Empire in Black & Gold
Subtitle: Shadows of the Apt Book One
Series: Shadows of the Apt
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Published: Nov 15, 2008
Place of publication: Oxford, Great Britain
Language: eng
Format: paperback
Number of pages: 612
ISBN-13: 9780230704138
Copyright date: 2008
First sentence: Added missing information
Description: The city states of the Lowlands have lived in peace for decades, bastions of civilization, prosperity and sophistication, protected by treaties, trade and a belief in the reasonable nature of their neighbours. 

But meanwhile, in far-off corners, the Wasp Empire has been devouring city after city with its highly trained armies, its machines, its killing Art... And now its hunger for conquest and war has become insatiable. 

Only the ageing Stenwold Maker, spymaster, artificer and statesman, can see that the long days of peace are over. It falls upon his shoulders to open eyes the of his people, before a black-and-gold tide sweeps down over the Lowlands and burns away everything in its path. 

But first he must stop himself from becoming the Empire's latest victim.
Notes: Source title: Empire in Black & Gold: Shadows of the Apt. Book One