Empire in Black and Gold
core novel 2008 Shadows of the Apt
Record
| First published | 2008 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.78 (13,952 ratings, collected 2026-08-30) |
| Page count | 612 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9781616141929 |
| Internal chronology | 1 |
Synopsis
This opening volume of Shadows of the Apt is set in a world inhabited by kinden, human peoples who have each taken on the traits of a particular insect or other creature. For decades the independent city-states of the Lowlands have enjoyed a long peace, their societies built on trade, learning, and rivalry rather than conquest. That peace is ending: a distant, expansionist power known as the Wasp Empire has been steadily absorbing neighboring territories through superior military organization and technology, and the Lowlands are its next intended target. Among the city-states' leaders, only the aging spymaster, artificer, and statesman Stenwold Maker fully grasps the scale of the coming danger, and he takes on the difficult task of convincing his complacent peers to prepare for a war that could destroy everything they have built, all while trying to ensure his own survival long enough to be believed.
Where it sits
- Universe: Shadows of the Apt
- Series: Shadows of the Apt core; position 1 of 10 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
Notes
- From the series record (Shadows of the Apt): The complete ten-book Shadows of the Apt sequence.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.
- Reading order, within the series Shadows of the Apt: position 1 of 10: next Dragonfly Falling (2009)
Sources
- Shadows of the Apt - Wikipedia
- https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/adrian-tchaikovsky/empire-in-black-and-gold/9781529050264
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