This is the third novel in the Shadows Of The Apt series by Tchaikovsky. Most of the action in this series is centered around the shadow box that was stolen in the last novel. Achaeos the Seer knows he must find the box and keep it safe but there are many others who also want it, including the Emperor of the Wasps. He has been told that possession of it would be necessary for his magician to complete the ritual that would make him immortal and he is willing to dedicate any resources necessary to gain possession of it.
Stenwold continues his project of gaining allies and uniting the Lowlands against the Wasps. His group spends time with a new group of characters the Skater-kinden and Shay finds a new friend in a female Fly who is also a pilot and from whom Shay can learn more about flying. The Skater-kinden are built much like the mantis kingdom and can skate on water on their long spindly legs. The Mantis Tisamon and his daughter are there for protection but he is starting to have fantasies about a female mantis although his race is supposed to mate for life and his wife died long ago.
This series has ten novels. I'm getting drawn further and further into the steampunk world of men with insect-like traits. There are battles, but also magic and spies and skullduggery. Tchaikovsky is a master of conceiving a complex world and the reader is treated to a master of world building with lots of characters who interact in both loving and violent ways. I've been listening to the series and the narrator, Ben Allen, does an amazing job of drawing in the reader and keeping attention focused on this world. This book is recommended for fantasy readers.
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