The Air War (86 page)

Read The Air War Online

Authors: Adrian Tchaikovsky

Tags: #Fiction, #Science Fiction, #General

Catch up with Adrian at www.shadowsoftheapt.com for further information about both himself and the insect-kinden, together with bonus material including short stories and artwork.

The Air War
is the eighth novel in the Shadows of the Apt series.

BY
ADRIAN
TCHAIKOVSKY

Shadows of the Apt

Empire in Black and Gold

Dragonfly Falling

Blood of the Mantis

Salute the Dark

The Scarab Path

The Sea Watch

Heirs of the Blade

The Air War

Acknowledgements

I continue to be in debt to my agent, Simon Kavanagh, to everyone at Tor, to the editing prowess of Peter Lavery, and to the constant support and assistance of my wife.
I’d also like to thank everyone who has contributed to the Shadows of the Apt Wiki at http://shadowsoftheapt.wikia.com/wiki/Shadows_Of_The_Apt_Wiki, especially Jackson Cordes and Roderick
Easton.

I also owe a debt to everyone at Rebis for making me so welcome in Poland, including the translator Jarek Rybski, and particularly because a fair slice of this book was conceived of or written
over there. A surprising amount was also written on trains going in various directions, so possibly I owe some manner of debt to Network Rail, whose many delays gave me so much unanticipated
writing time.

Thanks also to Shane McLean for information on army procedure, and explaining why sometimes the best thing an engineer can do is make sure everyone gets fed.

And finally, going far back into the mists of time, a nod to Andy Campbell, porter at the Reading University Faculty of Letters and Social Sciences, who taught me some valuable lessons about
warfare in the days of Napoleon, that era when a new war was just beginning to hatch from the cracked shell of the old.

First published 2012 by Tor

This electronic edition published 2012 by Tor
an imprint of Pan Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
Basingstoke and Oxford
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com

ISBN 978-0-230-76606-8 EPUB

Copyright © Adrian Tchaikovsky 2012

The right of Adrian Tchaikovsky to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital,
optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be
liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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