingway and doesn’t fall into the trap of over-describing his world. His prose, while heavily stylised (and a distinctive voice throughout) uses quite plain, utilitarian language, like he was writing me a scaffold to support my imagination, rather than smothering me with details I didn’t need.
This is also true of how he throws you into the story. 20-years prior to the books present, you’re introduced to Stenwold Maker, a scholar-turned-soldier who witnesses the fall of Myna to the Wasp Empire. You’re aware Stenwold’s plan to avoid the invasion has failed, that there’s been some kind of betrayal and that some of his friends have gone missing. You see the city fall, out on the streets as Stenwold flees the city and then from above as he watches out of the back of an ornithopter.
It then picks up 20 years later in the city of Collegium, a city that has flourished around it’s great college and scholars. The city, which feels very much like a library by the sea, is a sanctuary, a centre of post-Revolution thinking and one where the people believe their own hype. They know they’re the most enlightened people in the Lowlands and the safest, because they’re the smartest. When we meet Stenwold again, we learn he’s spent the last two decades honing his trade as an artificer and has become a Master at the Great College. He’s considered a bit of an odd one out, always bleating and preaching about the danger to the East, about the Wasps. Which of course, no-one is listening to, because it offends their worldviews.
It’s at this stage you’re introduced to the real main characters: Cheerwell Maker, a Beatle-kinden and Stenwold’s niece/adopted daughter, Tynisa, a Spider-kinden and Stenwold’s other adopted daughter, Salme Dien, a Prince of the Dragonfly-kinden who’s perpetually amused and Totho, a squat Beatle-kinden and apprentice-artificer. They’re all friends, and weirdly in some kind of gladiatorial squad.
I can only speak for my own experience, but it felt like a pretty brutal way into the story. Had I missed something? No, but it was definitely his way of saying: ‘You’re in it now, best finish it so you understand it properly.’
Our cast of characters
This brings me round to my first issue. Whether by accident or not, there are some gaps here. Tchaikovsky does a good job with his supporting cast, in particular with Salma, Tynisa and Thalric, who all undergo real development as characters and feel like they’ve grown past their starting limits. I could write a lot about each of their journey’s but I’ve pledged to keep this spoiler free.
Thalric is a highlight. He’s a good, 3-dimensional, interesting antagonist with more on his mind than hunting and destroying our heroes. He has some nuances and there’s more to him than just being a plot obstacle.
My issue here is with his main characters. Stenwold seems to be stuck in a self-destructive cycle of nostalgia and regret, going through the same motions again and again from the start until the end. I feel like every time he makes a revelation to move past this, something else conspires to start him off again and I don’t really know why.
Che is passive and boring until about halfway through. She’s positioned as the central character and we see a lot of the story through her eyes. But it’s story that’s happening to her, rather than her being an active participant in. She’s characterised by her lack of ability and a self-deprecating voice with a sister-complex. She develops as the book goes on, in that she becomes a love-interest for two of the male characters and gets a bit more confident, but it’s not particularly satisfying growth when she goes through everything she does. There’s a lot of scenes where she shares the stage with Thalric and maybe that’s why she comes off as so underwhelming, because he shines so much brighter?
Or maybe it’s a problem with this book being the start of a much longer series. That I’m expecting too much development for Che in the opening title, that maybe it’s important Stenwold is a man stuck in his ways. I’m not sure. It jarred me, and it’s definitely one reason why I can’t give it more than 3 stars.
The world they live in
My experience with fantasy is that every good fantasy has a good setting. In A Song of Ice and Fire you get Westeros and the Known World, in the Old Kingdom trilogy you get Ancelstierre, Dragonlance has Krynn, Lewis has Naria, Tolkien Middle Earth, the list goes on.
But the one thing I’d say about Empire is that the cities are interesting, the world between isn’t.
Now, if this was something Tchaikovsky was trying to achieve then he’s succeeded. But I’m not sure. And the more I think about it, the more I’m not fully convinced by the cities we visit.
Helleron is an industrialised splurge and centre of industry somewhere west of Collegium. It’s interesting, with it’s different districts, gangs and sheer scale. By comparison, Collegium feels like every fantasy university town, a little indistinct apart from the institution it surrounds. I wrote in my notes – ‘isn’t this just his version of [George R. R. Martin’s] Oldtown?’ (And even Oldtown just feels like Isengard with people in it).
Like any self-respecting fantasy, you get your haunted forest, Fangorn-analogue and dangerous inhabitants in Darakyon Forest.
And, like I was saying before, there’s the featureless plains between the faraway cities, the Dryclaw Desert (ugh), the Great Barrier Ridge, Spiderlands and Tharn in the mountains. The landscape in the Lowlands is so boring, so featureless, we literally fly over it at one point.
The way forward
You know, all of these issues can be rectified. There was nothing in it that made me frustrated and I remember clearly feeling excited to pick it up again every night. So I know that I’ll be picking up the sequels eventually, just maybe not immediately after.
So, the verdict?
Solid 3 out of 5. I’d recommend it, I’d pick up the next one, but there were a few things that let it down. All in all, a good read and a great way to start the year.
Next up? Dan Abnett’s Ravenor (2005).
Acknowledgements:
With thanks of course to Adrian Tchaikovsky for another great read.
You can follow him on Twitter at @aptshadow.
And if this has convinced you to try something new, or if you want to see if you agree with my verdict, pick up Empire on Amazon.co.uk and see how it fits for you.
DRYSTONE. 