Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Shards of Earth takes us on an action packed journey through a universe threatened by the return of a worlds-ending threat. It’s a universe where Earth is a distant memory and humanity is scattered across many planets and systems. War with the Architects ended some forty years in the past, and since then no Architects have been seen. But the threat of their return thrusts the crew of the Vulture God and it’s Intermediary pilot Idris Telemmier into a struggle with competing forces all trying to understand, get ahead of, or profit from this new threat.

This is a fantastic read, and it’s a testament to how well it’s written that even at over 500 pages it goes quickly. The characters in the book are well developed and the action-driven plot goes through several twists leading to the final satisfying conclusion. Yet, as is fitting for the first in a series of books, it leaves you wanting more.

There is a lot to this book and it’s impossible to summarize it all in this review. Here are highlights of just some of the “world building” in which the action unfolds:

The main events chronicled in the book take place in the year “123 After”. Some two hundred and thirty years before, the alien Castigar race came upon space probes from Earth and became humanity’s first alien contact. The Castigars introduced humanity to the Throughways, paths through unspace that allow for travel across the wider universe. With their help, humans established colonies on many planets and systems, and came in contact with other intelligent species.

In the Year 0, an Architect (a being the size of our Moon) came out of unspace near Earth and, as Architects do, it transformed Earth into a bizarre massive sculpture, destroying all life on the planet in the process. More attacks by Architects occur on other settled planets as humanity and their alien allies seek to find ways to combat this threat. Through all of this, the Architects themselves remain mysterious foes, as they have made no attempt at contact, and no threats or demands.

No way of contacting them is found until, after many years and multiple planet losses, the “Intermediary Program” ultimately results in humans who are surgically and chemically altered to become empaths capable of contacting the Architects. Their abilities are modeled on those of “Saint Xavienne” Torino, a woman for whom this empathic ability comes naturally. The Intermediaries Xavienne Torino and Idris Telemmier finally establish contact with an Architect threatening the planet Far Lux, at which point the Architects realize that their work has resulted in the loss of many lives, and they withdraw back into unspace.

Beyond their abilities to communicate with the Architects, the Intermediaries are unique among humans in that they can endure the impacts of travel through unspace, which can have life altering psychological impacts. The Intermediary Program continues after the withdrawal of the Architects, creating unspace pilots. Others aboard ships traveling in unspace must go into stasis so as not to be psychologically damaged.

Now, in 123 After, Idris Telemmier (who for some reason related to his Intermediary experience has not aged since the War) is the pilot aboard the salvage ship Vulture God. When their ship is dispatched to collect the missing vessel Oumaru, the crew find it destroyed, with the distinctive sculptural pattern of an Architect attack. Are the Architects returning? Where will they strike next? Now the action really begins...

I rate Shards of Earth 4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐ - I really liked this book, and was glad I read it. If you are looking for your next fantasy / space opera, one you can really sink your teeth into, this one is well worth your time. I recommend it.

NOTE: This is an ARC (advanced reader copy) Review. I received a free copy of this ebook in exchange for a fair review. The release date for Shards of Earth is May 27th.

Shards of Earth is the latest sci-fi novel from Adrian Tchaikovsky. Tchaikovsky has written epic fantasy, and some of the best high-concept science fiction of recent years. I’ve been a fan of his work for years, and I tell you what: I went into this space opera with high expectations, and this one did not disappoint.

This is a post-war universe. A universe defined by a conflict which shattered worlds. Literally. Mysterious forces, seemingly beyond the ken of man, the enormous creatures known as Architects, appear above the skies of populated worlds, and render them into exotic, incomprehensible art. Of course, nobody survives the process. But this isn’t the story of war with the architects. This is the story of a world built on the ruins, Of a humanity whose home is shattered rock and outgassing air, which has rebuilt itself over several generations, whose scattered refugees are now living in (relative) peace. Of course, being people, they’re also busy running up factions, and politics, and internecine feuds. Not only between themselves, but with everyone else as well - from the Hivers, a self-aware nanite swarm, to the inscrutable mollusc Empire which circles the fringes of humanity, and tries to assimilate their worlds through persuasion and koans.Humanity is trying to come to terms with its own trauma, in a universe where it is not the dominant power, and where what is known is vastly smaller than whatever is at the edges of the map. The sense of scale, of vacuum as a vast, unknowable deep, held together by thin lines of force, accessible to a scattered few, the scope of the galaxy is wondrous and terrifying.


Into this uncaring universe step a ship full of miscreants and vagabonds. Perhaps the most central is Idris, the result of military experiments in the war generations ago, who can navigate his ship between the stars. Idris struggles with past trauma, the experiences which shaped him into a weapon, and the experience of war against the Architects. He’s a person on the edge, trying to get through each day, trying to find meaning and connection in a universe which is slowly forgetting the old heroes.


And then there’s Solace, a genetically engineered super soldier, a myrmidon who was decanted for war. Where Idris has lived the future, Solace has missed it, put on ice by her sister-warrior culture, to be brought back into the fight at need. Solace is dislocated, out of time, building new alliances and a new future with every word.


These two veterans, in and out of time, are embedded in a ship that skims the edge of the known, digging up salvage and secrets in equal measure. Their Captain is a voluble figure who thinks of himself as a father; they have a lawyer on board who is as much at home in a duelling circle as a courtroom, their engineer is ensconced in a life support system which also happens to be a giant scorpion combat exoskeleton. And those are the humans. I won’t even get into the aliens, but rest assured they’re a weird and wonderful bunch.The crew is a diverse, squabbling, complex organism filled with old and new grudges and quiet affections alongside public joys. It’s a ship filled with organic histories, where sense and story are heard in the quiet spaces between the words.


Which is all to say, the characterisation is top-notch. The people seem like people, in all their glory and horror, apes reaching for the stairs with one hand, flinging faeces with the other. The aliens, the non-humans, are strange and wonderful in different ways, which suggest perspectives just out of reach. And those aliens are people too. People we don’t really know, or understand a lot of the time, but still people themselves. And each is coming off the page, fully realised and whole.


The story? Well, I won’t spoil it. There are enough turns here for...a twisty-turny thing. There were moments when I turned the page in surprise, needing to see where a sudden revelation left the story. This is a soaring adventure, a found family investigating deep mysteries, with social relationships that give the fast-paced action a heart and depth. This is a fun story, a clever story, with some big questions woven through the narrative. The characters are intriguing and feel real; the universe is vast, filled with mystery and the scintillating shimmer of hidden treasure among the scattered remnants of ruined worlds. And the story is smart, and funny, and emotionally affecting, and has the kind of drive and energy which leaves you reading page after page late into the night - or early into the morning.


This is, in sum, a great space opera, and a joy to read. And you should read it!

Shards of Earth is the first book by Adrian Tchaikovsky that I’ve read, and it felt so good to be back in a science fiction world after drifting away from the genre for so long. This book made me feel so excited to read more sci-fi books this year.

Tchaikovsky is a well-known name in the SFF genre. You can feel his confidence in his ability to write space operas seep into his work. He’s also unafraid to put his characters through hell and kill them off, there were a few surprises in there that I didn’t see coming.

The highlight of this book was unspace. Sci-fi readers will be familiar with jumps through space, but where do they go during those jumps? Tchaikovsky introduces unspace, a dark, shadowy void where only you exist. It’s recommended to enter a pod and sleep during those jumps because when you wake, you might not be the only creature in the dark. This concept felt so unique and eerie and was the shining feature of this book. It felt as though Tchaikovsky brought a little bit of fantasy into space to create something fresh and exciting, capturing both the claustrophobic and dangerous potential for life in space.

The opening scenes were amazing. While we follow a large cast, this book mainly focuses on two main characters, Solace and Idris, former soldiers and lovers who fought against the Architects. The Architects are an enemy that no one knows anything about. It makes them all the more sinister. How do you fight something so unfathomable?

While war is at the heart of this book, a constant, looming threat, there was also a strong theme of freedom. How to obtain it, what it means and what do to with it. How do you achieve peace after the horrors of a war that is not quite over?

The beginning and ending were very entertaining, but I found myself confused in the middle at various points when the plot slowed down. The world building is heavy but detailed (there’s also a glossary at the end which was helpful! ) but the pacing is more world/plot based than character based, which, on occasion, meant that were were just told a meeting or event happened, rather than seeing the characters in those situations. Being a character driven reader, that jarred me out of the narrative occasionally. That’s just down to personal preference.

Overall, Shards of Earth was a nice introduction into what to expect from Tchaikovsky, an author I will read more of in the future. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a plot driven, science-fiction with themes of war, mystery and found family.

Divine Architects or Space Truckers Fight Back!

It’s hard to know exactly where to place Shards of Earth. Is it serious science fiction or rip-roaring space opera? A lot of both, I think. There is a febrile imagination at work here, filled with familiar creations and much that is new, combined with an often manic narrative of chase and fight.

The Architects, enormous virtually indestructible entities the size of Earth’s Moon, appear from nowhere, systematically destroy and refashion inhabited planets, exterminating their populations in a wholly disinterested manner. Humanity in alliance with alien races mount a powerful but ineffectual defence, until the chance discovery of human Intermediaries, men and women who somehow can psychically enter and reveal themselves to the minds of the Architects, and who consequently achieve the withdrawal of this irresistible force from known space.

After the Architect War, the Intermediaries have value in their ability to navigate spaceships through the shortcuts of Un-Space, and their small numbers and vulnerability leave them open to abuse and exploitation. One of the few survivors from the war, Idris, has become the pilot of a clapped-out space salvage ship, in order to keep a low profile. He has not slept in the sixty years since the war ended and reacts badly to attempts to capture him and make use of his skills and talents. Sought out by a cadre of genetically bred warrior women, The Parthenon, by human powers, by alien criminals and thugs, he and his crew manage to keep one step ahead of the opposition while discovering unsettling new truths about the nature of the Architects, before their eventual violent return.

Tchaikovsky happily references Frank Herbert, H P Lovecraft, Ian M Banks, Star Wars, and his own earlier space novels in a frantic, frenetic, masterful tour-de-force.

Inicio de trilogía por parte del prolífico autor británico. Una historia con una escala temporal enorme que abarca numerosos planetas, razas y amenazas. Cuenta con un inicio que requiere algo de esfuerzo para situarse dada la gran cantidad de nombres, lugares y seres humanos y no humanos que hacen aparición. Una vez asentados, la historia nos sitúa frente a una amenaza global: los Arquitectos. Unos seres alienígenas que arrasan toda vida en otros planetas del universo. Entender sus mecanismos y cómo su amenaza afecta a los seres de este mundo es una de las claves del libro. Una novela con acción, política, conspiraciones, y otros muchos aspectos que hacen de ella otra gran obra de Tchaikovsky.

✅ Los Arquitectos son unos enemigos que van a dar mucha guerra. Una especie de Galactus cuya amenaza promete grandes dosis de emoción.

✅ La novela tiene un gran ritmo. Tchaikovsky sigue mejorando si cabe y esta novela apenas tiene páginas sobrantes. Todo se aprovecha.

✅ Los temas que trata durante la novela, con referencias claras a nuestro presente y gran especulación sobre nuestro futuro.

❌ El primer tercio de novela no es fácil. Muchos personajes, años y razas que ya forman parte de un universo al que acabamos de llegar y con los que familiarizarse. Es frecuente tener que revisar glosario para entender diferentes relaciones.

Before i begin with this review i just want to let you all know that i utterly adored this book, one of my favourite reads from 2021 so far, possibly even ever! So this will be very gushy, prepare yourself! Adrain is also a super cool guy, ive had a few brief discussions with him on Twitter and i think its awesome how he interacts with his readers! Im mortified that this is the first book ive read of his even though i have Children of Time and Children of Ruin on my shelf and i recently bought my partner Doors of Eden in paperback for his birthday, so lots to binge through!

Right on to the book, Shards of Earth is the first installment in The Final Architects Trilogy. The story starts off after a great war has destroyed Earth and mankind. Mankind were forced to create an elite fighting army which are basically advanced human beings known as intermediaries. One of those intermediaries is our protagonist Idris, a navigator on the ship the 'Vulture God'. I really loved the cast of characters that formed the crew (Solace was my fav!), it gave me 'A long way to a small angry planet' vibes. Although having said that this book had many unique aspects that ive never seen explored in the sci-fi genre before, it made for a really cool read.

Idris is a super interesting character as he doesnt age, sleep or eat. He's as far from human as it gets whilst at the same time weirdly human. Our baddie's in this story are known as the Architects who roam the universe destroying everything and anything they come into contact with. When Idris learns that the Architects are making a resurgence he believes that all may be not as peaceful as it once was.

Overall i found this book to be massively accessible, the world building was rich and detailed leaving the reader wanting more and also great for readers getting into the sci-fi genre, the cover is a little misleading as it makes the book look like hardcore sci-fi and i like my sci-fi but i do find it intimidating but i must say this book is great and i think the majority of readers would take to it really easily! My only ever so slight critisism is that i would have liked a bit more descriptive detail, this world was so vast and it was hard work trying to picture everything especially the different alien races etc, more description may have made that a little easier. All in all the writing is great, some of the best sci-fi ive ever read. Just call me a life long Tchaikovsky fan!

This was my first foray into an Adrian Tchaikovsky book, and it won’t be my last as I was hooked from the first page and devoured this book in the space of a couple of days. Grumbling at having to work and do other things rather than read this book and having a very late night as I hit the later stages of the book where it became completely impossible for me to put it down.

Sci-Fi is a genre I tend to dip in and out of, and I often find that it is the technical details that lose me, but that was not the case here. Shards of Earth throws us into the action right from the start, opening with a frontline battle against an Architect that immediately sold me on this book, and was a brilliant way of establishing not just the threat – and the stakes – but some of the major groups, and two of our main characters, before plunging into the true depths of this universe.

Tchaikovsky has created a richly detailed, and expansive universe and particularly during the first chapters of this book there is a lot of different details, peoples and characters to come to grips with, and for the most part, we are trusted to make sense of it – although aided by some of the most spectacularly vivid writing I’ve read in a while, with those same details so easy to visualise that it felt as though you had been dropped into the universe in person rather than absorbing it through ink and page. There is - as I discovered after finishing the book – a helpful glossary and timeline at the back of the book which is a fantastic reference point, although I very much enjoyed unravelling the complexities of the different species, planets and different political systems as I went, and for me personally, that was very much part of the experience of the book.

There were many fascinating species and aspects to life in space – I enjoyed the concept of unspace and the idea of something looking back, and again the writing helped bring that unsettling feeling to life so that there were a couple of times during travel when I would pause and feel the need to look around. From aliens to robotics, and composite beings, the universe is vast and diverse, and each was realised even during brief interactions. However, if I had to pick a favourite, I think it would be the Architects. I loved everything about the Architects (which might not be how you’re supposed to feel towards them), but as disturbing as they were, they were endlessly fascinating to me. There are still so many questions about them, and their purpose and I can’t wait to discover the answers, but every encounter with them or the legacy of their presence was some of my favourite parts of the book, and just the sheer imagery of what they could do to planets and ships and the idea that even those who had lost their worlds to this process of recreation could see something more than wanton destruction in what they had done – a design, a terrible beauty, a purpose not yet understood – and there was something haunting about that.

This is a vast space opera, and we encounter many peoples and characters throughout the book, and yet at the core, is the crew of the Vulture God. It’s not necessarily as immediate as the worldbuilding, as where we are thrown into the deep end of the universe, the characters are built up over time, and we get to know them through their journeys and struggles. There was very much a found family vibe to this crew, which was fantastic, without losing the differences brought through their different cultures and experiences, and the conflict that those differences fed into at times.

Solace and Idris who we had met right at the beginning are both interesting characters, albeit ones that it took a little longer to unravel – and I particularly enjoyed watching the former become more and more involved as a member of the crew. As well as the differences between the two who had in different ways been adapted to protect the colonies, with one embracing that duty and the restrictions it came with and one rejecting it and choosing to live free, and their shared history. However, the entire crew stood out as individuals, each bringing a different element to the group. Rollo was possibly the most relatable, as he was the ‘father’ of the group, and you could see that in his manner, way of speaking – calling the others ‘children’ and his wrath when their home and family are attacked, a little rough and ready, he was the heart of the group. Kris was probably my favourite – her backstory intrigued me, and she was an interesting character who you wouldn’t expect to find in a crew like this, and yet is an integral part even beyond her partnership with Idris. Olli – the drone specialist – was another that really stood out and I always enjoyed it when she was on the page, waiting to see what she was going to do next – also her Scorpion was possibly one of the best bits of technology in the book.

Shards of Earth was a brilliant read and blew whatever expectations I had out of the water. A fascinating and beautifully detailed universe, with vivid imagery and a fantastic cast, this is a book I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend. My only complaint? That I have to wait for the next book. Although I have every intention of exploring more by the author while I wait, as well as rereading this one long before then because there was so much to this universe that I know I will be discovering little details for many rereads to come.

I’m still reeling after finishing Shards of Earth – what a story… For those who have experienced Mass Effect (re-released this week, by the way! My husband is playing it as I’m writing this post), I can only say that it’s a very similar story, both in terms of how grand, amazingly written and dark it is. If you’re a fan of stories like that, you will not be disappointed.

It was just an amazing book, and now I have no idea how I’ll wait for the next installments. This is a book of some 560+ pages – and I gobbled it up IN TWO DAYS. I wasn’t able to move away from it. Now that I’m finished, I am still not sure I’ll be able to move away from the grandness of it for a long time. I’m still just thinking about all that happened.

TL; DR: if you loved Mass Effect, you MUST read Shards of Earth.

This was my first book by Adrian Tchaikovsky, and I quickly learned that he’s amazing at writing battle! I’m a reader that’s hard to keep interested in battle scenes, but this book? It drops you straight into the action, onto a spaceship, and things are HAPPENING. I could immediately feel my heart hammer faster. The pages melted – and that helps when the book is like 560 pages long!

I also loved the quite diverse cast. This book features a mostly-cloned (genetically grown?) warrior women race, like a clan of Valkiries with impeccable discipline – they represented a very strong fighter woman element. Yet, being born very able-bodied (stronger than normal humans), they weren’t the only strong fighting woman type in the story.

The ship crew that we follow also contained a woman who in all respects would be considered born disabled in our society, but she was incredibly strong and capable in the story, and valued for her skills, which were simply placed elsewhere than able-bodied people’s (she was able to control artificial systems and fight with the help of technology, which she was also very good at repairing and creating.)

Both women were very tough! Aside from that, the book also normalizes nonbinaries in society, and that aside, of course there are a couple non-humans on board who make it all the more interesting to be around them and learn their differences and how they function and communicate with the humans.

There was one notable thread of character clash – between the genetically engineered woman and the disabled woman. Olli, born disabled, hates the Partheni’s guts – because she believes that if they were to take over, people like her would cease to exist (or rather, would be “corrected” out of humanity’s genetics). And she is right to be angry on that part. But on the other hand, this particular Partheni woman didn’t create her race – she doesn’t want to change anyone else into a genetically modified human. It’s just that she was made and born that way, and of course she loves her sisters and the rest of her kind. They’re her home – and you can’t blame her for it either. I’m not summing up the whole thing here, but I thought that clash between these characters was very well written, and challenging, and both points of view were presented as very valid.

In this conflict, I don’t know who’s right. It made me think a lot. It made me feel a lot. And that’s a good plot and good writing. Moreover, that’s a good way to stress society issues we are beginning to have now ourselves – what with the way to check DNA and “eliminate” issues in the womb, which is rightfully incenscing a lot of society groups at the moment. It’s an ongoing issue that will only escalate as the 21st century progresses, so it’s only right to talk about it in fiction.

I can’t help feeling like Shards of Earth reminded me a little of A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. They are very different books and the stories and plots themselves are very different – Shards of Earth is a much grander, darker plot that involves not just just the crew, but entire worlds and civilizations at large. Meanwhile, Small Angry Planet was more about specific persons and their histories.

However, the ragtag crew and the way they interacted reminded me a lot of that story. And that’s how I knew I’d definitely love the book – if you love the crew, you end up loving the story. There is something incredible about an odd mixture of very different people, all written in a way where they just come off the page. Scifi lets authors accentuate character traits through outward appearances, even races different to humans can lend an intensification of some character traits. It’s part of why I have a long running love story with scifi.

And the best part is that seemingly all the characters have some sort of secret – at least, the central ones. And it’s a slow reveal – you get to guess at all the reasons they might be doing this and that. And then you find out. And it’s not quite what you thought.

It’s also one of those books where the author actively engages in torturing the reader – by making the characters irresistible, and then plucking them away from you. Wherever they go, there’s trouble and they’ve got to devise yet another way to get out of it, it’s just so active! The next thing you know, you are suddenly able to read into the subtle cues that a non-human gives to transmit secret intent that even the crew isn’t quite reading into. It’s an experience, this book, and it’s great. I haven’t read such a good scifi for a long time, and I truly can’t wait to read the rest of the series.

Overall...

Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky was AMAZING. I absolutely can’t wait to read the rest of the books in the series – and I can’t wait to pick up other books by this author that have been recommended to me by friends before. The Final Architects is shaping up to be an amazing scifi story, grand and looming, one you couldn’t possibly forget. The first book felt comparable to the Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin for me, or Mass Effect, if you’re a gamer – and that’s a measure of AMAZING scifi. I can’t wait to read more!
I thank the publisher and The Write Reads tours for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.

If you want aliens, action, and humanity on the brink, then "Shards of Earth" will definitely float your boat (or spaceship!). As expected, this book is superbly written, is well thought out, is full of brilliant characters, and has a truly great and immersive plot. Very much looking forward to the next book in this series (and the 3rd!). Can Adrian Tchaikovsky write a bad book? I don't think so!

My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley. This review was written voluntarily and is entirely my own, unbiased, opinion.

I was a little intimidated by the size of the book, and being the first installment of a new series, the prologue definitely took a lot of concentration and jarred me slightly with the sheer amount of information I was met with. I was left juggling different names and places in the midst of a battle. However, as I got further in, I fell into a flow and it was like I had been in this world before.

Idris is a firm favourite for me when it comes to characters and I enjoyed the way we learnt about him piece by piece as though needing to earn his trust.

In sci-fi, I am always drawn to the set up of the crew. If you are a fan of the "found family" trope, you will love Kris and Rollo. I found it heartwarming to read how each crew member protected each other, not just because it was their job, but because they care!

If you are a fan of epic sci-fi with great character development, I fully recommend this!

This is hands-down one of the best SF space operas I have read in a long, long time. I recently finished ‘To Sleep in a Sea of Stars’ by Christopher Paolini, which makes for an interesting comparison, as both recycle a lot of the well-known tropes of this particular sub-genre.

The one in the Tchaikovsky book I really do not have any fondness for is the concept of ‘unspace’, a kind of Lovecraftian hyperspeed realm inhabited by weird looming entities barely aware of our existence, but that are likely to induce instant madness if they ever turn their cosmic gaze on us poor human spacefarers.

The difference between Paolini and Tchaikovsky as writers is how the latter tackles this particular trope: It becomes an integral part of the nature and reality of the alien Architects, described in the Glossary as “moon-sized entities that can reshape populated planets and ships”. Yes, I am sure the Death Star reference is deliberate, while the Psychic Intermediaries (Ints) is an equally deliberate nod to the Guild Navigators of Dune.

Paolini simply has a tick-list of genre tropes that he dutifully runs through in ‘To Sleep in a Sea of Stars’, which really does not justify its length and rambles on for just one space battle too many. Yes, ‘Shards of Earth’ is also a monster of a book (in various meanings of that phrase), but I was never bored once or even found my attention wandering.

And despite this being the opener in a series, the ending is truly delightful and quite self-contained (as opposed to wanting to hurl your reading device at a wall in frustration, as is so often the case with SF series that end inconclusively as a kind of hook to get you to read the next, and the next…)

Tchaikovsky is one of the best writers of alien species and cultures out there, and ‘Shards of Earth’ is chockablock with some of the weirdest creatures I have ever encountered in SF. These are not the cutesy ugly-but-lovable ones that tend to crowd the Star Wars universe, or the endlessly humanoid variants of Star Trek, bar a few extra bumps on the forehead, nose or a different skin colour … Tchaikovsky’s aliens have a kind of baroque weirdness and gothic grandeur that renders them both inscrutable and utterly fascinating.

What I also respect about Tchaikovsky is that he does not spoon feed the reader. You really have to work at the beginning of this book to ‘get it’. But once you have a basic grasp of the intricacies of the narrative set-up, the reader is in for a truly wild ride that consistently surprises and amazes.

Synopsis:

Humanity has reached out beyond Earth, settling on other planets and meeting other species. But then the Architects arrive and destruction comes along with them. Earth is suddenly destroyed, along with billions of its inhabitants. The Architects continue to appear all over space, their presence prompting mass evacuations and futile attempts to defend life, both human and other.

Following the discovery of a young girl’s ability to communicate with the Architects, hundreds of human volunteers are genetically enhanced to become “intermediaries” and their minds are moulded to duplicate this ability, though many die before the process is complete. One survivor of it, Idris Telemmier, makes contact with and then destroys an Architect during a desperate battle and they disappear, leaving the humans and their allies to rebuild in their wake.

Years later, alliances between races and factions are taut and power is sought by all sides as the memory of the Architect’s presence fades. Idris is now the navigator for a crew of Spacers on board the ship Vulture God. A wartime ally and friend, Solace of the Parthenon, a group of parthenogenetically grown women, makes contact with him in an attempt to try and recruit him. But bigger things are at play as Idris starts to discover that the Architects might not be gone forever.

Review:

I feel like I should set out my usual reading habits to give some insight as to my thoughts on this book. I’m pretty open to what genre I read in and tend not to favour any one genre, mostly listening out for buzz on books from fellow readers or going through stages of bingeing a particular genre for a few months or so. I’m certainly not a stranger to sci-fi fiction but I would say I’m more of a casual reader of it.

I picked up The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky last year and it was the first of the author’s work I’d read (I’m glossing over the fact that Children of Time has been on my TBR since the dawn of time). I enjoyed that book and so was very keen to take the opportunity to read Shards of Earth.
To cut to the chase….wow, this was great! It certainly takes you on an adventure and one that I thoroughly enjoyed.

The book throws us straight into the action. We’re on the front lines of a battle to stop the Architects from destroying Berlenhof, a planet at the heart of the colonies (the surviving human worlds following the destruction of Earth), with Solace and her sisters of the Parthenon and Idris, the fairly newly minted Intermediary. The scenes here are purely cinematic and I was gripped as we watched their desperate attempts to use Idris, this new “weapon” to beat back the Architect.

Once we then move to the present day, we really start to get into the world that Tchaikovsky has built. It took me a while to get to grips with all the different species, the planets and their governments but there is helpfully a glossary, list of key players and timeline included in the book which is a good reference point for when you get too confused.

We get to know Idris and Solace and are introduced to the crew of the Vulture God and I LOVED them. They’re a bit of a ragtag bunch, with members of different species making up the crew. I got some Firefly vibes at first, but they soon disappeared as I got to know these characters and they made their own impression on me. Idris is quite a sad character at first, somewhat despondent and always seemingly on the edge of utter exhaustion and ripe to tip into insanity at any moment. We get to know his history and not only what he has been through but what he continues to be exposed to as he navigates his crew around space and unspace, the menacing place lurking just behind real space that Idris can guide the ship through to travel around quicker.

Solace is also an interesting character, seemingly more layered than the initial descriptions of her might suggest which becomes more and more apparent as she gets closer to being a fully fledged member of the crew. The rest of the crew too are great, I’d hope to see more of Kris in the sequel as she had an intriguing background.

This was an adventure story for me, following the most unlikely people who you would expect to be the ones trying to save….well, the universe. There are some creepy parts, some terribly sad parts and some humorous parts along the way.

I have friends who don’t read sci-fi, its not for them they say. But underneath all of the alien species, the strange planets and the spaceships, this is a story about people fighting to save life as they know it and fighting to save their friends and family.

I cannot wait for the next book to come out and I can see myself re-reading this one. I noticed that Sophie Aldred has narrated the audiobook version. I listened to her doing the audio of The Doors of Eden and thought she did a great job so might pick up the audio to catch myself up ahead of sequel coming out…..which I hope will be in the not to distant future!

have been on a bit of a Tchaikovsky readathon over the past 6 months, discovering how much I enjoy his work. Cage of Souls has been a particular stand out book. So, a new book set in space eighty years after Earth was destroyed by a moon-sized enemy? Yeah, that sounds like a book I'd be in to.

The moon-sized enemy, the Architects, killed millions as humans escaped Earth. To combat the Architects, humanity created some new enhanced humans such as Idris, who can communicate mind-to-mind with the Architects, although with some difficulty given the size differences. The Architects then simply disappeared leaving these new enhanced humans obsolete and not much liked by regular, unaltered humans. Eighty years on, Idris and his crew find a ship that has only recently been destroyed, and it seems clear that it was destroyed by an Architect. From here, the crew are hunted by various factions for various reasons that all come down to this destroyed ship, what it contained and what it means.

The scale of the book is immense – but then, space is larger than we can really comprehend, but there are more than enough elements to the story to make it feel as large as it is. The Architects are massive, unspace that is used to travel large distances (think wormholes but more of a void that has a presence that haunts anyone that dares cross through it), ancient civilisations and artefacts that can scare off an Architect. The universe for Shards of Earth is as big as you would expect for a space story and yet there are also moments where despite the enormity of everything, there are also moments of how small some things really are. Spaceships that house a handful of people, over-crowded docking bays, overpopulated planets. It all works as a nice contrast between the enormity of their life and how little space you actually have to live in.
The story seems more plot-based than character-based, which for a first instalment isn't a bad thing. There is an awful lot to set up and unlike with books set on one world, there's a whole universe to set up here. There isn't just a future Earth, there's a new breed of humanity, aliens, colonies, worlds, space stations. It's a lot, but tied in with the main characters it doesn't feel overbearing. It also allows the next book in the series to focus on other things or be more character-based as we already know about this future universe.

The plot will get you hooked though. It was a bit slow at first, with part one leaving me wondering whether I'd actually be surprised and not like the book. Sticking with it to the end is definitely worth it though as once you start getting into it and understanding how things are and more of what's happening, it grips you and leaves you wanting more. You won't get everything you want out of the book, but there needs to be some intrigue for the second so it's fine. Having some questions when you've finished will only be disappointing if you never get answers in subsequent books.

Whilst the scale of the book is impressive, it's also a slight downfall to the book. I love the idea of the Architects as they would be terrifying. Their scale though bothers me. Imagining space can be hard enough as we are nothing compared to the enormity of it. Picturing a world-destroyer the size of a moon I can do. Picturing a 5-person spacecraft and other spaceships going against a moon-sized world-destroyer though? Was too much for my mind. I could never get the scales right in my head because it's all too big to imagine when you're also comparing it to what is fighting against it. It might not be a problem for some but I just couldn't wrap my head around it well enough.

SHARDS OF EARTH is beautifully written, finding a neat balance between plot and characters in a story that does lean on plot more than the characters. The main characters all get their moments in the book, and of course, it wouldn't be an Adrian Tchaikovsky novel without a character that is both weird and wonderful – there's actual crab people and I need more of them! Despite struggling with the enormity of parts, it is an enjoyable read and leaves me eagerly waiting for the next instalment so that I can find out just what the hell is going on with the Architects.

Rating 4/5

Anyone who reads Adrian Tchaikovsky knows to expect excellent world building, deep characterisation, well realised cultures and species and rollicking good plot. Shards of Earth was no exception. It’s a tome of serious space opera but not a word is wasted and I found myself earing through it. The ending was good and promises more to come from future books in the series. Highly recommend.

SHARDS OF EARTH feels both similar and different to the other more "space-y" books I've read by Adrian Tchaikovsky. It has the same epic scope of DOORS OF EDEN and CHILDREN OF TIME, but doesn't feel as intense on the science - and has no focus on evolutionary science.

There is still a very rigid set of science rules the world follows that makes the tech feel cohesive and not "anything goes", which I really like as "anything goes" often feels a bit cheap and get-out-of-jail-free to me. Instead, it's clear that a lot of time has been put into creating the world and ensuring the rules are followed. It makes escapes and victories feel so much more earnt and satisfying.

The other major difference is this book is a bit more space opera-y - big bad aliens, humanity at peril, multiple alien races across the galaxy with tensions between them. Everyone is fighting for control of Idris, and the ship his crewmates accidentally stumble upon. It's <em>Star Wars </em>(<em>A New Hope)</em> in that they're space-couriers-just-trying-to-eek-a-living-but-get-caught-up-in-bigger-matters, and partly a war epic, except they think the war is over.

The Architects are a really unnerving enemy. Partly it's because they're so unknowable (what are they? what do they want? why?) Partly it's because of how horrific their abilities are - reshaping whole planets into twisted, beautifully perverse shapes without obvious means to do so (aka, no hands.) It's the peeled-open earth on the cover, and it's a really effective way of making these moon-sized entities thanks to a prologue showing one of the historic battles and then new soldiers being shown the remains of Earth. Thanks to this, they're a massive threat looming over the book, despite them not being there for most of the book.

The information control around the Architects is brilliantly done - enough that you can follow what's going on and want to know more, but not enough that you stop reading because there are no more secrets to dole out. Some of it isn't secrets, but what happened in the war, another set of mysteries to keep you hooked.

It's a very good start of series, and it makes me want to read the next book now!

And the hits keep coming from Tchaikovsky... Another day another micro-genre. Here he is playing in the post contact, large alien conglomerate sandpit - with unknowable alien gods (The Architects) coming to destroy us wrinkle. Or at least they came to destroy us, and did indeed destroy Earth so we have a humanity without a home in a universe where they are relatively small fry. He is not of the opinion that humanity will fundamentally change: so those who were settled on planets already hate the refugees, there are broadly other factions who hate post-humanism, aliens, and all the usually internecine disputes that happen when you get more than ten people together. Particularly if some of those people aren't people, or are genetically engineered cloned warrior nun people you assumed were invented to destroy the rest of humanity.

Its clear he is having an immense amount of fun here, his central characters after all are slightly dodgy traders in the Firefly mode (but with more aliens). The big picture here isn't staggeringly original, its broadly a pick five overused space opera concepts and blend them together, but he does use his talent for colouring it all in work wonders. His aliens are well drawn and interesting, the episodic adventures all have narrative purpose all leading to a finale where it makes sense that the fate of humanity (the universe?) may be riding on what can only be described as a ragtag bunch of misfits. And if you can pull that hoary old cliche off, you can probably do anything.

Its interesting that he seems quite comfortable with the hand-waiving of so many of his big concepts here. He is certainly not the first writer to invent an unknowable hyperspace and then potentially stuff it full of eldritch horrors (frankly hyperspace without eldritch horrors would be a surprise these days). Equally his mechanistic and impossibly destructive elder gods popping up for an ethnic cleanse have the sense of the Expanse back story about them. And lets be fair, his cloned warrior nun super-soldiers are just Warhammer 40K space marines with a welcome gender change. And yet there is something else going on here, its not as if he can't be original when he wants to be, so to choose quite so many stock puzzle pieces ultimately feels like there is a purpose to it. Maybe his agent said can you write something more like this - and tossed him some Banks, Reynolds, The Expanse...(answer: of course I can and I can do it better). There is the sense of genre and sub-genre as a toybox and popping out the odd even more shameless "Entertainment" (as Graham Greene would have it), is nothing to be ashamed of. And of course he gets to play out a few relevant political arguments - disability rights get a thoughtful airing here - and his healthy cynicism at much human capitalist politics is a thread through pretty much all of his work. But also this is the start of a trilogy, and even here each chapter reveals a slightly more alien concept or idea. His ultimate antagonists - The Architects - at this stage do remain largely unknown, and seemingly unknowable. But I am certain that will not remain the case, and it may well be that this hugely enjoyable genre fix is a preamble to something considerably more out-there than what is here.

Con esta novela Adrian Tchaikovsky da comienzo a una saga de ciencia ficción que se aleja del camino marcada por Children of Time y su secuela Children of Ruin. En esta ocasión nos encontramos con una space opera algo más convencional, con su adecuada ración de razas alienígenas, su consabida intriga política y algún toque de horror cósmico que recuerda a The Outside.


La humanidad tiene algunas colonias repartidas por el espacio que sobreviven con dificultad tras la pérdida de la Tierra y otros planetas a manos de los Arquitectos, unas entidades alienígenas casi incomprensibles que transforman en esculturas planetas habitados, acabando de paso con su población. La guerra se acabó en su momento con la intervención de los Int, humanos desarrollados exprofeso en un duro procedimiento con muy pocas posibilidades de éxito que son capaces de entablar una conversación con los Arquitectos.

En la novela se comparten dos puntos de vista: el de uno de estos Int, llamado Idris, que asqueado tras la guerra pertenece a una variopinta tripulación que va haciendo encargos por la galaxia y Solace, miembro de una sociedad matriarcal exclusivamente femenina, el Parthenon, creada por una investigadora en el pasado para mejorar la humanidad y que se convirtió en el principal ejército humano en la lucha contra los Arquitectos.

Como es natural, existe un elemento desencadenante que romperá con la situación de status quo que se había conseguido hasta el momento. Resulta muy interesante cómo el autor utiliza a los compañeros de tripulación de Idris (humanos y alienígenas) para darnos ejemplos de las distintas posibilidades que pueden dar lugar a un ser «sentiente» ya sea de origen natural o artificial. La tripulación es maravillosa, con una sentimiento de camaradería que infunde esperanza sobre la capacidad de colaboración entre especies. Están caracterizados de una forma estupenda y consiguen despertar nuestra empatía desde el primer momento, así que sufriremos mucho con lo que el destino les depara.

La entrada en la novela no es fácil, con muchos términos y cierta historia previa que no se desvela desde un principio, pero una vez superado este obstáculo, la lectura fluye mucho mejor. También es innegable que es el comienzo de una historia más larga, por lo que hay mucha exposición y en ocasiones acontecen pocas cosas, pero para compensar Tchaikovsky se saca de la manga un híbrido alienígena que reparte cera como Michael «ídem» en Scott Pilgrim y que tiene una resistencia al dolor, la desmembración y en general a cualquier ataque físico con sus poderes de regeneración que deja a Lobezno camino del asilo.

Me gustaría saber cómo se va a seguir desarrollando la historia para poder tener una opinión más completa, pero como primera novela de una narración más larga Shards of Earth me parece recomendable, aunque no exenta de fallos.

This is the third book by Adrian Tchaikovsky that I’ve reviewed, and the third of his new books I’ve read this year. He is certainly a powerhouse when it comes to releasing books, and I am more than happy to try and keep up! So far, I have not been disappointed. This story is set in a world in which humans have been colonising space for about two centuries, and it begins at the end of the war with the Architects, great planet-sized beings that got their name from the way they destroy worlds by twisting and ripping them to create works of art. Very early on in the book there is a chilling description of Earth as it has been left by the Architects, a great flower-like structure with its core exposed and frozen, forever reaching towards the sun (this is actually the image on the cover of the book).

In the aftermath of the war, all the different factions that had united against this unstoppable force begin to split into factions, so that along with the great loss of planets and lives, and the depletion of resources, there is great tension politically across the known universe. Unaltered humans -the Colonisers- are resentful of other groups, such as the genetically modified humans and other species that have integrated themselves into society, and another war seems to be brewing. It is in this high-strung political climate that the crew of Vulture God, a salvage vessel aboard which Idris now makes a living, finds a ship only recently destroyed, and it seems clear it was done by an Architect. From here the crew are hunted by all the various factions who seek to use this finding for their own gain, while more sinister things seem to be happening in the depths of space…

One of the things I loved about this book is the scale: it is set in space, which is as infinite as you can get, but there are certain elements that actually make it feel huge. The massive Architects, the ‘unspace’ that people use to travel between distant parts of the universe, the void in which a large and incomprehensible presence haunts all who cross it, and the Throughways and Relics left by a civilisation named the Originators, which nobody truly understands. These massive elements of the universe pair perfectly with the claustrophobia of the spacer life, in small ships that keep recycling parts to keep running, in overpopulated docking bays on overpopulated planets. The contrast was well executed, and it made me feel the same way the characters did as I read the different parts.

And speaking of characters, this was definitely a fun cast, and I got very attached to them! Tchaikovsky has a great knack for character writing, and especially writing group dynamics. I loved getting to know the point of view characters and their internal thoughts, but I also enjoyed watching their interactions and changing relationships with others. Idris and Solace were probably my favourites of the main cast, though Rollo comes a close third, and everyone (strange aliens included) feels well-rounded and believable, even those that appear in only a few scenes.

But really, Shards of Earth is just beautifully written. It perfectly balances the technical language with vivid imagery, and the character development pulls it all together to create this brilliant thing. And of course, it wouldn’t be an Adrian Tchaikovsky novel without creatures of weird and wonderful evolutionary traits! Powerful clam overlords, crabs with screens on their shells, strange worm-like creatures, and near-indestructible symbiotes populate these pages, and I hope to see more in the next instalment!

Shards of Earth is the first book in a brand new series by Adrian Tchaikovsky. I was lucky enough to have an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I have to admit I’m usually more of a fantasy reader, I’ve tried some YA sci-fi before but this was my first introduction to the space opera genre.
It was fine and i am hoping to pick up the next book in the series very soon

First off, this is a complicated sci-fi epic that I was so excited to read.

This book is mainly about 2 people, Solace and Idris. Solace is a soldier from a race of genetically engineered women whose task is to recruit Idris for their cause. Idris is a previous soldier turned navigator who was genetically experimented on to allow him to fight a world-ending being called the Architects. After responding to a normal call for a request to bring back a ship, the crew discovers something that changes everything.

This book is way more plot-based than character-based but saying that doesn't mean that I disliked any of the characters when I was not supposed to. they were written with depth and I found them very intriguing but I didn't feel very emotionally attached to them. That may be because it is plot-based.

In terms of the plot I was hooked, I'm not going to lie I was incredibly confused for line the first 20% of this but I'm glad I stuck it out. It's been a while since I've read anything that is so unlike the real world and thus it took a moment to get used to but once I did I was very intrigued. There are a lot of questions about a lot of things, some that are answered and some that aren't in this book but it does hit you.

The pacing is a little slow but honestly, I think it works well, it gives you a chance to get immersed into the world and understand fully what is happening.

Overall this was solid, I enjoyed myself and I have a few questions I want to be answered so when the next book is read I will be there.