Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion

This is a Buddy Read for Heirs of the Blade by Adrian Tchaikovsky starting on August 16, 2025.


Happy Reading!

Thank you!

Arc 1:
1. Empire in Black and Gold (Jun 14) [link]
2. Dragonfly Falling (Aug 4) [link]
3. Blood of the Mantis (Jan 16) [link]
4. Salute the Dark (Mar 16) [link]

Arc 2:
5. The Scarab Path (June 16) [link]
6. The Sea Watch (Jul 16) [link]
7. Heirs of the Blade (Aug 16)

Arc 3:
8. The Air War (Sept 16) [link]
9. War Master's Gate (Oct 16) [link}
10. [book:Seal of the Worm|20491017] (Nov 16) [link]

Tales of the Apt--seeing most folks recommending reading these in publication order, after finishing the series, even though some stories take place during. If interested, we could continue:
1. Spoils of War TBD
2. A Time for Grief TBD
3. For Love of Distant Shores TBD
4. The Scent of Tears TBD

Availability?

Been reading this all morning... seems to be mostly a Che + Empress Seda book && Che + Tynisa book...

I'm definitely curious to see where Che + Seda go in the rest of the series, but Tynisa feels like a different character from book 1-4...

Hoping to poke my toes in this weekend... Half a War is moving pretty fast, so I should be here soon...

Especially curious re: your note on Tynisa. I've seen some hints of what she's dealing with, and am curious to see how she's changing...

This was probably my least favorite entry, which seems to be a common thing among fans/readers... Sad coming off one of my faves Sea Watch... Sets up finale trilogy tho

I am also curious about Tynisa but she hasn't been a favorite of mine, maybe that could change now. Thalric also appears right? I miss him and Che

He's here, but I wouldn't say he does much... Mostly takes care of Che as weird InApt stuff happens

Read this last week. I did audio for the first time instead of eye, and enjoyed it. I can see what Iain says about Tynisa being different... her grief pushes her all the way to the edge, (view spoiler)[and the Dragonflies were rather dickish about taking advantage of that. I was glad when Salma's brother ended up dead. He reaped, he sowed. Trying to manipulate Tynisa like that... I feel like it was her mantis heritage that saved her there...

And Thalric did definitely take a back seat to Che here... kinda sad, other than a few scenes of them waking up in bed together, there was almost zero romance. I guess now that they're a couple Tchaikovsky feels like he's checked that box and doesn't need to continue the romance plotline? He needs to work on that. But Che--being set up in competition to the empress, and inheriting something from the Masters of Kanaphes... Magic forming a Deus Ex Machina here too... but Che being around more people who understand...

I liked the side characters, like Gegevy with the Empress, and the raggedy band Che & Thalric run into. (hide spoiler)]

Started! Until part one, and its been slow so far (view spoiler)[ That prince Salma sounds awful too (hide spoiler)]

Seriously!! What a jerk!

Until parte 2 (view spoiler)[ I like how the Seda parts are like Che's dreams. And that they are the heirs of the master and are going to be rivals. Interesting dynamic for the last three books.

But I glossed over the engineer corps stuff. All that and we don't even know what type of aviator are they or the new models.

Also Totho backing the Empire is so disappointing (hide spoiler)]

Real WW1/WW2 vibes with the move to better aircraft/weaponry that moves away from infantry combat to mass devastation...

I feel you re: Totho...

Good point about WW1/2

Hm... Now I'm wondering if these books might be categorizable as Dieselpunk... inter-war period technology and rebelliousness... though I think Sea Watch could be Hydropunk...

All the punks. Maybe after the war they will be solarpunk

I definitely think this series is approaching dieselpunk with the tech... The only dieselpunk I've read was 1930s America with Tommy Guns and more gas fueled tech than steam tech... Hard Magic by Larry Correia

Solarpunk future would be pretty awesome, lol.

It seems like they might be close to getting to dieselpunk... I feel like we should have gunpowder weapons instead of cranked bows, but the trains and flying machines, more weapons of war... seem in the neighborhood...

bugpunk.

A new punk 😂

Inspired by Adrian Tchaikovsky!