Shadows of the Apt

Language tends to get one of two treatments in fantasy — either it's never looked at, everyone speaks English and it's all fine, or Tolkien. Mr T being a professor of Anglo-Saxon, I think, he went to town on the languages in a big way. Indeed I believe I read that the languages came first, the history second, the actual fiction […]

(Beware, this list takes the cast up to the end of Salute the Dark. There may be spoilers)

Aagen — Wasp artificer
ACHAEOS — Moth seer and raider, lover of Cheerwell Maker
Adax — Tarkesh Ant, duellist at the College
Adran — Wasp soldier, member of the Broken Sword
Adraxa — Ant, one of Scuto's agents in Helleron
Akalia — Vekken […]

There are small city-states of Bee-kinden in surprisingly many places. They are a quiet, industrious people who do their best not to trouble their neighbours. Bees work tirelessly for Spider overlords in the south, and cling to the inhospitable western coast. Most of all, however, Bee-kinden are slaves of the Empire. They are an Apt people, […]

To coincide with the publication of Dragonfly Falling I recently interviewed Adrian about the world behind the Shadows of the Apt and what readers might expect from the new book.
So, without further ado, you can listen to the podcast in its various forms on the Pan Macmillan podcast page.
Alternatively you can download it. Enjoy!

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Scorpion-kinden live lives of violence, greed and savage joy. Raiders, traders, slave-takers and mercenaries, they can be found making a brutal living across the Empire, the Spiderlands and the eastern Lowlands. Clawed and belligerent, they respect only strength. For the old, the weak, the infirm of purpose, there is only death or flight. So it is […]

Literacy in Collegium is close to one hundred percent. Indeed, literacy across the Lowlands is extremely high. Collegium's academic credentials have a lot to do with this. The College and the Assembly ensure that a basic education is available for all, and charitable institutions such as the Way Brothers provide schools in Helleron and other cities. However […]

The Moth-kinden were once the dark masters of the Lowlands, holding the lesser races as their slaves. Then the revolution came and their power was broken by the new weapons and machines that their former subjects devised, and that they could not understand. Now, centuries later, they plot and argue in their mountain fastnesses, clinging […]

Industrious and adaptable, the Beetle-kinden are the Lowlands’ great innovators, forever labouring to improve their lot. Merchants and artisans, scholars and artificers, their tireless drive for progress has driven forward the boundaries of technology and trade through an interplay of philanthropy and ruthless self-interest. Beetles truly embody the best and worst of the post-revolution world, […]

 You'll find the latest piece of art by David here
A relic of the dark ages before the revolution, Mantis-kinden were once the great fighting power in the world. Even though their time has passed and they field no armies and seldom take an interest in the world, they remain unequalled killers, swift and deadly beyond […]

Another of David's pieces, this time his take on the ubiquitous Fly-kinden.

Diminutive Fly-kinden live everywhere in the Lowlands and beyond. Clannish and pragmatic, and unrivalled in the air, they form a thriving underclass wherever they go: cheap labour for the Beetles, servants for the Spiders, military scouts for the Wasps. Fly-kinden are the world’s great opportunists. […]