A review by leelah
Dragonfly Falling by Adrian Tchaikovsky
3.0
3,5 stars
I have this feeling I just gobbled through ungodly amount of text and bunch of action scenes, but I can sum it up in one sentence:
And that's it- if first book was setting the world and introducing the characters, this one was all about progressing the plot.
Empire changed their strategy of fake diplomacy and trying to take Lowlands on surprise all at once and reverted to their well known and trained way of conquering city by city. First stop, Ant-Kinden city Tark.
With this book it became clear to me what's one of Thaikovsky's strongest point: he writes detailed, strategically imagined and logically played out battle scenes. It's one of reasons I am itching to try his stand alone book, [b:Guns of the Dawn|23524779|Guns of the Dawn|Adrian Tchaikovsky|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1421364877s/23524779.jpg|43127821]. It's amazing, especially because his insect-world idea plays right into his hand: we have walking Kinden as infantry and flying Kinden are acting as aerial force. For example, my favorite part are Ants because they have hive mind thing going on and it really makes an interesting fight. :)
It's also where difference between Apt and Inapt Kinden becomes crucible...maybe even so much, it becomes the difference between losing and winning the war.
Following events from book #1, empire upped their game directly attacking Tark, but the fight start looking little more complex since politics and ancient grudges some cities have against their neighbors are used to form alliances. Lowlands were always divided and it's something Stenwold mentioned as their downfall even at the end of first book.
Shaping the story towards full-on war had a bit of setback on characters: no significant character development, and I was hoped it will be some, since first book didn't make me really invested in any of them. It made me ask myself what was the point of introducing Stenwold as spymaster with his young spies when none of them is..well, spying? This especially goes for Totho whom author made go on some misplaced guilt-trip and I didn't really like what he did with him. Let's hope we'll see them using skills they learned in Collegium in future books.
All in all- I don't think author stepped up with book #2, but he didn't make it worse either.
I have this feeling I just gobbled through ungodly amount of text and bunch of action scenes, but I can sum it up in one sentence:
Lowlands are in war with Wasps.
And that's it- if first book was setting the world and introducing the characters, this one was all about progressing the plot.
Empire changed their strategy of fake diplomacy and trying to take Lowlands on surprise all at once and reverted to their well known and trained way of conquering city by city. First stop, Ant-Kinden city Tark.
With this book it became clear to me what's one of Thaikovsky's strongest point: he writes detailed, strategically imagined and logically played out battle scenes. It's one of reasons I am itching to try his stand alone book, [b:Guns of the Dawn|23524779|Guns of the Dawn|Adrian Tchaikovsky|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1421364877s/23524779.jpg|43127821]. It's amazing, especially because his insect-world idea plays right into his hand: we have walking Kinden as infantry and flying Kinden are acting as aerial force. For example, my favorite part are Ants because they have hive mind thing going on and it really makes an interesting fight. :)
It's also where difference between Apt and Inapt Kinden becomes crucible...maybe even so much, it becomes the difference between losing and winning the war.
Following events from book #1, empire upped their game directly attacking Tark, but the fight start looking little more complex since politics and ancient grudges some cities have against their neighbors are used to form alliances. Lowlands were always divided and it's something Stenwold mentioned as their downfall even at the end of first book.
Shaping the story towards full-on war had a bit of setback on characters: no significant character development, and I was hoped it will be some, since first book didn't make me really invested in any of them. It made me ask myself what was the point of introducing Stenwold as spymaster with his young spies when none of them is..well, spying? This especially goes for Totho whom author made go on some misplaced guilt-trip and I didn't really like what he did with him. Let's hope we'll see them using skills they learned in Collegium in future books.
All in all- I don't think author stepped up with book #2, but he didn't make it worse either.