Book Review: The Scarab Path

The war with the Wasp Empire has ended in a bitter stalemate, and Collegium has nothing to show for it but wounded veterans. Cheerwell Maker finds herself crippled in ways no doctor can mend, haunted by ghosts of the past that she cannot appease and seeking meaning in a city that no longer feels like home.

The Empress Seda is regaining control over those imperial cities that refused to bow the knee to her, but she draws her power from something more sinister than mere armies and war machines. Only her consort, the former spymaster Thalric, knows the truth, and now the assassins are coming and he finds his life and his loyalties under threat once again.

Out beyond the desert of the Nem the ancient city of Khanaphes awaits them both, with a terrible secret entombed beneath its stones.

Summary: The Scarab Path by Adrian Tchaikovsky is a great new start to the next arc of the Shadows of the Apt series. With a slightly narrowed focus, a couple of big mysteries, and who’d have guessed it, another siege, Tchaikovsky plays to his strengths and sets the stage to come without losing sight of a great experience.

Book Review: The Fall of Babel

Potential Spoilers Ahead: The Fall of Babel is the final book in The Books of Babel series. As such, the blurb for this book and the following review will inevitably have some level of spoilers for the previous book/s. I’ve tried to keep those spoilers to a minimum, but you have been warned.

As Marat’s siege engine bores through the Tower, erupting inside ringdoms and leaving chaos in its wake, Senlin can do nothing but observe the mayhem from inside the belly of the beast. Caught in a charade, Senlin desperately tries to sabotage the rampaging Hod King, even as Marat’s objective grows increasingly clear. The leader of the zealots is bound for the Sphinx’s lair and the unimaginable power it contains.

In the city under glass at the Tower’s summit, Adam discovers a utopia where everyone inexplicably knows the details of his past. As Adam unravels the mystery of his fame, he soon discovers the crowning ringdom conceals a much darker secret.

Aboard the State of Art, Edith and her crew adjust to the reality that Voleta has awoken from death changed. She seems to share more in common with the Red Hand now than her former self. While Edith wars for the soul of the young woman, a greater crisis looms: They will have to face Marat on unequal footing and with Senlin caught in the crossfire.

And when the Bridge of Babel is finally opened, and the Brick Layer’s true ambition revealed, neither they nor the Tower will ever be the same again.

Summary: The Fall of Babel by Josiah Bancroft is a triumphant end to a beloved series, answering mysteries, providing epic final confrontations, and reuniting characters for the final act.