AUTHOR : Adrian Tchaikovsky 

PUBLISHER : Tor

PUBLISHED : 6 February 2009

PAPERBACK : 688 pages

SUMMARY : Two young companions, Totho and Salma, arrive at Tark to spy on the menacing Wasp army, but are there mistakenly apprehended as enemy agents. By the time they are freed, the city is already under siege. Over in the imperial capital the young emperor, Alvdan, is becoming captivated by a remarkable slave, the vampiric Uctebri, who claims he knows of magic that can grant eternal life. 

In Collegium, meanwhile, Stenwold is still trying to persuade the city magnates to take seriously the Wasp Empire's imminent threat to their survival. In a colorful drama involving mass warfare and personal combat, a small group of heroes must stand up against what seems like an unstoppable force.

MY THOUGHTS :

NON-SPOILER : For those who like to read a book review before reading the book to just get the idea of how it may be and not want too much information.

This story built on the plot of the last book, as it generally happens, but this one is of much more epic scale than the first book. Interesting character development arcs born of War as that is what this book is all about, the Wasp Empire marching on several fronts and the resistance of the besieged cities, which makes for an explosive read and not a single dull moment to be found. 

SPOILER : Now, the EMPIRE IN BLACK AND GOLD was a good introduction to the series, we learned about different kinden and City-States and the looming threat of The Wasp Empire over it all. 

Now, this is the book where the story really explodes and characters are thrown into the thick of it. Two consecutive Sieges happen in this book (that's right). The Seige of the Ant City State of TARK, where Salma, Totho, and the character of Skrill that we were introduced to at the end of the last book go to investigate the Wasps and observe the siege and are mistaken for enemy agents, captured and taken inside the city by the Tarkesh, and as they are freed the city is already under Seige. Salma and Totho are introduced to the hideous business of War, which has a tremendous effect on their characters. The Tarkesh surrender every inch of land coated with Wasp blood, but even the iron discipline of the Tarkesh crumbles under the Empire's boot. 

The author skillfully weaves a number a sub-plots that carry on the story of other characters amidst the explosive action. This story combines hard-edged action(a lot of it), with subtle intricacies of politics. The author perfectly balances the storylines which should be hard to follow amidst all the Chaos but is not. 

The second Seige, that is the Seige of Collegium sees to the piling of responsibility of it all on Stenwold Maker, the most informed of them all about all things Empire when the Ant City State of Vek attacks, goaded and supported by the Empire. So the Collegium is set upon by the Vekken with no hope of help from the long time ally of Collegium, the Ant City State of Sarn as the Empire marches on their city to cut them off from collegium. 

              The Vekken are a military kinden as all Ant City-States are and the Collegium with its scholars, artificers, magnates, and philosophers and no standing army to speak of except the local militia is ill-equipped to fend them off. With all the odds against them this should've been a decisive victory for the Vekken, but we see new heroes rise among the ranks of Collegium on the eve of war, we see their resourcefulness and their cunning intelligence as they employ their inventions and automotives that were never meant for war to give the Vekkens a run for their money, and as the Vekkens eventually break through the people stand in their way still, bringing down their own buildings on the invading Vekkens, as they couldn't defend it so the Vekkens would have nothing but the rubble of the city to rule upon, but fortunately, that's not the End on Collegium as the help comes from most unexpected of places, The Spiderlands. 

 Plenty of new faces are introduced, like DarianDrephos aka Drephos, auxillian-colonel in the Wasp army and master artificer who is also a halfbreed, outright creepy mad scientist type of character, but you can't help but be swayed by his arguments at times. The next character that is introduced is Uctebri the Sarcad, a mosquito-kinden who is of an old vampiric race. We get a little insight into the Wasp Emperor Alvdan. Lord marshal Teornis from Spiderlands is introduced who turns out to be quite an interesting character. A mysterious dragonfly character Felise Mienn (the kick-ass hooded figure on the cover of the book) is introduced with martial skills on par with even Tisamon. 

And for the once who complain that it was too much war and not much character building that was not war-related, to them I say, it's not like you did not see the war coming since the first book, obviously, the characters need to be exposed to the Grim reality of it in order to evolve and be able to face what's coming. 

I would recommend this book if you love unadulterated action, blood and gore, and political intrigue as much as me, which is a lot. 


CHARACTERS:

Recommendations for characters fan cast as I see them, just a suggestion if you are interested

1. QUEEN OF SARN

Priyanka Chopra. 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priyanka_Chopra

2. PAROPS (Tarkesh Ant Kinden) 

Derek Wilson. I know him from the TV series FutureMan and Preacher in which he plays Dennis I guess. 



3. PHALMES (Mynan soldier Beetle-kinden) 

Gentry White. He was in the second season of The Shannara Chronicles. 



4. DARIANDREPHOS AKA DREPHOS

Manu Bennett. He is a well-known actor. You may remember him from Spartacus or Arrow or The Shannara Chronicles. 



5. GAVED

Colin O'Donoghue. He played Captain Hook in Once upon a Time. 



Check out the first review for more suggestions.