This one caught my eye recently. Empire in Black and Gold is the debut novel from Adrian Tchaikovsky, due to be released by Tor on 4 July 2008. Here's the blurb:
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.
It's not the best-written blurb in the world, and the cover is pretty crap. The world sounds interesting though, with the insect aspect and the steampunk trappings. Not your standard, run-of-the-mill fantasy. For that reason alone, it's probably worth keeping an eye on.
Adrian Tchaikovsky runs an entertaining livejournal, which you can find here.
1 comment:
Seems like a good debut. I read the first chapter on his site and some of the histories he put up and was quite impressed. Will definitely be keeping an eye out for it.
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