Tom Goetz reviewed Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Review of 'Shards of Earth (The Final Architecture, #1)' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Classic space opera.
561 pages
English language
Published Nov. 2, 2021
4 stars
(2 reviews)
The Arthur C. Clarke award-winning author of Children of Time brings us an extraordinary space opera about humanity on the brink of extinction, and how one man's discovery will save or destroy us all.
The war is over. Its heroes forgotten. Until one chance discovery . . .
Idris has neither aged nor slept since they remade him in the war. And one of humanity's heroes now scrapes by on a freelance salvage vessel, to avoid the attention of greater powers.
After earth was destroyed, mankind created a fighting elite to save their species, enhanced humans such as Idris. In the silence of space they could communicate, mind-to-mind, with the enemy. Then their alien aggressors, the Architects, simply disappeared—and Idris and his kind became obsolete.
Now, fifty years later, Idris and his crew have discovered something strange abandoned in space. It's clearly the work of the Architects—but are they returning? …
The Arthur C. Clarke award-winning author of Children of Time brings us an extraordinary space opera about humanity on the brink of extinction, and how one man's discovery will save or destroy us all.
The war is over. Its heroes forgotten. Until one chance discovery . . .
Idris has neither aged nor slept since they remade him in the war. And one of humanity's heroes now scrapes by on a freelance salvage vessel, to avoid the attention of greater powers.
After earth was destroyed, mankind created a fighting elite to save their species, enhanced humans such as Idris. In the silence of space they could communicate, mind-to-mind, with the enemy. Then their alien aggressors, the Architects, simply disappeared—and Idris and his kind became obsolete.
Now, fifty years later, Idris and his crew have discovered something strange abandoned in space. It's clearly the work of the Architects—but are they returning? And if so, why? Hunted by gangsters, cults and governments, Idris and his crew race across the galaxy hunting for answers. For they now possess something of incalculable value, that many would kill to obtain.
4thace reviewed Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Review of 'Shards of Earth' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
I liked this first installment in a space opera story, with mind powers, aliens, symbionts, FTL travel, gravitic technology, and vastly powerful warring factions. There are plenty of villains that menace our protagonists but the big bads are he moon-sized entities known as Architects whose motives for wiping out inhabited worlds is the essential mystery at the heart of the plot. The two main viewpoint characters are the deep void navigator Idris and the supersoldier clone warrior Solace who have a bond going back decades from when the Architects were repelled the first time around. Now after generations it seems as though they might be returning. There are spooks and agents of spooky aliens, blustering diplomats, and a scrappy salvage ship crew Idris belongs to who manage to claim our affections. They try and fail, have narrow escapes, emotional losses, and inevitably find themselves at the crucial lopsided showdown. I'm …
I liked this first installment in a space opera story, with mind powers, aliens, symbionts, FTL travel, gravitic technology, and vastly powerful warring factions. There are plenty of villains that menace our protagonists but the big bads are he moon-sized entities known as Architects whose motives for wiping out inhabited worlds is the essential mystery at the heart of the plot. The two main viewpoint characters are the deep void navigator Idris and the supersoldier clone warrior Solace who have a bond going back decades from when the Architects were repelled the first time around. Now after generations it seems as though they might be returning. There are spooks and agents of spooky aliens, blustering diplomats, and a scrappy salvage ship crew Idris belongs to who manage to claim our affections. They try and fail, have narrow escapes, emotional losses, and inevitably find themselves at the crucial lopsided showdown. I'm making it sound formulaic, but it does everything with style and sells it to the reader over and over in a way I admire. The canvas is not as vast as that of Iain M. Banks's Culture books, but the maneuvering is more lightweight too, so that's all right. Sometimes books of this type indulge in painfully arch dialogue (not naming names) but this was mercifully not the case as I see it here. Can the sequel deliver on the expectations with stakes driven as high as they have? I intend to find out for myself.
The audiobook narration was a pleasure with Sophie Aldred hamming up the character's idiosyncracies in an entertaining fashion. There's lot of unreasonable things the various speakers make her say, but she manages to make them sound as if it's coming from a multi-dimensional individual almost always.
Subjects
- English literature