Empire in Black and Gold

Shadows of the Apt, Book 1

By: Adrian Tchaikovsky

Narrated by: Ben Allen

The days of peace are over.

Empire in Black and Gold is the first instalment in the critically-acclaimed epic fantasy series Shadows of the Apt by Adrian Tchaikovsky. It is a world populated by kinden – species of human that have taken on the characteristics of animals, from spiders and ants to scorpions . . .

‘Brimming with imagination’ – SciFiNow

In the Lowlands, the city states have lived in peace for decades – hailed as bastions of civilization. Yet that peace is about to end. A distant empire has been conquering neighbours with highly trained soldiers and sophisticated combat techniques. And the city states are its desirable new prize.

As the empire's armies march ever closer, only the ageing Stenwold Maker – spymaster, artificer and statesman – foresees the threat. And so it falls upon his shoulders to open the eyes of the cities’ leaders. He sees that war will sweep through their lands, destroying everything in its path.

But to warn his people, he must stay alive.

Empire in Black and Gold is followed by the second book in the Shadows of the Apt series, Dragonfly Falling.

The entire series is narrated by Ben Allen (Alien Clay). Listeners love the series in audio:

‘Fantastic narration that really got you to imagine this amazing world’

‘You get consumed into the world and its characters’

‘The characters are distinct with masterful accents’

‘The narration and sound design is jaw-dropping’

‘Ben Allen's narration was frankly phenomenal all the way through’

Critic reviews

Brimming with imagination (SciFiNow)

The Shadows of the Apt series is simply one of the best epic fantasy series out there (LEC Book Reviews)

Super worldbuilding, great characters and extreme inventiveness (Fantasy Book Critic)

Epic fantasy at its best. Gripping, original and multi-layered storytelling from a writer bursting with lots of fascinating ideas (Walker of Worlds)

Full of sparking, speculative innovation (Stephen Baxter, author of the Xeelee Sequence, on The Doors of Eden)

Breathtaking scope and vision. Adrian Tchaikovsky is one of our finest writers (Gareth Powell, author of Embers of War, on Children of Ruin)

A joy from start to finish. Entertaining, smart, surprising and unexpectedly human (Patrick Ness, author of The Knife of Never Letting Go, on Children of Time)

Master Storyteller

Tchaikovsky is a master storyteller and wordsmith. Ben Allen’s narration is superb. Black and Gold is on par with the very best of the best of science fiction/fantasy novels.

Pleasantly different

This is very different from the usual space odyssey books I’ve listened to from this author. This branching off is a little different and leans towards a fantasy genre so being a TOR book makes sense. It’s completely different than any world I’ve ever experienced and the author doesn’t waste exposition, instead, leaving it to the reader/listener to give attention. This mechanic assumes the reader has brain cells to use and I think I actually love the book for that. The performance is extremely bland and unenthusiastic making the start very hard but once the story gets started it’s much better. I do like this writers style and I can’t not finish this story but listeners should be aware that the pace of this story and the style is massively different from the usual fantasy story with a very small touch of steampunk style.

Decent, original fantasy

I can't put my finger on exactly what I didn't like about this book, but I found it a bit of a slog to listen to. It wasn't boring or slow, but I just never found myself eager to resume listening. None of the individual character narratives drew me in.

good book

i had my reservations in the beginning. I wasn't enthusiastic about the insect kinden concept but i came to find it captivating. the writting style storyline, and performance are excellent an easy journey to get list in. Any student of history/anthropology will recognize parallels to reality in the story, which I personally like in that it makes even a hugely fantastical world seem very believable. there's a couple of plot holes (mild spoiler) how could a mechanically inapt spider no matter how talented at acting impersonate a hugely talented engineer in a community of engineers without anyone noticing his sudden inability to do basic engineering or operate the simplest machines? but by in large the complex plot is well thought through and delivered

Novel tale with unfortunate pitfalls

Overall a new take, unfortunate that Che is a naive idiot as a perspective we hear much of. Cheerwell is one of the dumbest bumbling protagonists I've ever had the misfortune of listening to.