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.
Ok, my journey from the near-bottom of the gigantic pile of Adrian Tchaikovsky’s work continues, this time with the start of a brand new space opera trilogy, THE FINAL ARCHITECTURE.
SHARDS OF EARTH is a book that challenged me quite a bit. This is a pretty dense story with an absolute ton of backstory/history to the world. Add in a pretty large cast of characters & you’ve got a book that really demands your attention. But goddamn, the payoffs are huge & I found myself growing deeply attached to some of these characters as the story went on.
Our two main POV characters are Idris and Solace, both genetically altered humans. Idris is an Intermediary, one of the very few humans able to interact with the Architects, giant planet-destroying aliens.
Solace is a member of the Parthenon, an organization of women genetically engineered and trained as super soldiers, more or less.
Idris and Solace have a history together, having fought side by side in the first war against the Architects, who then disappeared. But separated by time (both are put in and out of stasis) and distance, a potential new threat from the Architects brings Solace and Idris back together.
This is the absolute bare bones description of the plot, as there is a ton of things happening in this book. The central trope of the story will feel like familiar ground for any space opera fans: Idris has settled in to a “quieter” life, living on a ship with a group of salvagers. So if you are at all into a “ragtag group of folks aboard a spaceship,” as I certainly am, this book ought to be on your radar.
But beyond that, that stable ground will begin to feel quite a bit…unsteady. Not everyone aboard the Vulture God (oof, what a fucking great name for a ship!) is human, and the aliens in this world Tchaikovsky’s created are incredibly strange and unique. They aren’t cookie cutter “near humans,” but rather fully developed and almost unknowable species.
This is a big story in many ways, spanning galaxies and but Tchaikovsky gives all of his characters their due. In the least surprising news, Solace was my absolute favorite character in SHARDS OF EARTH. Across the galaxy, the Partheni are not always very highly thought of. They’re not exactly clones, but rather… vat grown, I suppose. So all the women have similar a genetic makeup, and while not identical, they all share some of the same features.
The crew of the Vulture God is slow to trust Solace, but she proves herself a valuable asset to the crew & a fearsome warrior. Oof… Solace is just such a badass, and it was fun to watch her slowly integrate with the crew.
All in all SHARDS OF EARTH is a fantastic start to a new space opera! The story is big & expansive, there’s lots of history, galactic politics, war on a truly massive scale…and then that ragtag group of salvagers, which for me, is where the story really is.
Huge thanks to Orbit for sending a copy my way!!
Grimdark Dad 