Salute the Dark cover art

Salute the Dark

Shadows of the Apt, Book 4

Preview

Audible Standard 30-day free trial

Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection.
Listen to your selected audiobooks as long as you're a member.
Get unlimited access to bingeable podcasts.
Standard auto renews for £5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Salute the Dark

By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
Narrated by: Ben Allen
Try Standard free

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £12.84

Buy Now for £12.84

About this listen

All must face the end of days . . .


Salute the Dark is the fourth book in the critically acclaimed epic fantasy series Shadows of the Apt by Adrian Tchaikovsky, winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award. As spymaster Stenworld makes a stand in his home city, others must choose where their loyalties lie.

The mighty Wasp armies are on the march. And with war imminent, spymaster Stenwold must finally separate allies from false friends. He knows the Empire won’t stop until its flag hangs over Collegium, Stenwold's home city. Tisamon the Weaponsmaster favours a more direct strategy – facing the Wasp Emperor himself, with a blade in his hand. He’d be abandoning both friends and family to do so. Yet is he driven by honour, or being manipulated by something far more sinister?

With the Shadow Box in his possession at last, Uctebri can begin his dark ritual. The Wasp-kinden’s Emperor believes this will grant him immortality. However, Uctebri has his own plans – for the Emperor and the Empire.

Salute the Dark is followed by the fifth book in the Shadows of the Apt series, The Scarab Path.

The entire series is narrated by Ben Allen (Alien Clay). Listeners love the series in audio:

‘Fantastic narration that really got you to imagine this amazing world’

‘You get consumed into the world and its characters’

‘The characters are distinct with masterful accents’

‘The narration and sound design is jaw-dropping’

‘Ben Allen's narration was frankly phenomenal all the way through’

Action & Adventure Animals Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Genre Fiction

Critic reviews

Brimming with imagination
The Shadows of the Apt series is simply one of the best epic fantasy series out there
Super worldbuilding, great characters and extreme inventiveness
Epic fantasy at its best. Gripping, original and multi-layered storytelling from a writer bursting with lots of fascinating ideas
Full of sparking, speculative innovation (Stephen Baxter, author of the Xeelee Sequence, on The Doors of Eden)
Breathtaking scope and vision. Adrian Tchaikovsky is one of our finest writers (Gareth Powell, author of Embers of War, on Children of Ruin)
A joy from start to finish. Entertaining, smart, surprising and unexpectedly human (Patrick Ness, author of The Knife of Never Letting Go, on Children of Time)
All stars
Most relevant
The story is very good, the characters fascinating and the performance is excellent!!! Proper read this

Super series

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Depth of the characters, richness of the story as it all unfolds, each thread woven, tangled then unravelled in a tapestry that transcends the imagination. As complex a story as there has ever been however follow able with micro stories along the way, each one has you holding your breath till in unfolds into the next.

Enthralling, captivating and somehow believable

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I'm a fan of the author, but wasn't sure I would be able to lose myself in this fantasy world. I needn't have worried as I have loved all of the books so far. love the narrator which seems similar in style to the first law audiobooks (a good thing). have already purchased next in the series so here goes!

loved it

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I nearly stopped reading this series after the first book. I liked Empire in Black and Gold well enough but it didn't get it's hooks in to me to any great degree. I got the second one in a sale and loved it so much that I ended up devouring the following books in quick succession, the stakes escalate and the fascinating works becomes ever more intriguing. Excellent narration as well, by the way.

Tchaikovsky continues to impress

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

this was a fantastic book as usual and would make a great point to break if one wanted to take a breather. not sure why though, I have already purchased the next and am avidly devouring it's content

great ongoing saga

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

See more reviews