Seal of the Worm

A fitting finale.Considering the book on its own first, it brought all the skills that have been developed throughout the series: pace, character, motivation, and development. The author's ability to operate on multiple threads whilst maintaining energy and commitment to character and plot has always been impressive and I thoroughly enjoyed being carried through this ultimate outing.; as a standalone tale, I felt thoroughly satisfied with the journey it offered me. Many finales, both of multi-book series and of standalones, have often left me disappointed, for endings seem to be the most difficult to write: the requirement to tie up a tale and provide a satisfactory emotional decoupling from characters and causes that a successful author has caused to be created lays a heavy responsibility often dropped. In Seal of the Worm, I felt as if the author had provided both comforting ending and the possibility of a new beginning, so I thank him for that duty of care well completed.So my ten book journey with Stenwold Maker is over, a journey through a unique and well considered land and history. I have thoroughly enjoyed the series and the craft, intelligence, and care that was taken with its implementation. My only issue is a personal one, of structural focus, in that whilst I enjoyed all of the books in isolation, books 5-7 pulled away from the bigger picture, creating a feeling of disconnection with the overall journey, and leaving me with a feeling that the final book, whilst excellent, represented a rushing to completion. Given the power of the Worm and its effect upon history, I would have expected its discovery and development phase to have started in book 6 or 7 and build from there; to me, it feels squashed into the final tale, in a similar way to how the Game of Thrones final series totally blew the weight of the canon by dispelling the hugely powerful and feared White Walkers in the first few episodes whilst focusing the rest of the series upon the human conflict, rather than sorting out the human conflict and then uniting to fight the more powerful threat.Thoroughly recommended though. I shall miss many of the fictional friends I made and will always wonder just what has been going on since in that amazing world.Fleecy Moss, author of the Folio 55 SciFi fantasy series (writing as Nia Sinjorina), End of a Girl, Undon , and 4659 now available on Amazon.

I only discovered this series early this year(2020), though I had already read some of Adrian's other work. Shadows of the Apt is one of the best fantasy series I have ever come across. His characters are all well-crafted, even the "baddies", and it was easy to empathise with them, even if I did have trouble visualisng a lot of them. Every volume in the series made me want the next one, and I even bought a Kindle after I'd bought the first four or five in paperback. Due to the relatively high cost of the paperbacks( after volume 1), the Kindle has about paid for itself, asa well as allowing me to get the books as and when I wanted them.I'm not going to go into the plot, it would take too long to describe, but anyone who likes a good mixture of magic, heroics, and some technology thrown in should thoroughly enjoy this epic adventure. Totally recommend it.

Shadows of the Apt has been one of my favourite series for a while now, since taking a punt on the first instalment back in 2010. One thing I really like about Shadows is the speed at which the books have become available. The entire series of 10 books was released between 2008 and 2014 – that averages out at a pretty staggering 1100 pages per year and at no point does the writing suffer from this prolificness.Seal of the Worm manages to pull off some really vivid imagery in what is largely a lightless world, with a good portion of the book being set deep inside the earth. While one band of our main characters is starting a revolution in the underworld, we have another group fighting to retake the city of Collegium from the hands of the Wasp Empire.Those reading Seal of the Worm should be comfortably at home with the concept of the series, this being the tenth and final volume. Other than just for the sheer enjoyment factor though, it’s recommended to have finished the previous volumes first, especially as this instalment is a direct follow up to the events at the end of War Master’s Gate.The Empress Seda has broken the Seal of the Worm and sent Cheerwell Maker and her companions deep into the world of the ancient kinden we began to see during the battles with Argastos in book 9. As the magic holding back the Worm fails, Che and Seda have very different views on how to save their world from the mindless hordes of Worm warriors that begin to break free to wreak havoc in the Lowlands and beyond.The book is written with a real purpose, it’s fast paced and manages to tie up loose ends almost without you realising that’s what’s happening, so engrossing is the tale. There’s a good sense of closure in terms of certain character arcs, while the book doesn’t shut down all avenues of continuation, with other character arcs clearly leaving the option open for new adventures.Continuing a theme noticed in previous novels in the series, Tchaikovsky manages to introduce new Kinden even in this last volume, as well as giving us new characters from Kinden we have only had a little interaction with before.In total there are around 30 different species of insect-Kinden introduced throughout the ten book series, not including half-breeds of course. From around 10 in the first book, our knowledge of the different Kinden expands as we see different parts of the world, and there’s a real feeling that there’s a lot more potential for adventures in this world. Certainly there are some characters here I wouldn’t mind hearing more from, with the likes of Thalric and Che from the outset, and Straessa and Eujen from the latter books piquing my interest. Unfortunately some of my other favourites have passed along the way, but now the main series is finished there’s always the option of revisiting some earlier experiences featuring these as well.

This is the tenth and final book in the ten-book series, Shadows of the Apt. The series started with the first book being published in 2008, and the author has been publishing the astonishingly accomplished further books in the series since.When I started reading the series, I had no idea it was going to be a whole ten books. If I had known, maybe I would have thought twice about starting. But I’m glad that wasn’t the case, because if I hadn’t starting reading the series, I would have missed out on one heck of a reading experience. These books are absolutely mind-blowing fantasy novels. I cannot think of any other series, or book that I have ever read that you could truly compare these to. The world-building, the characters and their development, the situations, the whole cultural, political, societal aspects of these books are utterly unique.At the end of the ninth book (War-Master’s Gate) the world had changed. The Seal of the Worm had been shattered, and what emerged was something nobody could ever have envisaged having to face. Che and Seda have faced up to the powers that they both carry, and the result has been potentially catastrophic. And with Collegium and the other powers still falling to the Wasp Empire’s military might, what hope can there be for the world at all?This was an absolutely stunning read. I found myself desperate to know what happened, not only to the world as a whole, but to so many of the individual characters who have been introduced throughout the series, and whose lives we can now take so personally. I found, too, that you didn’t want one side or the other to win. Both sides had people who deserved to live, whose lives had been lived morally and ethically and for whom I felt a lot of empathy – Tynan, for example.It’s a sad, bittersweet book, which ties up many of the threads of the world and its peoples, but which leaves opportunities for futures for so many. Many have been lost in the struggles that we have read about over these ten books, but many were redeemed. I had been really worrying about the ultimate fate of many of the characters, and how the ‘truths’ of their lives could be honoured, and I really felt that the conclusions were fitting – one could almost say (pun intended) apt.

Reading is an intensely personal endeavour, what I like you may not and Vice Versa. For me, the Shadows of the Apt decology is up there, top shelf one of the very best stories I have ever read. I can see myself reading this again in a year or so- I loved it.Quite how he does it, escapes me but, Adrian Tchaikovsky has one of the most interesting imaginations of our times and his tales are up their with all the greats.