Empire in Black and Gold

This book left me wondering what happened to Tchaikovsky in years after he wrote it.

I've read Children of Time trilogy and Dogs of War. None of these books had as rich and developed characters as Empire in Black and Gold. It's not even close. It's also a shame that he got famous only after CoT was released when this book is better than Time (not Ruin though which I loved).

I saw many people mention that this series is underrated - it is. There are flaws to which I will get but all in all this is excellent action packed novel set in a rich weird and original world with dozens of different races. Yet it's never a headache to keep track of stuff. Tchaikovsky does masterful work in exploring it and pumping the information in small bursts so that it's not overwhelming.

First few pages were slow and I was wondering if it is even for me (I'm not a fan of insect, kill it all except bees and maybe ants I say) but after first few chapters the story moves forward in rapid pace and what seems dull turns into Indiana Jones spy action flick with crazy runaways and colorful characters. I was also surprised to find out that this is not medieval fantasy but a steampunk one. They have airships, planes and walking(!) automobiles.

Long time ago people of this world made a pact with insects and other beasts and gained their features. Wasp, fly, moth, butterfly-kinden can fly, spider-kinden are born for politics and spying, beetle-kinden are heavier but more sturdy, mantis and ant-kinden make great soldiers, etc. Essentially they gained the stereotypical abilities you would easily think of. Some of these races (kinden) are apt, some are inapt. Apt people like ants or beetles are good with technology, inapt are not good with it at all. I'm talking your 90yo grandma trying to operate computer level. It's actually ridiculous that spider is not able to shoot a crossbow when shown how to. I think this is borderline immersion breaking because of how far Tchaikovsky took it but at the same time he manages to stay clear of these issues for most of the book. Inapt people like magic, though for the apt ones it's just superstition.

While I praised the characters at the beginning, the villain didn't work. He's suppose to be conflicted about the stuff he does “for the empire” but comes off like a joke towards the end because you already know that he won't do anything drastic like killing a character. He didn't even torture one of the main characters when he had several chances to do so and gain information. I already feel like he's going to turn against the imperial regime and take it down, again “for the empire”, or something like that.

This is Tchaikovsky's first novel so it's understandable that there was inconsistent stuff like that but I hope it improves as the series goes on because I really like what I'm seeing so far. I also think at least 150 pages could've been cut down because the rescue subplot in the middle of the book took too long, it was half of this book. While pacing was still fast I was just wishing it to be over, especially after the villain turned out to be so weak. This is the reason it's 4 and not 5 stars. The other half of the book was great.