Kadomi reviewed The Scarab Path by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Review of 'The Scarab Path' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
The first book of the second story arc of the Shadows of the Apt series made me realize that the series is not for me. The first book is fantastic, with such interesting world-building. Now that I know that the series exists because the author ran it as a tabletop campaign, it all makes sense. It's probably an amazing campaign setting. But the storytelling? Not so much. The Scarab Path just plodded on, without ever grabbing my attention. Sure, I wanted to know who the Masters were, and the Egyptian-style setting was lovely, but the payoff was wholly unsatisfying for me.
Top notch worldbuilding, interesting characters, but also so many that it's hard to care. I only really enjoyed the chapters with Che and Thalric, everything else was meh. If you like your fantasy with endless massive battle scenes, it's a great series, but I don't.
I decided that I'll …
The first book of the second story arc of the Shadows of the Apt series made me realize that the series is not for me. The first book is fantastic, with such interesting world-building. Now that I know that the series exists because the author ran it as a tabletop campaign, it all makes sense. It's probably an amazing campaign setting. But the storytelling? Not so much. The Scarab Path just plodded on, without ever grabbing my attention. Sure, I wanted to know who the Masters were, and the Egyptian-style setting was lovely, but the payoff was wholly unsatisfying for me.
Top notch worldbuilding, interesting characters, but also so many that it's hard to care. I only really enjoyed the chapters with Che and Thalric, everything else was meh. If you like your fantasy with endless massive battle scenes, it's a great series, but I don't.
I decided that I'll give the rest of the series a pass, with fond memories of the first book and its interesting world of insect people.