Some of the less than smart choices Aelis made in the first book, and in this book, really do come back on her. This is a book that is all about the consequences of personal actions, on scales ranging from Aelis’ health, to the fate of a friend, to the main plot, the wave of undead threatening the borderlands that she set in motion.
… And so we come to Adrian Tchaikovsky’s The City of Last Chances. With the recent publication of the third book in this ‘verse, Days of Shattered Faith, I thought it would be good to take a look at how the series began.
“… Pohl’s thesis, in this book, is that people are a mixture of nature AND nurture. The relatively retiring Nicky DeSota IS the same person as the hardbitten general, or the philandering Senator, and when push comes to shove, they can transcend their natures, or their upbringing, as the case may be. …”
“Now, with The Wolf and the Wild King, I’ve done something I’m calling high fantasy, an older term not used so much any more, but to me it suggests a subtly different flavour of secondary world fantasy from epic — a world more mysterious, less explained; more folkloric roots showing through the moss, more things half-seen in the shadows. “
“… This reinforces the clear point of view that De Camp promotes in the book, and that is one of multiculturalism and diversity being good things for people to experience and for polities to have. Time and again, having a wide and diverse group, or tribe, or nation is superior, clearly, to monoculture alternatives.”
At its heart, Blood of the Old Kings is a story about Empire, reactions and resistance to it. Our three protagonists are all in their own way taking up the mantle of resistance to that Empire.
