New Year, New Beginnings : Shadows of the Apt

New Year, New Beginnings

I confidently expect the final proofs of War Master's Gate to land on my doorstep any day now, which is always the most rushed and least fun part of the whole publishing circus. However, that will be my last farewell to the book until it hits shelves in August this year. It should be a good one: it brings together the more mystical goings-on of Heirs of the Blade with the epic conflict of The Air War, so something for everyone I hope.

As noted, I'm somewhat ahead, so Seal of the Worm has been completed and submitted, and the standalone scheduled to come after that, my pseudo-Napoleonic fantasy currently entitled Guns of the Dawn, is also done. However, after a few months pottering about on private projects, I'm now turning my attention to the Next Big Thing. After Guns of the Dawn the next series starts, and I've now finished a considerable amount of world-building and cultural design in order to get the first words down. It's a big thing — although there have been other things in between this feels like the first big step for me after finishing Shadows of the Apt. Let's see how it goes.

Posted by Adrian Tchaikovsky on January 4th, 2013

Posted in Blog, Home

Tags: writing

9 Comments

9 comments to “New Year, New Beginnings”

Ferg, January 4th, 2013 at 1:40 pm:

Happy New Year! And good news on the completion of the books. Looking forward to August and the release of War Master's Gate!

Is the Next Big Thing a 10 book epic too? 🙂
innokenti, January 4th, 2013 at 3:22 pm:

Just cracked open The Air War and really enjoying the opening! Hope to have a slot in my reading open around August but I have such a big backlog to deal with… (which is why I've had Air War since release and only just getting to it!)

Glad there will be a steady stream of Adrian fiction to consume for many years to come.
Chris, January 7th, 2013 at 10:04 pm:

Happy New Year! I'd just to single out this:

"It should be a good one: it brings together the more mystical goings-on of Heirs of the Blade with the epic conflict of The Air War, so something for everyone I hope."

And say

Hallelujah!

I did like the Air War quite a bit, but I'll not deny that I missed Che, Thalric and Tynisa sorely (as a side note, do you consider Che or Stenwold to be the true protagonist of the series, because I've always thought it was Che and I'd like to know if I'm right) especially with the way Heirs to the Blade ended. Looking forward to August.

Good luck in the secret project.
Adrian Tchaikovsky, January 8th, 2013 at 12:46 am:

It's a tough call — Che and Stenwold sort of split the honours, but it's quite an ensemble cast. I think from Scarab onwards Che's relative importance to the story increases, certainly.
innokenti, January 8th, 2013 at 7:26 pm:

Just finished Air War!

I must admit I did not enjoy it as much as Heirs of the Blade or its storyline predecessor Sea Watch (which I think in retrospect is my favourite). It is almost certainly my own relatively lack of interest in the aviation stuff, but I felt that the plot was also plodding along to an inevitable conclusion of where the story would need to be for the last two books to build into the crescendo (or whatever you have planned for us…)

On the other hand there were so many great elements here — Stenwold's continued development, bits of Empire politics, the new Foursome and so forth. Very much looking forward to War Master's Gate and what that brings us!
Archanger, January 12th, 2013 at 9:41 am:

I'm currently finishing "The Scarab Path", and I have to say, that, while I liked the first 4‑book story arc (the 1^st Lowlands War, if I might say :)) I absolutely LOVED the fifth book (it's good everything in good percentage and order.The mystery about the city and its past,the heroic struggle during the siege, the reluctant but deep romance between Che and Thalric, and the whole "Lawrence of Arabia" theme with Hrathen).
So-although it's definitely good to know that I can still look forward to 5 more books to read in the SOTA series- it feels sad to know that we'll have to say farewell to all those great characters at some point- unless the next series focuses on the SOTA world too.
So, a question, if I may: will the new series be something completely new, or is it going to be related to the SOTA world somehow?
thanks!

p.s: Guns of the Dawn sounds mightily interesting!
Adrian Tchaikovsky, January 12th, 2013 at 12:42 pm:

The new series starts in a very different setting to Shadows of the Apt.
David Quinton, January 12th, 2013 at 2:37 pm:

Hi Adrian, I have just started reading the Shadows of the Apt series. My, oh my. I can hardly put it down. It's stunning, action-packed and grabs you by throat. I am reading mine on the Kindle. Thank you, you have have a new convert. Long rule the Mantis!
Arfon, February 3rd, 2013 at 7:41 pm:

Been a huge fan for a while, loving the series, most definitely one of my favourites. Please tell me the books aren't going to get bigger though. I've got a nice row of 6, then it get's bigger and deeper, and book 8 was huge, it barely fits on the same shelf. If book 9's any bigger, I'll need a new bookcase just for these books.

Shadows of the Apt