An engaging cast of characters but the world building was something I struggled with. I do think that a second book possibly wouldn't have as much of a world building necessity and I might be able to immerse in the story more. I will definitely read on.

This was a complex, well written story. It was overwhelming at times and something I had to concentrate on, but that is a reflection of me as a reader, not of the book.

Shards of Earth, penned by Adrian Tchaikovsky, is a stunning space opera that will captivate science fiction enthusiasts. Tchaikovsky's prose transports readers to a vast universe filled with a plethora of intelligent species, advanced technology, and complex interstellar politics. This novel is an exhilarating ride through the cosmos that will leave you gasping for breath, as each chapter delves deeper into the heart of an epic intergalactic conflict.

The characters are multifaceted and engrossing, each possessing their own distinct backstory and driving force that adds layers of complexity to the plot. The world-building is masterfully crafted, with Tchaikovsky conjuring up an intricately imagined universe teeming with diverse planets and cultures.

All in all, Shards of Earth is a phenomenal work of science fiction that is not to be missed. Tchaikovsky has fashioned a gripping space opera that will appeal to both hardcore fans and casual readers alike. This book is a thrilling journey through the vast expanse of the universe, and I strongly recommend it to all fans of the genre.

Fifty years ago, the Architects, the aliens that destroyed Earth and threatened the human race, simply disappeared. Now, Idris and his crew of fellow spacers have discovered evidence of the Architect’s return, abandoned in space. Chased by gangsters, governments and cults, Idris and his friends race across the galaxy searching for answers. Are the Architects really back? And what do they want?

Shards of Earth is serious sci-fi, with space travel, alien species, interstellar battles and excellent world-building. The story largely centres around galactic war and space-politics, but it is written in such a way that it remains exciting and entertaining throughout, without getting bogged down with detail or technical information. It’s a big old book, but doesn’t feel overly long or dragging.

Throughout the novel, we mostly follow Idris, Solace, and the misfit crew of The Vulture. It was really fun following a group of characters from different alien species, as well as different forms of humanity, as this gave an insight into different cultures across the galaxy and showed how much depth Tchaikovsky has gone into when fleshing out his characters.

It’s by far one of the best space operas I’ve read, with the vast epic-ness of To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, but with higher levels of suspense and humour which really helped keep me engaged in the story.

Space Opera is a very popular strand in the science fiction genre. The sense of scale helps create an epic story and allows a giant canvas for the author to be inventive as to what wonders and dangers the universe holds in store for the reader. In Adrian Tchaikovsky’s exhilarating Shards of Earth, we get a trip to a future where the Earth itself has been destroyed but humanity in new forms strives to survive and a galaxy threatening power is returning to complete its destructive agenda.

In the future the human race is warned a powerful moon sized crystalline force known as the Architect is coming to destroy the planet. They cannot be stopped and a bar a few millions the Earth is transferred into a several thousand mile tendrilled work of art made of rock, once living beings and molten core. The human race was at war. A loose alliance of humans, genetically perfected women, AI and various alien races all trying to stop a foe that can do whatever it wants. Only a strange discovery of those with telepathic powers known as Intermediaries found a way to get into an Architect’s mind send a message and then watch them vanish. Seventy years later one soldier of the battle named Solace is awakened from cryogenic sleep to track down the telepath Idris who was there at the final battle. However, Idris has been far away from seats of power working with a rogue spacer crew who find a wreck in space that bears all the hallmarks of an Architect attack. The peace may soon be over.

What I really appreciated in this story was a huge sense of scale. The Earth being turned into massive alien art in just a few early paragraphs shows you what you’re in for. Tchaikovsky gives us a sense of a decades long battle and a centuries long evolution of humanity that gives the story that sense of depth. This galaxy is full of storylines, politics, technology, and dangers that this volume is just the latest instalment of. It’s a first volume very much focused on getting us to understand where things are, who are the major powers and introducing the characters we will be tagging along with.

We get a humanity that has split into cults, duelling lawyers, right wing purists and a secretive secret service with its own agendas. Then we have aliens galore and in particular this book introduces the Hegemony slowly convincing worlds to join it and who are ruled by….giant whelks who have their own secrets. Just for fun we get the Parthenon who are a race of women designed to be the best humanity can have in terms of strength, intelligence, and purpose. It’s a giant swirling mass of life that gives the story’s universe an enormous playground and we regularly get to visit a range of planets with dangers either from the inhabitants who worlds where the radiation, heat or sometimes just even the flora will kill you.

With that scene setting we can then enjoy the story and to help the reader get introduced to the bigger storylines to come we focus on Idris and Solace coming back together. Then we get introduced to the rest of the crew of the spacer ship Vulture God that like to find wrecks in space…and occasionally save some items for themselves. Solace is a familiar soldier archetype but very much one with her own individual morality and sense of self rather than simply one to follow orders. Idris is a veteran of travelling in space; introverted, nervous, and still suffering the scars of the last big Architect confrontation. Idris also has the ability as all Intermediaries do to travel in Unspace – the dimension that allows spaceships to travel vast distances. Here Tchaikovsky gives an strange unsettling non-place that feels haunted and where everyone feels observed – whenever a crewmember is in this place the story very much feels a sense of approaching horror and no one feels at ease including the reader!

Th wider crew of the Vulture God are also fascinating with a focus in particular on the Captain Rollo a amoral, charming and equally distrusting presence who treats the crew like his family; Kris their aristocratic on shoip lawyer who is running from her violent past and always enjoys a fight and my favourite Olli; Olli is a skilled mechanic who uses her knowledge to give her a mechanical body that gives her strength and agility regardless of her various physical disabilities. Her ingenuity and sense of worth battles constantly Solace for whom a society that has focused on perfecting the human genome is very much seen as a threat to Olliu. I loved how Tchaikovsky makes us accept Olli on her own terms - she too can be flawed and also a hero at the same time, but we see her first not her disabilities which she lives with not in spite of.

Finally connecting it all is the mystery of the architects from the moment the crew find this ship turned into weaving tendrils of metal and once living tissue they feel a mix of the desire to run, make a profit or warn people. Their discovery sets off a chain of adventures and planet hopping as the crew run up against various powers. Very much the first domino creating a cascade of galactic level tensions finally erupting. Each adventure requires action, thought and some interesting heroics using the skills of the crew and you soon learn no one is safe in this world which adds to the tension but behind it all is the mystery of what are the Architects and what does their return mean. To which for good measure we also get some clues about an ancient race known as the Originators who created the space lanes of Unspace and have old technology the Architects seem to fear. Just as things look settled the rugs are then taken out from under us and the finale is full on everything being put on the line and sets up the next volume too.

Its fun, action packed, filled with interesting characters and really does give us a sense of scale and more secrets to be uncovered. My only reservation from a Subjective Chaos point of view is this is very much an adventure beginning than just standing on its own two feet. However, it is also definitely one of the highlights of my SF reading this year! Highly enjoyable and oh look the sequel is calling to me now too! Strongly recommended!

I'm really sad about this one as Adrian Tchaikovsky is one of my favourite authors but this one just didn't manage to keep my attention at all..

I didn't connect to the characters at all and found the world building and politics to be confusing

The science fiction genre is one I’ve been making a real effort to read more of since graduating from university all that time ago, and slowly but surely I’m finding my feet, finding the storylines and themes I like best, and most importantly, finding my favourite authors. Adrian Tchaikovsky is one of those individuals who just seems to be able to turn his hand to any genre he tries – as far as I have seen anyway, and I’m slowly building quite the Tchaikovsky collection in my little personal library. Anyway, I digress…

Shards of Earth is a science fiction space opera novel with a wonderfully unique cast; humanity has long since ventured onto other planets, and even other solar systems, travelling across the universe in relatively small timeframes using the pathways of unspace. And naturally humans have evolved and created their own new forms such as the Partheni – a breakaway human faction of parthenogenically grown women, and Hivers – composite cyborg insect intelligences; but have also encountered new races on their travels such as the Hanni – crab-shaped aliens, Locusts, and Ogdru. Their cultural differences alone make for fascinating and exciting contrasts between characters.

We follow four individuals throughout this book; Kris, Solace, Haever, and Idris, a lawyer, Partheni soldier, intervention board agent, and intermediary navigator respectively. Idris is a particularly valuable crew member for anyone to have on board; as an Intermediary he can navigate this unspace; whilst everyone else goes to sleep for the journey to stop them from going mad, Idris can navigate the throughways and have you light years away in, well, significantly less time. However his kind were also instrumental in defeating the seemingly indestructible Architects – destroyers of worlds – the first time, as well as the Partheni, and when the crew of The Vulture God stumble across evidence that they might just be back, the unlikeliest of task forces must unite and try to prevent the levels of destruction that occurred in the last war.

Now this all seems like a lot to take in with the species, their alliances, who is where, what happened when, but rather helpfully Tchaikovsky has included not only a glossary of terms, but also a character, ships, and worlds list and summary, and a timeline of the events leading up to the war with the Architects. Believe me this can be very useful as the story goes on.

Though the story can be complex in places, it is a superb read, though it is important to be paying attention from the start. There is a lot of history introduced at the start of this novel, and whilst it is not slow – there is plenty of action throughout Shards of Earth – this information, as well as various political and inter-species conflict storylines woven into the narrative, are all crucial for the fantastic ending to this book. I am a reader that likes to thoroughly immerse myself in the political or religious systems of a new world – or in this case worlds, and really appreciate the detail provided as well as the astonishing way Tchaikovsky has kept track of all this to bring about such an incredibly conclusion.

The way Tchaikovsky has taken space travel and made it this dark, haunting venture yet one that has become part of humankind’s existance and ultimately survival as they tried to evade the architects over eighty years prior to the events of Shards of Earth, is truly amazing. This along with the underlying exploration of inter-species, or even inter-faction conflict, makes for a very realistic feeling future, but also in some ways resonates so well with the world we live in today. Relatable enough to be understood, yet far enough from our reality to let the reader get lost in the narrative.

Overall I’m awarding this book an 8.5/10; I love the vivid universe with its worlds and species Tchaikovsky has described, and the characters and their interactions feel very authentic but also provide some excellent entertainment throughout what can sometimes seem like a very serious book. I’m very excited that I finally have Eyes of the Void and can immediately get stuck in! Highly recommended for SFF readers who like things a little darker, and appreciate the political complexities of a novel.

I didn't like this book at all. I realised around half way through that this book wasn't for me. I found it a bit too long but also wasn't keen on the characters either. After the first chunk it stopped interesting me.. I've kinda come to the realisation that this wasn't the book for me. Ended up not finishing this book.

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and Black Crow PR.

Shards of Earth is an explosive new sci-fi series that has amazing potential to be one of the best so far!
This fast paced space opera kicks off straight at the heart of the war which I really enjoyed!
The Architects are utterly ruthless and terrifying and had me gripping my phone as I read the pdf version!
This explosive beginning gives a great build up to the modern day times that unfold in the book rather than going back and forth too much.
Idris is the main character in this story - a navigator has history from when the Architects first arrived.
We meet a host of amazing characters in this book and I especially liked Solace! I hope to read more of them and their back stories in the next books.
I wasn't sure about the 'unspace' theory but it did seem to work well within the book. The word building and settings are amazing and such a strong backbone to the book!
This is a breathtaking space opera all sci-fi fans need to read!
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An excellent space-opera and start to a new series by the intimidatingly prolific Adrian Tchaikovsky. Brilliant sci-fi that's sure to be a classic.

One of the best space operas I’ve ever read! Such a great set up for the series! Great world building, and great characters.
#netgalley #shardsofearth

Once upon a time I used to read only sci-fi but I became disillusioned with the genre and didn’t read any for many years. Then I came across a novel by Adrian Tchaikovsky and fell in love with sci-fi all over again. My only worry these days is will his latest book live up to expectations. This one, like all the others, not only lives up to expectations but far exceeds them. It is a fascinating look at how we might be less than ants to creatures far more intelligent than us and what we might do to get their attention while squabbling between ourselves at the same time.

<i>I received this as an advance reader copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions my own. </i>


Every time I pick a new Tchaikovsky book I feel somehow self conscious. So far, I have either liked or loved his books. Even the short stories that I have gotten my hands on I have thoroughly enjoyed. So every time I think, with dread, "what if this is the time that I go home disappointed and I don’t manage to click with the novel?" Well, all I can tell you is: not today, no, no, no.

This book has so many elements that, just by themselves, would have made me pick up the book but all together have created a very interesting background from where all the action begins to unravel. The universe known was being threatened by an enigmatic enemy, The Architects, who altered planets causing their destruction and inability to keep maintain life as before. No one knew much about them except that that was always the outcome of their appearance. To try to fight back this threat, bio-engineered humans were created, whose aim was to communicate telepathically with The Architects and prevent further destruction. But obviously, there a lot of political factions and individual interests were also involved in this. Apparently, it worked, as suddenly as The Architects arrived, they disappeared, or have they?

This is a first book in a series but with none of the usual weakness that we find on those. It has a very good rhythm and it does not feel heavy with world building or unnecessary info dumping at any point at all. It is not an easy read either, as it demands the reader attention but it all fells very swift and well narrated so when you close the book, you realise you are much more involved that you thought would be at the beginning. Such is his talent to bring the story alive and make the reader feel involved without being overloaded with information, he makes you work for it, but the result is very gratifying. As with most of his books, it may look a bit daunting to get your hands on, due page count, or the fact that it’s just the first of a series, but it was absolutely enjoyable in so many levels.

If you enjoy science fiction, this one is for you. To be fair I have recommended it to fans of the genre without any further detail, as I believe that it may appeal to fans of hard science fiction and more easy going space opera per equal. Such is its diversity and complexity in various plots. This is one I will follow closely as I am dying to know more about this ordeal so it is an absolute yes please for me. I cannot wait for more.

While Shards of Earth is not a particularly easy or quick read, it is incredibly fun and exciting with just the right amount of wonder to make this one of my favourite reads to date. I would highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone. It’s a fantastic space opera with high stakes and a likeable cast to root for – and it got me out of a month long reading slump – what’s not to love?

What might, in the wrong hands, be elevator-pitched as just another space opera starring a prefabbed complement of misfits (a cyborg, a test-tube baby, a few wayward humans, and for Futurama analogists even a crablike alien watchful of money) is, in fact, a paradigm-nudging masterpiece of worldbuilding, action, and tension. Admittedly, I had my doubts: from page one, you know you’ve signed up for a war-of-the-species plot greased together by a starjumping gang of “spacers,” each threatening to be a little more Han Solo than the last. Could it really anchor my attention for half-a-thousand pages?

Well, yes. Not only is Shards of Earth un-put-downable and damn near flawless, but it also engages with the social zeitgeist in cleverly understated ways. All the spacefaring thrills of interspecies war are underpinned by a writerly intelligence that I just don’t associate with space opera, and, well—you couldn’t ask for a pleasanter surprise.

To the book, then. Basically, something out there is hunting intelligent life in the universe, humankind included. The something are moon-sized aliens that travel though “unspace,” a kind of fabric that exists underneath the real; they can turn up in a star system unheralded, ready to deal planetary deathblows. As cool as that is, it’s also fascinating: the aliens exist on a scale entirely different to humankind. Their size, age, and mind cannot be fathomed, and even Idris Telemmier, the “intermediary” of the circle of protagonists who alone is cranially equipped to do primitive business with these giants, can only stab into their minds for painful moments at a time. The way these uncanny hunters cannot be mentally reckoned with in one shot, or even seen at one time—hanging as they do half in unspace—makes me think a little bit of Timothy Morton’s hyperobjects, at least in an atmospheric sense: they’re glimpsable and real… but fundamentally unknowable. Like global warming. In keeping with the menacing aspect of such a mysterious power, the novel’s present-day plot is founded on a moment seventy years earlier when one of these alien giants, known as Architects, destroyed Earth—which it did by turning our planet into an austere, gorgeous, lifeless sculpture. Reason: totally unknown.

Thus severed from the Earth, humanity now exists only in a periphery of other worlds and amongst a plethora of bedfellows: the crablike Hannilambra; the wormlike Castigar; a parthenogenetically grown bloc of battle-oriented and superior-gened women; swarms of sentient insects in cyborg frames; and, believe it or not, others. In its backdrop, then, the book trades in a humanity that cannot but exist on the toes of some other: they have to live on planets that aren’t Earth, fly on ships navigated by biologically altered pilots, vie with aliens of all stripes, negotiate with parahumans. Add to that the existential threat of an incomprehensibly complex and disinterested killing force, and you’ve got a bizarrely familiar rendering of the age we live in, the least preachy Anthropocene I think I’ve yet encountered. Not that preachiness on that topic is always bad, and Tchaikovsky’s engagement with it certainly takes a backseat to his plotted action—but this is worldbuilding of an amazing order. It’s like sitting on a butt-pillow designed by I.M. Pei.

By the start of the novel the Architects have gone, thanks to some long-past heroics on the part of Idris, who has since put himself out to pasture as the navigator for a salvaging crew that drags in valuable junk from deep space. He’s too universe-weary for anything but this freelance arrangement, still bitter from the government programmes that used him and, in their wartime pursuits, let some of his classmates die. (“That eternal flinch that made up so much of his facial expression was on full display. He looked as though he expected a slap from her, or perhaps from the universe at large.”)

Then—fairly foreseeable but necessary as a matter of course—during a routine job, Idris and his crewmates aboard the Vulture God discover a ship that has been sculpted with the signature artistry of the moon-sized monsters. It seems that the Architects are back. The nightmare is reigniting. This sets off the rest of the book’s action, and I dare say the rest of the trilogy’s action, which is rendered episodically: you have the question of whether the sculpted ship is a hoax; gunfights with alien gangsters; the rescuing of a Hiver academic from a mysterious comms-jamming planet; the horrors of unspace; and so on.

Certain of the prolonged action scenes did induce some attention-glazing, I will say, but only because they took me away from the narrative’s wheelhouse: Tchaikovsky’s ability to draw individualized characters against a backdrop of highly credible and recognizable geopolitical factions, each of them pushed to a colour-showing fore by the news of the returned Architects. How these intergalactic politics are rendered through characters and dialogue and not via chapter-long info-dumps is some kind of sausage-making magic I don’t want to see, but on the reader side it’s pure delight.

This latter observation is a triumph of craft that, even alone, probably does make the 560-page trek worthy of attempt; but where Shards truly delivers is unspace and the Architects. This is existential horror in thoughtfully modern clothing, the Death Star’s nuclear holocaust reworked as environmental terror. It’s zippy in its action but appropriately slow-mo in its revelation of dread. “Unspace was different. Things from real space—such as humans—had a tenuous existence there. It was a terrible, lonely place, until you sensed something… other.”

Can’t wait for Part II.

I'm not sure what I expected from Shards of Earth, but Adrian Tchaikovsky certainly managed to surprise me. The entire world-building is absolutely amazing. No matter if you look at the political intricacies, the somewhat believable technological explanations, or coherent historical background, all of them are beautifully worked out.
Especially at first, I was a little bit overwhelmed by the complexity of the story, but after the first few chapters, I got the hang of it. It's a perfect setup to expand on in the upcoming sequels.
I also never encountered any other book which taught me so many new, maybe slightly uncommon, words. How did I ever live my life without knowing what "aggrandisement" stands for?

The book is highly recommendable for any sci-fi fan of an epic series, but it can also be read as a standalone story.

Shards of Earth is Adrian Tchaikovsky’s first bona fide attempt at a space opera, the opening to his Final Architecture trilogy, and one of the best science fiction books I’ve read this year. Tchaikovsky’s ambitions for this series are made clear early on—Shards opens with a story of cosmic struggle against an enemy so vast, even humanity’s most advanced weaponry does no more than pinprick them. The Architects are “moon-sized entities that can reshape populated planets and ships” (as per the Glossary) into crystalline sculptures of staggering and repulsive beauty. These cosmic leviathans are utterly unaware of the uncountable lives snuffed out in the process of the transformation they induce.

The first world targeted by these staggering intelligences is Earth; and so Tchaikovksy’s future humanity is orphaned from its cradle, which has turned into little more than a confederation loosely held by multiple factions under the name “Hugh” (or Council of Human Interests) by the time the crux of the narrative picks up. Forty years have passed since Intermediary Idris and two of his “siblings” at last managed to make contact with one of the Architects and so buy humanity a reprieve. The very same Idris, working now as navigator atop a shabby vessel by the name of the Vulture God, makes the deep-space discovery of a vessel that has gone through the same crystallization process as so many of humanity’s central worlds did, in that great war. The discovery sets off a series of events that affect, as you’ll imagine, forces far outside the Vulture’s crew.

While this is an overt simplification of one main thread of the narrative, Tchaikovsky tells a far more intricate story. By the point the Vulture makes its discovery, the ship’s crew has picked up a new recruit—point of view character Solace, a Myrmidon Executor of the Partheni, the genetically engineered sisterhood of humanity, battle angels sworn to the defence of human space and the most militarily advanced strand of humankind. The nation of Parthenon is “composed of parthenogenetically grown women,” who are considered by their creator to be “an ideal version of humanity”. For that very reason, they are feared by much of humanity, especially the Nativists and their extremist faction, the Betrayed. During the great war, all of humanity was held together by the common threat of the Architects; forty years later, fractures between the two strands of humanity have widened to the point that tensions might give way to open war at the least provocation. The Parthenon’s one great disadvantage? They lack Intermediaries of their own, those capable of travelling outside the Throughways and into deep space at a faster-than-light speed. Solace has a history with Idris from all the way back in the war, when the Int was her responsibility to look after—pulled into active duty from cryosleep, she’s been sent to make Idris an offer, one he may not be able to refuse. Here’s the essence of Parthenon in Solace’s own words:

“I know that in the Colonies they say a lot of things about my people. I’ve seen the Hugh propaganda too. We’re warmongers, we’re man-haters, we’re unnatural, born in a lab, indoctrinated. Programmed like machines. All that, I’ve heard. And nobody remembers we died for the Colonies, above a hundred worlds, during the war. We were the line.” And the softer edges of her voice were ablating off, revealing only steel beneath. Kris belatedly remembered this wasn’t just third-generation ancestral pride; Solace had been there. She had fought in the war, faced the Architects.

“We were the shield and sword of the Colonies,” the Partheni went on. And then, when the war was over, you started asking why we had to keep on being different to you. Why couldn’t we just come back and be your wives and daughters again? You really think we quit Hugh because we had some designs on your planets? Because we wanted to line all your menfolk up against a wall, and make everyone else like us? We left because you hated us and would have used your laws to break us if we’d stayed. … All we ever did was put our lives on the line for you. And you still hate us for it.”
After a quote like this, I bet at least a few of you know if Shards of Earth will work for you.

But you see, I haven’t even mentioned the FTL travel. In true space opera fashion, it is a common occurrence. Tchaikovsky uses the concept of “unspace” to have the races of his galaxy cut through vast spaces; staying awake during voyages through unspace holds dangers all its own, for anyone who has braved it feels an uncanny presence, seeking, searching to close the distance. There’s something of Warhammer 40k’s Warp there, something Lovecraftian, too—presented in such a way as to be novel rather than tired. The explanations that this is a shared experience triggered by the staggering alone-ness at play here, hallucinogenic in nature, rings very false indeed:

"…the fact that everyone who came out of unspace sane and hale reported the same ‘delusion’ was not a comfort. Because Kris couldn’t stop thinking, surely there was only one logical explanation to everyone having the same experience . . . That, despite everything, there really was something out there. Unspace had a single and inimitable denizen, and she was trapped in here with it.
Humanity is far from alone—rather, it is part of a bustling galactic community. In addition to the strands of humanity under Hugh and Parthenon control, there’s the Hegemony, a much older civilization controlled by the inscrutable Essiel, possessing the knowledge to protect worlds from the Architects’ transformative touch. The Essiel seek to expand their control over humanity but are unwilling to do so through their strength in arms, electing to persuade through the promise of safety and harmony. We never see a proper Essiel-controlled world, but the Hegemony’s culture promises to be a starkly different one compared with the bustling, staggeringly multitude humanity has to offer."

There’s also the Hivers, autonomous distributed intelligences created by humanity but now with distinct goals and interests of their own; the unkillable killing machines that are the Tothiat; the crab-like Hannilambra aliens, and several others I won’t get further into. I reserve a special place for the Originators, however, an ancient space-faring race responsible for the Throughways, fascinating artifacts, and ruins whose every mention fed me serious nostalgia from my adventuring days aboard Mass Effect’s Normandy. Plenty of that if you’re a space opera fan – Shards of Earth recalls the very best of the genre, makes familiar tropes fresh anew, and falls in nicely next to other works by the author. I’ve seen Tchaikovsky deal with some of the themes touched in Shards of Earth before – vast intelligences that find it difficult even to acknowledge human existence reared their head in The Doors of Eden. Further, both the dangers of capitalism pushed to eleven, as well as the possibility of distributed intelligence networks growing far more complex than intended and acquiring personhood made for the thesis statement of Dogs of War.

Its characters are ridiculously easy to root for. In addition to Idris and Solace, we’ve got Kris Almier, a lawyer as deadly with a knife as she is with her words; Olli Timo, a mechanic and specialist whose ingenious use of robotics allows her to overcome her physical disabilities, and the Vulture God’s captain, Rollo Rostand, whose dialect has a number of peculiarities which define spacer speech in ways that read across as a natural drift away from our own language. There are a few others—an alien, a Hiver—and the crew dynamics between them all are exactly what you’d hope they would be. They feel like a family, even when they’re at each other’s throats. Whether the focus is on Olli and Solace’s very different understandings of what the Partheni way of life entails, the bond between Solace and Idris, neither of whom look to have aged since the days of the Architect war forty years ago, or Kris’s clever tongue-lashing, these characters work together perfectly. If you grew up with Star Wars or Star Trek, they’ll feel like home, reminiscent of the crews of the Millenium Falcon and the Enterprise.

The dangers of this galaxy go far beyond the civilization-ending threat of the Architects. From a rogue Essiel to a nobleman from one of humanity’s most prosperous worlds to a secretive operator of Hugh’s Intelligence Service, “Mordant House”—the threats to the Vulture God’s crew are numerous and multifaceted. Action scenes are written with a precision I envy, often shock with the suddenness and brutality, and engender in the reader a sense of danger for everyone involved—I recall a point early on when I realized just how high the stakes are, and the words that made me do a double take are still burned into my mind.

The environs, the different planets the crew is thrust between, the majestic ships and decrepit space stations, are all memorable. Here is an excellent description that showcases some of my favourite features of Tchaikovsky’s writing:

"Jericho was the last habitable world to be found by explorers from Earth, before there was no longer an Earth to be from. A survey team exploring a dead-end Throughway burst into a virgin system. They found a planet a little closer than Earth to a sun a little cooler than Earth’s. Then they found a biosphere crammed full of riotous life whose biochemistry overlapped with Earth by at least forty per cent. An Eden! surveyors crowed. Then the planet’s biochemistry ate two of the landing party and they quickly revised their estimate to A monstrous death world! But there were still scientific grants for that, and a permanent research presence was established only months before an Architect appeared over the skies of Earth. That research team was intended to be the sole presence on Jericho: an opportunity to conduct pure research into a thriving alien ecology, untouched by humanity save the luckless surveyors.

Then Earth fell, the Polyaspora began, and Jericho received its shipments of refugees – same as everywhere else. Establishing a colony on-planet was not the nature-red-intooth-and-claw experience everyone had expected. Desperate humans in need of a home could tooth-and-claw right back, and twice as hard."

The clarity of description, the wry wit—I can’t describe to you how many times I’ve cackled hysterically at some passage or another in Shards of Earth.

Allow me to point out, also, that I love books that pack a Glossary at the end. This one has a timeline slapped at the back, which makes for some encyclopaedical reading, preferably after you’ve finished the novel itself. I loved getting most of this information through dialogue, description and voice; seeing it then presented chronologically makes for an excellent reference tool for later.

Adrian Tchaikovsky shows a craftsman’s care and a visionary’s imagination in constructing the universe, and does so while rounding up the first part of this trilogy in such a way as to make of it a gratifying experience that doesn’t frustrate you to no end for not having the second book immediately at hand. You should get this one if you love the genre. If you’re a newcomer, curious about space opera – this is a great title to start your interstellar journey with!

I was very excited to receive a copy of Shards of Earth so close after reading Project Hail Mary. While completely different in the genre scale – I was on a roll and needed more science fiction (yes, this review is very late!).

There was a lot I liked about Shards of Earth – I read it quickly and it features a crew on a ship with excellent camaraderie and it has a quest which is a recipe for a rollercoaster read. I loved the characters and getting to know them as they met (and re-met). It did take a while for me to warm to them as a group but that only served to enhance my enjoyment when I did!

What I struggled with was how dense this book is! It is a full on science fiction epic novel and is filled with so much detail I found it a little overwhelming at times. Tchaikovsky has not only written a novel as the first in a series but he has also thought out its entire history and build which is super impressive, I really admired that from the author since it was my first book of his that I was reading.

And it definitely will not be my last Tchaikovsky novel – I have The Doors of Eden to read next!

Shards of Earth is the first book in the The Final Architects trilogy, and it spans many different worlds and civilizations – galactic civilizations even! We are starting off at a time that is two generations after a catastrophy that almost wiped out all of mankind. But not only that, all forms of life were threatened – animals, plants, and even aliens. What happened was that some weird, destructive things appeared in the universe – the so called Architects, destroying all sorts of life they encountered. So, in order to help with that enhanced humans were constructed. Such that could communicate with those things, hopefully trying to come to some sort of understanding and peace. But then, these weird things suddenly disappeared as quickly as they had come. And now, almost a century later, it seems as if there are signs that the destructive Architects are making a comeback…

I loved the premise of this book. The world(s) we encounter are amazingly shaped, leaving nothing out of the equation. Idris Telemmier, our main character here, is the last one of those advanced human beings (called Intermediaries) from many years ago, and he is now a navigator on an interstellar spaceship called the Vulture God. Since he isn’t just a normal human, Idris neither needs to eat or sleep, and he doesn’t age either. But being a sort of superhuman doesn’t keep troubles away from him. All the horrors he had to see with his very eyes can’t be forgotten, no matter how much time passes. And when Idris then discovers that the Architects might be returning, his mind is certainly not any more at ease…

I have to say I was at first a bit overwhelmed by the whole worldbuilding. It’s gigantic, enormous, there is so much to see and learn. I like that in sci-fi and fantasy, because in order to really be able to imagine what I read about I also have to read up on every little detail of this world we come across. If it’s not in the book I often stay behind with questions like ‘How does this look exactly?’ and ‘How does that even work?’ Tchaikovsky certainly delivers in that regard. However, since there is no time wasted and we are immediately plunged into all the workings and happenings of this universe, I sometimes felt a little bit overwhelmed in the beginning. It is just a lot to take in.

That is the only minor ‘complaint’ (if you can even call it that) that I had. Once I got comfortable in this world, I was able to picture everyhing right before my inner eye. Even the weird-looking aliens we encounter, the space ship, the crew on the Vulture God (some of my favourite characters worked on there!). The encounters between humans (or superhumans) and aliens varied from funny to serious, to strange and sometimes scary, and gave me a lot of food for the brain.

If you are a Tchaikovsky fan or a lover of the sci-fi genre, I can assure you that you won’t be disappointed with this book (it was awesome!). If you like reading about space battles, intergalactic missions, outer space civilizations, aliens and spaceships, Shards of Earth has all of these things and you will be entertained for days. Certainly give it a go!

4.5 stars from me!

Wow, just heart poundingly good. I found it intriguing, compelling and thrilling. The story just grabs you by the throat and never lets you go. The characters just fizz with life and anger and are just kick-ass awesome.