BOOK FIVE: SHADOWS OF THE APT The war with the Wasp Empire has ended in a bitter stalemate & Collegium has nothing to show for it but wounded veterans. Cheerwell Maker finds herself crippled in ways no doctor can mend haunted by ghosts of the past that she cannot appease. The Empress Seda is regaining control over those imperial cities that refused to bow the knee to her but she draws her power from something more sinister than mere armies & war machines. Only her consort the former spymaster Thalric knows the truth & now the assassins are coming & he finds his life & his loyalties under threat once again. Out beyond the desert of the Nem the ancient city of Khanaphes awaits them both with a terrible secret entombed beneath its stones. Praise for Shadows of the Apt: ' The Shadows of the Apt series is quite distinct mainly due to the insect-kinden & Tchaikovsky's fertile imagination' Sci Fi Now ' Epic fantasy at its best. Gripping original & multi-layered storytelling from a writer bursting with lots of fascinating ideas' Walker of Worlds