Review: Empire in Black and Gold

Empire in Black and Gold by Adrian Tchaikovsky
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Shadows of the Apt series caught my attention when I was on the hunt for a new steampunk read. When I investigated deeper, I found it wasn’t the kind of steampunk read I was accustomed to, and that made me more curious. Thus, I had high hopes when I jumped into Empire in Black and Gold. I was eager for a wonderful mix of steampunk and high fantasy, a book that would hook me.

My feelings towards Empire in Black and Gold are very mixed. At first, I could not get into the story. It’s intriguing and had me turning the pages, but I did not understand the world. I had a basic understanding, but there was too much I did not understand, and it made it difficult for me to put everything together in my mind. Despite this, I continued reading in the hope things would become clearer.

Unfortunately, things were never as clear as I had hoped they would be. The story kept me addicted at points, but I found my lack of understanding resulted in my interest waxing and waning. There were times when I was really interested, and times when I was reading just to see what happened and not because I was invested. There was certainly a lot happen throughout this one, but I never connected with it in the way I’d hoped.

Overall, Empire of Black and Gold wasn’t what I’m imagined it would be.

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