I am sorry for the inconvenience but I don’t have the time to read this anymore and have lost interest in the concept. I believe that it would benefit your book more if I did not skim your book and write a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for the inconvenience. Note: I ended up purchasing a final copy to read in the future.

I always admire the world that Adrian Tchaikovsky can create. However, it did lean a bit too science heavy for me causing a slower plot. While intriguing, I was just not gripped

Stars: 5 out of 5

I love discovering a new series that I thoroughly enjoy and knowing that there are still at least two more books I can look forward to. Strangely enough, the only book by Tchaikovsky I have read before this one was One Day All This Will Be Yours, which is a novella about the consequences of time travel and a time war. And I had loved it as well, but I hadn't tried his scifi series until I found this one on my TBR list. Well, Mr. Tchaikovsky, I'm a convert now. You write it - I will read it!

The premise of this book is interesting. Sixty years ago, humanity stood united with other alien species, locked in a desperate battle with an alien treat that destroyed entire planets in a matter of hours. They were desperate, they were on the brink of extinction, and all they could do was evacuate as many people as possible before the Architect showed up and destroyed yet another planet. Then an Intermediary, a specially modified human, managed to make contact with the vast consciousness of the Architect, and the Architect just... left. None has been seen since.

It's been 60 years, and none of the desperate unity remains. humanity is squabbling for power and dominance. The war's heroes are now humanity's pariahs, mistrusted and hated by regular humanity. Who aren't much fond of other alien species as well. Tempers are high, and the known galaxy is on the brink of yet another bloody war, until the crew of a small salvage freighter uncovers proof that the Architects might be back. Now the whole galaxy is after them, and not everyone's intentions are friendly.

Most of the time, characters are what makes or breaks a book for me. I had been known to read stories with wobbly worldbuilding and giant plot holes because I was in love with the characters. I've also been known to walk away from a wonderfully constructed story with a lot of thought put into the structure of the world because the characters were one-dimensional or I simply couldn't connect with any of them.

Fortunately, it's not the case here. I LOVED the crew of the Vulture God! Idris was damaged and confused a lot of times, but loyal to his friends, and with a strong sense of what is right and wrong. And willing to die for humanity when that was needed. Solace was wonderful as this grizzled soldier who started caring about the crew of the Vulture despite herself. She could also relate to what Idris was going through because she experienced the war with the Architect first hand as well. And I am still so so salty about Rollo. That particular death really packed an emotional punch.

This book answered some questions, but left a lot for the following books. Even though the wreak was a hoax, the Architects are back, and they will continue exterminating inhabited planets. Not because they want to, but because they have no choice. So all sentient life in the galaxy is in danger. Everyone would have to band together if they want to survive what's coming. And the crew of the Vulture God will be right in the middle of it. And I will be along for the ride.

PS: I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Loved this book! Despite the large learning curve and info dump early on to set up the world building, I found it to be an easy and fun book to dig into. Reads like an epic fantasy novel, it is Brandon Sanderson meets James S.A. Corey big space opera. Loved it! Will definitely recommend!

Tchaikovsky may not be for me. I like his stuff but it feels like all the ideas presented are done halfway. With a bit more they could be excellent but as it stands I feel they are standard sci-fi concepts.

This is my first introduction to the space opera genre and it is an amazing one. There are so many interesting ideas explored in this book, the creativity of what would happen once humans started colonizing other parts of the solar system and beyond is pretty good! I also appreciate the appendix. I cannot wait to buy a physical copy for my library

This science fiction novel is the first in a new series, and it is so complicated it will be hard to describe briefly! Basically, it’s set in a far future where Earth was destroyed decades before by a mysterious alien force called The Architects, which were somewhat mysteriously turned back - but now, decades later, a salvage crew finds evidence that they may have reappeared. But that is just a portion of what this one is about as there are many different types of aliens, planets, ships, different factions of humans, etc etc. Plus the book is told through many different POVS and has flashbacks too! It was… a lot!

I loved Adrian Tchaikovsky’s duology Children of Time/Children of Ruin, so when I saw he had a new series, I was excited to read it. But I’m sorry to say I didn’t like it as much as that other series, as it was just too much world-building relative to plot for my taste. I spent much of the first half confused, though the second half the plot picked up more and I got into it. Indeed, I’d even probably read the sequel to see if the world-building pays off, and because I got attached to the characters. And I think if you are a SF fan who doesn’t mind world-building and likes complex space politics and battles, you just might love this. For me, it’s 3.5 stars.

Top Drawer Opera........

I've read a few of Tchaikovsky's books, and while each was unique, with different writing styles and different sets of strengths and weaknesses, I've admired and enjoyed them all. So I was fine with joining him in a grand classic space opera. And this particular opera is grand indeed.


Our main characters are well developed and relatable. The larger board upon which the pieces are moved is complex but accessible. Technology is plausible. Plots and subplots are appropriately twisty. Political maneuvering is kept to the minimum necessary to help move the plot along. There's just enough detail to engage the imagination and satisfy one's sciencey curiosity. Aliens are exceptionally well realized. Action is gripping and suspenseful. Dialogue is brisk and informative in that subtle sci-fi monologuing style. The entire reading experience is immersive and entertaining in an old school fashion, without irony or postmodern embellishments. Tchaikovsky has a ripping yarn to tell and he tells it with style and economy.


During the course of the book at least a dozen interesting characters come to the fore, and each has something new and different to add to the genre. Of course we get a tortured hero, a stoic warrior heroine, a grizzled space tub captain and so on, but Tchaikovsky freshens up the tropes and cliches and ends up with a crew that any reader should be happy with. This book ends not with a final resolution or a cliffhanger, but rather with a logical break in the action and a pause before the leap into Book Two. I'm keen to jump into that second book, which I guess is the best recommendation of all.


(Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC.

Idris, along with thousands of others, was remade into something more than human to defeat a mysterious alien civilization called the Architects-- ineffable beings who unravel worlds into fractal explosions. The Architects disappeared fifty years ago, and Idris remains, unchanging and unsleeping. He works on a salvage crew, and on what seems to be an ordinary mission, they find what looks like the work of the Architects. Have they returned?

I adore everything I read from Adrian Tchaikovsky, and that's certainly the case here. His take on a classic space opera is more complex, more raw, and far more interesting than most. His characters are imperfect and deeply sympathetic. Thoroughly enjoyable and can't wait for the sequel.

Shards of Earth is a space opera that takes places 50 years after an advance alien race known as Architects destroyed earth and many other planets. Humanity created advanced humans to fight the Architects and one day after a battle the Architects just disappear.
Idris is one of those advanced humans and now lives his life managing a salvage ship.

I liked the overall story, as always with Tchaikovsky the story is original with lots of characters and twists and turns. I had a hard time connecting to any of the characters, it's difficult to care about them or their safety. I started reading an ebook and purchased the audiobook so I could push through it. I'm glad I did. It's very plot driven and I usually want more character driven stories, but it's an original story with a lot of interesting concepts and characters.

If you enjoy epic fantasy, space operas, advanced human races, cloned women warriors, and space gangsters you might like this.
Fans of The Expanse will like this.

Adrian Tchaikovsky’s penchant for one jaw dropping SFnal idea after another is on full display in Shards of Earth, a new far-future space opera in which humanity – and all sentient life in the galaxy – faces extinction (I kid you not) at the hands of massive alien ships that aesthetically rearrange everything to their liking: everything from starships to entire planets, regardless of (or perhaps, especially) if it is inhabited by billions of living beings.
And if you think that sentence was exhausting, you have no idea what you’re in store for. If you’ve read Children of Time, you know that Tchaikovsky writes as if he is in fierce competition with himself over how many speculative rabbit holes he can swan dive, as well how many big questions from the entire human history of scientific and philosophical thought he can tackle on the way down, all while cramming in as many awe-inspiring alien cultures, knuckle-skinning chases, and explody space battles he can fit between its covers. In other words, literally everything you could ever want from science fiction.

An exciting seat of your pants sci-fi adventure as humanity maintains a tenuous grasp on its own existence in a universe inhabited by many different alien species. The author has a fully-realized world with unique, fun characters with great personalities.

So far I’ve read four things by Tchaikovsky: a novel about climate change that pissed me off like no other; a novella about time travel that made me laugh like no other; a brilliant exploration of one of the most fundamental concepts of science fiction; and this, the first book of a Lovecraftian space opera. They’ve all been amazing. At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that Tchaikovsky’s bibliography includes steamy romance, a Szechuan cookbook, and an advanced quantum physics textbook. And I’d expect them all to be great.

The premise here is that, about 80 years or so before the beginning of this book, Earth was destroyed. Or not so much destroyed as … sculpted, by beings known as the Architects. They’re about the size of the Moon, appear without warning, and reshape planets into strange but clearly intentional shapes that humans can only call abstract art. (This is obviously a very, very bad thing if you happen to be living on the planet in question at the time.) No one knows what they are, where they come from, why they do this, or how. All attempts at communication failed; all attempts at resistance did as well. As far as humanity could tell, both attempted communication and attempted resistance weren’t even *noticed*. All you could do, when an Architect appeared, was evacuate as many people as possible (which was never enough). Billions died when Earth was attacked, and millions or hundreds of millions died every time an Architect appeared over one of humanity's colony worlds.

The Architect War (though to call it a "war" is a bit of a misnomer) ended when humanity created the Intermediaries, a kind of telepath that was able to connect to the vast minds of the Architects. The effect was rather like that of an ant jumping up and down to get a human's attention, but it worked. For the first time, the Architects became aware of humanity, and they … left. No explanation given, no communication attempted, they just left.

The book is set a few decades after the end of the Architect War. Humanity has been struggling to rebuild, and has fractured into rival nations. The chief protagonist is Idris, the Intermediary who successfully got the attention of an Architect. He’s been making a living as the navigator for a salvage crew operating on the fringes of human space (as a side effect of their engineering, the Intermediaries are able to navigate FTL off of established pathways). Things kick off when Solace, one of the Parthenons (a group of genetically engineered warrior women) (also his ex) shows up to recruit Idris to the Parthenon side in the intra-humanity jockeying for power. Things *really* kick off when Idris and his crew are sent to salvage a lost ship, and find it's been reshaped by an Architect - the first sign of them since they vanished.

The book is *excellent*. Idris and his crew mates are a mismatched but loyal group of outcasts and ne'er-do-wells that fans of *Firefly* and the *Wayfarers* books. The world building is solid, the aliens interesting, and the portrayal of a human society very much still suffering from collective trauma is wonderfully done. Very, very much looking forward to the next one.

Having read the authors other series, I'm well versed in the writing style (which I love) and the way the story unfolds, a truly modern epic space opera. It has all the elements I love and and it's a complex, intricate tale. Definitely recommended.

This 1st in Adrian Tchaikovsky's Final Architecture series is a complicated space opera set in an intricate universe with a variety of alien species.

Unstoppable aliens, Architects, have destroyed Earth and a host of other planets (both Colony and alien ones), transforming them into intricately crafted floriform sculptures.

Genetic modifications led to creation of Intermediaries. Volunteers underwent horrific conditioning and those who survived gained the ability to communicate telepathically. One of them, Idris Telemmier, was able to contact the Archirtects and they left.

Now they're back and various factions want to use Idris..

3 stars, Metaphorosis Reviews

Summary
The Architects are huge, inscrutable, space-borne creatures who transform living planets into cruel, beautiful art. They were turned back once, by crudely engineered human Intermediaries. But now, there's evidence that they may be back, throwing the galaxy into confusion and panic.

Review
I’ve only read one Adrian Tchaikovsky book until now – Walking to Aldebaran – and really liked it, so I was eager to get into this book. I was sorely disappointed.

Shards of Earth has plenty of ideas – familiar, but presented with sufficient novelty to be interesting. It’s that presentation, though, that’s the problem. While apparently the first book in a new trilogy, it reads – for at least half its length – like the continuation of an ongoing series. Tchaikovsky has chosen an in media res approach that substantially muddies the waters, constantly offering up flashbacks just after they would have been useful.

I was genuinely convinced for much of the time that this was a book only for the cognoscenti of his prior work. It wasn’t until well near the end that I was certain that was wrong, and the problem was simply in the structure.
The result was that I didn’t much enjoy the book, intriguing as some of the elements were. I never felt I’d found my footing, and I don’t mean that in a good way. Quirky characters notwithstanding, I seldom felt engaged, and often felt mildly confused.

The book hits on many of my favorite tropes, yet I can’t recommend it. If this had been my introduction to Tchaikovsky, I’d never have gone any further. As it is, I already have one more book on tap, and I strongly hope that Walking to Aldebaran was the norm and this the anomaly.

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

Forty years after the Architects destroyed Earth and a bunch of other inhabited planets, humans have started squabbling again. A group of cloned/parthogenesis-reproducing warriors are either interested in getting rid of anyone else or determined to be humanity’s protectors, depending on who you listen to; a bunch of planets have become clients of alien overlords whose tech is capable of keeping Architects away, and they’re proselytizing, and the remainder of humanity is semi-united under the name Hugh, continuing the process that produced the one successful anti-Architect tool by enslaving and killing hundreds of criminals for every one who emerges able to navigate unspace. That’s when things go south. Look, there’s a lot going on, and species I haven’t mentioned, and it’s a wild ride; the characters have different voices and senses of humor, and I think it’s my favorite of his I’ve read.

Published by Orbit on August 3, 2021

Adrian Tchaikovsky built a detailed universe for Shards of Earth, the first book of the Final Architecture series. That universe is fundamental to the novel, but it never gets in the way of a multifaceted space opera that features creative aliens and appealing human characters.

A human diaspora led to the settlement of hundreds of worlds in the novel’s far future. As humans tend to do, they have divided themselves into factions. Most worlds colonized by humans belong to the Council of Human Interests, or Hugh. Some have followed the Essiel, an ancient alien race that has organized the Hegemony and promises protection from threats if its members will accept the Essiel as divine beings. While the Essiel generally leave species and individuals alone if they choose not to follow the Essiel, the humans who join the Essiel, being human, tend to become cultists.

The primary threat to humanity comes from inscrutable aliens called the Architects. The Architects destroy inhabited worlds. They’ve destroyed alien civilizations in the past and, a few decades before the novel begins, they turned their attention to human worlds, starting with Earth. Their ships appear out of nowhere and, using a technology that humans don’t understand, reshape planets by pulling at their cores and turning the planets inside out. They take a similar approach to the ships that attack them. The new contours of the reshaped planets and ships might be appreciated for their aesthetic value, although not by their dead inhabitants. Perhaps the destruction is a form of artistic creation, a theory that explains why humans refer to the aliens as Architects.

A group of women called the Parthenon represent a human faction outside of the Hugh. They reproduce parthenogenetically and are genetically engineered to be, as conceived by their founder, ideal representatives of humanity. The Partheni are fierce warriors but they are viewed with suspicion by humans who believe rumors that the Partheni kill male babies and want to form a superior race that will subjugate lesser humans. Whether their founder actually intended the Partheni to rule others was, at least for a time, a subject of some debate among the Partheni, but less authoritarian Partheni minds ultimately prevailed.

While the Parthenon fought alongside the Hugh against the Architects, a different breed of human provided the key to the war. A 15-year-old girl named Xavienne was able to reach into the mind of an Architect and turn its ship back. Humans tried to engineer that same ability into volunteers known as Intermediaries, killing most of them in the process. The most successful Int was Idris Telemmier. He teamed with a Partheni named Solace in the war’s most important battle.

The other primary defense against Architects are relics left on certain worlds by an ancient race known as the Originators. The Architects won’t go near those worlds. Unfortunately, the relics lose their power to deter Architects when they are transported elsewhere.

All of this is background to a story that takes place several decades after the Architects disappeared. By virtue of their engineering, Ints are able to pilot vessels in unspace. That makes them valuable even in the absence of the enemy Architects. While most humans lose their sanity (or at least their lunch) unless they sleep through journeys into unspace, Ints can withstand the discomfort. Telemmier nevertheless experiences barely suppressed horror based on his sense of a terrifying presence in unspace.

Telemmier is now piloting a salvage vessel called the Vulture God. Decades after they were last together, Solace is asked to recruit Telemmier to work for the Partheni. After proving her worth to the ship during a skirmish on an unwelcoming planet, she joins the crew so she’ll have the opportunity to make her pitch to Telemmier.

Apart from Telemmier and Solace, the novel’s primary characters are other crew members of the Vulture God. A shrewd lawyer named Kris, a factor (deal maker/accountant) named Kit, a drone specialist named Olli, and a search specialist named Medvig are the most memorable characters. Kit is Hammilambra, an alien species whose members resemble crabs. Medvig is a Hiver, a distributed intelligence that resides in cyborg insects that inhabit mechanical bodies. Olli was “born a stranger to her human body” and relies on mechanical devices for transportation (her favorite resembles an oversize scorpion). A Hiver archeologist named Trine becomes a de facto crew member when Solace needs his expertise to analyze some relics. The wormlike Castigar and symbionts called the Tothiat are among the other species that populate the universe.

The plot takes off when the Vulture God contracts to recover a missing ship. The crew discovers that the ship has been reshaped, suggesting that the Architects have returned. The crew encounters one obstacle after another when they try to bring the ship home. Various parties, including a group of Essiel gangsters and the human version of the CIA/KGB, want to seize the ship or its contents, kidnap Telemmier, or start a fight. As the reader might expect, the Architects do return, forcing a reluctant Telemmier to once again play hero. By the end, Telemmier learns something about the Architects and their mission that will undoubtedly set up the next book in the series.

In the grand tradition of science fiction, Telemmier also learns something about himself as he finds the courage and pluck to return to heroic conflict after embracing obscurity during decades of peace. He also finds that he missed Solace, having bonded with her in battle, although he doesn’t particularly trust her. Solace’s own conflict, between her loyalty to the sisterhood of Parthenon and her friends on the Vulture God, tests her in a way that will be familiar to science fiction fans.

Shards of Earth is built on a carefully conceived foundation that suggests an epic story, yet Tchaikovsky never lets the story get away from him. He balances the big picture with interpersonal conflicts, making it possible for the reader to relate to the characters, even if they aren’t the sort of cyborg insects who live next door. I wouldn’t say that the far future is so different from the present that it represents a brilliance of imagination, but the story is satisfying, the characters have distinct personalities, and the true nature of the Architects presents an intriguing question. I look forward to learning any answers Tchaikovsky decides to provide in the next novel.

RECOMMENDED

With The Expanse sadly ending this year, I have been on the lookout for new space operas to fill the void, and I have found a new contender. Site favorite Adrian Tchaikovsky has put out the first novel in a sweeping science-fiction epic titled Shards of Earth, and it is a wild ride. Tchaikovsky has been making serious headway into our hearts with his more solitary science fiction like Children of Time and The Doors of Eden, so it was exciting to see what he would do with a larger series. The result is an outstanding opening book to what promises to be a grand space adventure filled with wacky characters and high-stakes political intrigue.

Shards of Earth’s plot is big and hard to summarize in a single paragraph (which suits a grand space opera), but let me see if I can lay down a foundation for you. The story takes place in a distant future in which we have taken the galactic stage and met a number of other alien species. Things are going well until planet-sized alien Architects start showing up and turning entire planets into modern sculptures with cosmic power – killing everyone on them. Most of the sentient species band together to try to stop these colossal arbiters of death, but nothing seems to be able to scratch them. Little progress is made fighting until a breakthrough of a secret psychic conditioning experiment leads to the creation of “Ints.” These ESP-ers could communicate, mind-to-mind, with the enemy. Then their alien aggressors, the Architects, simply disappeared.

In addition to being able to communicate with Architects, a skill no longer in demand, the Ints have an unparalleled understanding of movement through space, making them the greatest pilots alive – and there are very few of them left from the war. Our story follows a number of POVs after the war with the Architects but centers on a retired Int named Idris that many factions are fighting over. They all want to recruit him to be their pet pilot while he tries to carve out an independent life on a scavenger ship called the Vulture God. When the crew makes a strange discovery that might herald the return of the dreaded Architects, things begin to heat up.

The three pillars of success that hoist Shards of Earth into my top books of 2021 are storytelling, characters, and worldbuilding. This fantastic concept is well realized through Tchaikovsky’s great plotting and experience-enhancing prose. This is a new take on the idea of dealing with cosmic entities beyond our comprehension, and they are overwhelmingly terrifying and alien. Tchaikovsky beautifully captures the emotional impact of living like your world could be obliterated at the drop of a hat by an entity completely out of your control, and it works very well as one of the major themes of the story. The plot has fantastic pacing, moving quickly from set piece to set piece and telling a story that exists both as to its own self-contained story and sets up future plotlines for the larger series. It is the exact sort of big storytelling, with high attention to detail, that I love to see in my space operas.

Our cast of characters is equally delightful. Idris is great on his own, but he is surrounded by the crew of The Vulture God who could rival any of the classic sci-fi spaceship crews for personality and diversity. In addition to the core crew, there are a number of POVs from rival factions, antagonists, and everything in between that go the extra mile to build out the world and paint a vivid and deep universe around the story. The different worlds and factions contribute to worldbuilding that begs to be expanded upon and explored. The “parts” of the book are broken into a focus on different planets that the protagonists spend time exploring, and each of them had a very unique feel and style that enhanced the feelings of adventure in the story. It felt like Indiana Jones in space and I could not put Shards of Earth Down.

I don’t really have any complaints or criticisms of the book. My only real negative thoughts are that some areas felt a little less well-realized than others and a few characters seemed to not have enough backstory compared to the rest of the cast. But I am honestly just nitpicking, this was easily one of the most solid books I have read this year and one of Tchaikovsky’s best.

Shards of Earth is an epic space opera that could not have better timing. It has an adventurous story sure to entertain every reader and a blueprint for the foundation of a much larger story. I loved the cast, the world, and the story. It is one of the sure-fire wins of the year. Don’t miss it.

Rating: Shards of Earth – 10/10
-Andrew

I am a big fan of Adrian Tchaikovsky. I have read a number of his other books and really enjoy the way he builds the worlds, develops the characters, and moves the story along at its own pace. This applies to Shards of Earth as well, which makes this an enjoyable read. By the end of the book, I am fully invested in each of the characters and their stories and want to know how everything turns out for them.

The overall idea and plot of the book is one I have not encountered before. The idea of the "Architects" as a slave to a greater being, being forced to destroy intelligent life for unknown reasons is intriguing. I would have liked to know more about how the Ints were created and what was done to them to allow them to navigate unspace as well as infiltrate the mind of an Architect. The details around this were lacking in my opinion.

Other than that, I have no issues with the book and thoroughly enjoyed it. I look forward to future installments of the series to see how things play out.