Reviews

Salute the Dark by Adrian Tchaikovsky

sherrybomb's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Love Ben Allen as the narrator but while he is great at giving all if the characters distinct voices, I need a list of who's who to help me keep up. 
Still a great series, and looking forward to listening to the next installment. 

enbypirate's review

medium-paced

4.0

tadhgerman's review against another edition

5.0

I was sort of worried that things in this book would continue to balloon without any real resolutions happening but instead the plot threads for the most part resolved themselves. I found salute the dark to be melancholic and fast paced and highly recommend it.

siddharthageorge's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

mwplante's review against another edition

4.0

Wow! What a ride. The entire last third of this one has a climactic moment about every five pages. This feels like the end of a 20 book series, rather than the fourth book of ten. Plot points set up in book two come to full and satisfying fruition here, but the meta narrative still has plenty to resolve.

Tchaikovsky does a masterful job of defying our expectations without cutting the legs out from under his own plot. Onward!

awoodalla's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

jesslynh's review

4.0

I am really, really sorry that this book had to end. This is the best series of honest-to-goodness Fantasy that I've gotten my hands on in a long time. The series isn't over yet, from what I can gather, the author signed on for a total of 10 books, and this is just the 4th. I look forward to all the rest.

semajluap's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

annakak's review

4.0

Empires fall, everyone dies.

kadomi's review

3.0

It's been ages since I last read any of this series of books, which made a return a bit rough. The previous 3 books had introduced a myriad of characters and locations, and they all made an appearance in this 4th book that felt like the end of the first plot arc of the 10-book series. In a world where humans of various different races with insect abilities live, the aggressive wasps have set out to conquer the Lowlands. After the setup of the first three books, we now have large-scale war and rebellion against the yoke of the wasps, plus plots in the capital of the wasp empire as well.

War is harsh, and so many characters we met in previous books find their end in Salute the Dark, as the conquest of the wasps ends for now.

I was a bit overwhelmed at times with the frequent PoV changes and very likely would have enjoyed the book a lot more if I had been fresh off book 3. But I wasn't, and so I struggled with feeling sympathy for some characters or actually remembering them. The end was interesting though, because now I am trying to figure out what this means for the series, and which character that was in the end there. Intrigued.

World-building is still top-notch, but I could do with a lesser scale for the rest of the series, and maybe less war. We shall see!