Heirs of the Blade Audiobook By Adrian Tchaikovsky cover art

Heirs of the Blade

Shadows of the Apt, Book 7

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Heirs of the Blade

By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
Narrated by: Ben Allen
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The greatest foe is the enemy within . . .

Heirs of the Blade is the seventh book in the critically acclaimed epic fantasy series Shadows of the Apt by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

Tynisa is on the run, but she cannot escape the demons of her own mind. Amidst the fragmenting provinces of the Dragonfly Commonweal, her past will at last catch up with her. Her father's ghost is hunting her down.

At the same time, the Wasp Empire seeks to conquer the city of Khanaphes, the fallen jewel of the ancient world. Whilst Empress Seda's soldiers seek only conquest and prestige, she sees herself as the heir to all the old powers of history, and has her eyes on a far greater prize.

Heirs of the Blade is followed by the eighth book in the Shadows of the Apt series, The Air War.

©2021 Adrian Tchaikovsky (P)2021 Macmillan Publishers International Ltd Action & Adventure Contemporary Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Paranormal & Urban Haunted

Critic reviews

Full of sparking, speculative innovation (Stephen Baxter, author of the Xeelee Sequence, on The Doors of Eden)
Breathtaking scope and vision. Adrian Tchaikovsky is one of our finest writers (Gareth Powell, author of Embers of War, on Children of Ruin)
A joy from start to finish. Entertaining, smart, surprising and unexpectedly human (Patrick Ness, author of The Knife of Never Letting Go, on Children of Time)
Fast-paced Storytelling • Intricate Worldbuilding • Unique Characters • Thoughtful Recapping • Compelling Series
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This story drew me in and didn’t let it go until the final word. Such a creative series so many interesting characters. I think it’s great.

Better than the last one

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This series continues to keep me entertained. Wonderful world & character building along all the books.

Still going strong

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If you've made it this far then I don't know why you're reading a review. The Shadows of the Apt wiki helped me alot with seeing maps and reviewing kinden. As another reviewer said, feel free to contribute as it will help others along the journey. I don't understand how he has crafted so many of these books with such an amazing quality. Worth more than a credit each.

Masterful. Just buy it

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It feels a bit labored. The author is running out of phrases and it seems the series is out of steam. How many times can we hear "an arrow flowered in his shoulder" or "it was all she could do, not to blablabla". But it's just entertaining enough for me not to give up on the series.,... yet.

Not quite as good as the previous books

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Awesome world building. A masterpiece that fills in gaps in the story. Love it.

epic

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The book before this with the water species kinden was a bit too slow for me and I was happy to find that this book was much more fast paced and eventful. Also a huge bombshell is dropped in this one too!

Loved it from beginning to end.

Lots of action!

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The addition this brought to this low-magic world is nothing less than thrilling. Magical in its own right. As a for-fun fiction writer myself, I always tend strongly toward high-magic settings if at all, but this entry to the story has me chomping at the bit to try my hand at some low-magic settings. So many short story plots are now flying through my head, I could publish an anthology if I only had the self-discipline to finish and polish them all :)

Adding Magic to the Mix

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Great story. Great story. Great story. Great story.
It will kidnap you for the entirety of the book.

Facinating

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Yet another phenomenal installment in the series. It's hard to review just one book when the whole series has been tied into itself so neatly every step of the way. This book in particular does a great job of recapping events and reminding you about the status of the characters.

I would note that the maps and name index included in the physical books would be extremely helpful to listeners if they were included in an accessible PDF format.

At the time of this review, book 8 has not been released on Audible but I have a physical copy coming in the mail tomorrow. Looking forward to this series growing it's fanbase as Tchaikovsky gains more of the notoriety he deserves. (Someone help me fill in the Wikipedia for this series, it's in shambles.)

Consistently Excellent.

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This author has thought this series through. Each book holds its own and remains unique from the others. Absolutely awesome series cannot recommend enough.

great book as always!

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