Empire in Black and Gold

Amazing how this author can make subjects I find boring interesting. There's a lot of fight scenes in this one, and even though I didn't start finding them riveting or anything, at least I could follow them and see the point of them to some extent.
Otherwise it seems like a lovely fantasy / steampunk world, with magic (love that there's "the art" and "magic", I am curious how comes they're so separate in this world, and are they really that different), and cool races (based on bugs not Tolkien, much more interesting).
Basically, it's the cool races that sell this book.
No real ending, as it's first in a series.

Very enjoyable.