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Shards of Earth
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Mar 2022 READER Shards of Earth by Tchaikovsky
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Almost finished…this one is a fast and fun read (despite being a few hundred pages). Tchaikovsky has been hitting it out of the park lately!
Cool. It has a glossary and a little history at the back.
Read this book last year. I enjoyed it muchly. All of Tchaikovsky's brilliant themes are at play and oh how he loves playing in his very large toy box! It's a brilliant book. But then....Adrian has an annoying tendency of writing nothing less than brilliance. :-)
I also read this last year and was very impressed. I am amazed at how well Tchaikovsky depicts alien culture.
I finished and I liked the story world and the characters, but somehow this felt longer than it needed to be. In this book there are so many factions and characters that it's very important to look at the glossary, especially if you are hearing the audiobook.
The audiobook narration was very well done though and I'll be continuing this series.
Leticia wrote: "I finished and I liked the story world and the characters, but somehow this felt longer than it needed to be. "Same. At under 300 pages it would’ve been a tidy page-turner, but it was so long that its video game influences kept asserting themselves.
I also didn’t get why the aliens were called Architects. Basically they broke and twisted things, so it seems like they should be called Bulldozers.
Oh well, we can’t vibe with every book, I guess.
Architects wasn't the best name, but perhaps the author will flesh this out better in the second book?
Nobody wanted him when he wasn't thought to be useful anymore. But once he became useful again, everyone wanted him. Same old, same old, what-have-you-done-for-me-lately mentality, but with a nice twist. Liked the end and will be reading the next one when it comes out. I did think it was cool that the most bad-ass character was female and based on the Spartans with a whole lot of Israeli Mossad thrown in, made for some very nice 'WTF just happened!' moments here and there.
So I am 90% done so I will hazard some comments.First off, they did explain why they were called architects. Essentially because of the ornate way that planets were destroyed, they couldn't be destroyers, because they clearly had a purpose.
Now, you may have missed that bit in the fact the book is sooooo long. I swore it'd be over soon at 80% and figured the other 20% would be some first chapters of other books of his to peruse.
Overall I really like the story. It's creative. It's interesting.
But I do agree the writing could be tighter. Sometimes characters are referred to by first name, other times by last name. It's a little jarring / confusing and although I get why the author did this (the government official thought of Idris as Mr. Telemier), it could have been handled better...
Dan wrote: "So I am 90% done so I will hazard some comments.First off, they did explain why they were called architects. Essentially because of the ornate way that planets were destroyed, they couldn't be de..."
In my review I suggested either Bulldozers or Sculptors, if one were generous. “Architects” just doesn’t fit, unless one means the sort of architect who tears down a neighborhood and puts up a strip mall in the name of gentrification.
Destroying someone’s home for one’s own purpose is still destruction. They’re basically the Reapers from Mass Effect. It’s one of the little niggling things that bugged me about this story. Compared to his better books, it felt like Tchaikovsky was just being lazy in that video game sort of way that borrows from other work.
I was reading this during a little stress so it made a great book - not too heavy but engaging and well written enough that I could lose myself in that world and relax for awhile. The length serves me well too since I was enjoying the escape. It was a kind of trope that can work for me too if done right-temperamental misfits that somehow get along and beat the odds. I have a little problem with minds getting projected outside the body - physically can’t happen, not going to happen, sorry - but sometimes I can overlook it if the rest of the story is working. As always I certainly appreciate hearing ever’s comments about it.
Richard wrote: "I was reading this during a little stress so it made a great book - not too heavy but engaging and well written enough that I could lose myself in that world and relax for awhile. The length serves..."My mind doesn't require my SF and fantasy reads to be believable or probable. :) I - usually - completely accept what the author is dishing out. :D
I read this in March and loved everything about it. Maybe good timing for me, needed brain candy, or whatever. I loved the characters, human and alien relationship building, action, and story. I bought the 2nd book and will get to it soon.
Shawnie- appreciated your comments. I’m three quarters through book two - more of the same and enjoying it as much or more! I kind of hope there will be a book three.
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Official description:
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.