Shadows of the Apt

As most of the recent stories have been, this is another sequel. In this case it's the sequel to The Sun of the Morning, and unlike Rooftop Lovers or The Price of Salt it follows very closely on. The explots of Captain Mornen and his company are intended to form something almost like a novella (and […]

This is the story that appeared in Deathray a few months back, which they're happy for me to repost on here by now. I'm planning this to be the first in a sequence, but we'll see how that goes. There is a somewhat peculiar genesis for this particular story that centres on a live role-playing group that I and some friends […]

I'm delighted to bring you a new piece of fiction, set in the post-war Commonweal and focusing on Roach-kinden, amongst others, by new writer Grahame Jones. The story is here. Grahame writes, of himself: " Well, what can I say about me? Just the usual sort of fluff. In 1792 I was washed up on the shore of […]

Another perspective on the Twelve-year War, starring the Roach-kinden Sfayot. This story has two influences: Conrad's Heart of Darkness (and Apocalypse Now that followed it) and the track "Mercutio's Death" from the 2^nd soundtrack volume (i.e. the primarily score volume rather than the song album) to Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet, which only goes to show how […]

  The latest Shadows of the Apt short story is to be found here. A lot of this batch of stories are, as you may have noticed, taking place specifically up in the Commonweal during the Twelve-years War with the Empire, a conflict over before Empire in Black and Gold starts, and taking place in lands […]

To complement David's Spider-kinden artwork, here's the promised spidery story. Download the story on PDF here

Download Ironclads, a new short story set in the Shadows of the Apt universe. (Click through for download) ironclads-by-adrian-tchaikovsky

  Art by David Mumford The great and insular Dragonfly Commonweal, the Lowlands’ northern neighbour, has been declining for centuries, unable to sustain order and peace across its many principalities. A state already tottering has been left in ruins after a twelve-year campaign by the Wasp Empire. With thousands dead in battle and thousands more enslaved, still […]

Warfare amongst the Kinden changed irrevocably after the Apt revolution, and continues to change with each artificer's refinements. In the Lowlands the main model for an army is that of the Ant-kinden, who hold themselves supreme in the field of mass combat ;(1). The other major Apt model is that of the Wasp Empire's many […]

So we have the Lowlands, not a political unity but a geographical area containing four feuding Ant city-states and a couple of Beetle cities, not to mention the detritus left over from the Days of Lore, Moth-kinden and Mantis-kinden clinging on in forests and on mountaintops.   The Lowlands is sandwiched between two traditional neighbours, and a third has […]