Beyond Reality discussion

Have you finished reading Seal of the Worm by Adrian Tchaikovsky, book 10 in the Shadows of the Apt series? What did you think of it, and of the series as a whole?

Spoilers allowed and very likely here!

I finished this last night and I found the ending immensely satisfying! Sad to say goodbye to this world and these characters.

Highlights for me: meeting Orodullin, the rogue slug-kinden who gives his all after watching over the underworld for a thousand years. Totho's unknowing sacrifice that took the Worm with him. The sea-kinden surfacing to help re-take Collegium. General Tynan finally finding the strength to defy the Empress and her Red Guard. And of course, saying farewell to Stenwold and Tisamon as they find peace in whatever afterlife there is in this world.

I enjoyed the epilogues, tying up some of the loose ends of the various smaller subplots, like Maure's final fate.

Overall, the series lived up to the high expectations I have of Adrian Tchaikovsky. I didn't love every single volume - in general I get a little bored by military fiction, and there were a lot of battles - but I loved the characters and how they developed over the ten books. I just love the depth of world- and character-building that can be done over a long series, and I'm incredibly impressed that this was Tchaikovsky's debut.

I'm thoroughly satisfied and so glad we chose this one.

Wonderful finish to a great series. Tchiakovsky does a great job tying up all the storylines. The Worm was an interesting foe in that they have the power to blunt memory and magical power yet function largely as dumb beasts. I was satisfied with the fates of Seda, Stenwold, and Che.
The series has a huge world and many, many characters but I felt it had great pacing and balance between world building and character development. The world is imaginative and the characters very human.

10/10
It’s challenging to effectively wrap up a 10 book series, but Adrian Tchaikovsky does so in a very satisfying fashion in Seal of the Worm, book 10 in the Shadows of the Apt series. It’s not tied up with a fancy bow—there are untidy ends here and there, but that just makes it more realistic and fitting in a world as complex as this one, populated with so many kinden, both Apt and Inapt.

Strengths: Tchaikovsky does not shy away from death, both the multitudes who die in battles or other mass events and the individual deaths of major and secondary characters. Some are grubby deaths, some are noble, and some just are deaths. (view spoiler)[Totho’s sacrifice was redemptive, Stenwold Maker’s was bittersweet (I am glad he had his time with Paladrya before he returned to Collegium and then to battle), Seda’s was well-deserved IMO, and Tynisa’s was just sad. (hide spoiler)]

Over the span of 10 books, the author not only shows us the changes that come to the worlds of the Inapt (who struggle against them) and the Apt (who embrace and nurture them), but also the changes in ideas and style as leadership passes from one generation to the next.

The world-building is first-rate, and overall, the characters are fascinating, complex, utterly human as well as incredibly alien.

Weaknesses: I did find some of the secondary plot lines to be less interesting. One example—Milus’s (and Lazlo’s) obsession with Lissart, whose only significance as a character seemed to be as the object of obsession and, eventually, an agent of revenge.

The pacing was somewhat uneven, not just in this book, but across the series.

And having so many characters, so many plot lines, and such a wide world—it meant that the reader is pulled from one storyline to another, sometimes within the same chapter. I was occasionally jolted out of the story while I tried to remember what had been happening last time we were with these characters (and just who are they again?). Just about the time I would be settling in to that storyline, whoosh! off we went someplace else. I understand the necessity, especially at this point in the series, but it still made the overall story a bit choppy.

A lingering question—(view spoiler)[the centipede-kinden were banished because of their need/drive to destroy any kinden who were unlike themselves, or else somehow remake everyone else to be the same as themselves, to basically negate the other kinden. This seemed to be their nature before the great magic that established the Seal thousands of years ago, trapping them underground and eventually causing the creation of the mindless, all-devouring Worm-god. Yet, at the end, we see Messel as a representative of the Underworld Assembly. I understand that many other kinden were trapped underground when the Seal was created—are they the only survivors after the destructions of the Worm, or are there centipede-kinden as well? I know some of the Scarred Ones survived, but what of the others, and all the children? Weren’t some of them centipede-kinden? Has their long banishment changed their nature? (hide spoiler)]

I plan to read the short story collections and hope that they will provide a bit of insight.

Shel and Kathi, I appreciate your thoughts on each book and the series as a whole. Thank you for each of your insight!
This is my first long series so I wasn't sure how it would be handled. Tchaikovsky has a well developed world and great character depth.