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katyab's review against another edition
5.0
After Children of Time absolutely knocked my socks off, I had to jump on Shards, especially after it became a BSFA winner. And what a fun, action-packed ride it was. This book retained all of the intricate world-building of CoT, blending it with colourful space opera, producing something that takes inspiration from Star Wars, Final Fantasy, and The Fifth Element. Big space battles, political intrigue, Lovecraftian horror, with a smattering of courtroom drama, police procedural, and a whodunnit. There are excellent commentaries throughout this book on freedom/slavery, prejudice, authority, knowledge, and disability. Speaking of the latter, the diversity and rep in this novel, and the dedicated and thoughtful characterisation, is brilliant. The rag-tag crew of the Vulture God have my heart: a complex and endearing bunch of spacefarers if I ever I saw them.
Also, I love the fact that this book leans into the fantastical a bit more. We wouldn't have got such cool stuff as "unspace" and Intermediaries otherwise (or at least not very easily, had it gone the more scientific route).
Only a small dampener: there were some parts of this novel that were gruesome, violent, and disturbing – had to cringe my way through them. Also some of the Intermediary-focused parts (without giving too much away) were mentally intense... if you read the book you might find that statement a bit ironic...! Although I did power through the last 150 pages while under the weight of COVID, which maybe is another reason why it felt heavy going. So I'm not going to blame the book at all! It was fast-paced, swashbuckling, good fun. :)
Also, I love the fact that this book leans into the fantastical a bit more. We wouldn't have got such cool stuff as "unspace" and Intermediaries otherwise (or at least not very easily, had it gone the more scientific route).
Only a small dampener: there were some parts of this novel that were gruesome, violent, and disturbing – had to cringe my way through them. Also some of the Intermediary-focused parts (without giving too much away) were mentally intense... if you read the book you might find that statement a bit ironic...! Although I did power through the last 150 pages while under the weight of COVID, which maybe is another reason why it felt heavy going. So I'm not going to blame the book at all! It was fast-paced, swashbuckling, good fun. :)
mortcheval's review against another edition
Really dense and hard to get into. Sorry seemed interesting at times but I felt like the meandering prose and drawn out writing style just led to my thoughts drifting off
eayelizabeth's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
I really wanted to love this book but just never could get fully into it. The world building (universe building) is clearly an absolute feat but the characters never felt like they had distinct voices and there was little growth. The plot meandered along, always just a bit shy of hitting the mark for me and leaving the interesting bits in favour of more action scenes. Just not for me, but I respected the craft of it all the same.
stepriot's review against another edition
5.0
Ragtag space crew? Check! Creepy cosmetic entities? Check! Fun misadventures? Check! I love 95% of this book. It is just about everything I want in my space opera. If you liked The Expanse but felt the Gatebuilder storyline could use a little more, this would be it. While the Expanse was human focused, this is much more focused on the mystery, while humans do their bickering in the background.
bluejaybooks's review against another edition
A compelling novel about how humanity, and other intelligent life, might react to intelligent beings that could destroy entire planets with ease.
Spoiler
I do wonder, however, whether it would be possible for an organism the size of a moon to exist?cherylg123's review against another edition
I just couldn't get into this - too many different species, too many different characters, no clarity as to how they all fit together, no indication of a plot that might hold my interest.
peterkeep's review against another edition
4.0
I got to read this ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, and I'm glad I got the opportunity.
I had read one book by Tchaikovsky previously (Guns of the Dawn) and really liked it. I knew he had a lot of fantasy and scifi books, but had never really dipped my toes into what he's written.
I also was looking for a new space opera series, since The Expanse is coming to a close.
And so here's this book.
It starts off a little heavy with some unexplained action and lots of terms and factions, but then we get brought along in the story of Idres and Solace and life after the war with the Architects, and things start to fall into place. And then things start to really connect, the more we learn about the history of our lead characters and the Architects. I still sometimes had to really stop and think through all of the different factions (I didn't realize there was a glossary in the back until I had finished, oops) and there are a lot of characters and places to remember, but the central story is clear and it wasn't hard to keep a finger on the pulse of what was happening. I tossed back and forth on whether I liked the "locations as acts" structure of the book, but overall I think I landed on liking that. There were succinct story lines that wrapped up our adventure at each location, and I ended up really enjoying the buildup to visiting each location: the alien-ness of the environment, the local politics, and the characters we're going to meet...it all was really well done.
I think that's the story of this book. It's a bit tropey, but really well done. And it has enough that's unique about it to stand out. The alien races and such are expertly created and introduced. The factions are interesting and diverse. Even the idea of unspace and FTL travel is thoughtful in it's execution.
All in all, this will certainly be a good series to keep an eye on was my new space opera side-piece when The Expanse wraps to this year. I like having a good scifi series on hand while I mostly read fantasy, just to mix things up a bit. I'm really looking forward to the rest of this trilogy.
I had read one book by Tchaikovsky previously (Guns of the Dawn) and really liked it. I knew he had a lot of fantasy and scifi books, but had never really dipped my toes into what he's written.
I also was looking for a new space opera series, since The Expanse is coming to a close.
And so here's this book.
It starts off a little heavy with some unexplained action and lots of terms and factions, but then we get brought along in the story of Idres and Solace and life after the war with the Architects, and things start to fall into place. And then things start to really connect, the more we learn about the history of our lead characters and the Architects. I still sometimes had to really stop and think through all of the different factions (I didn't realize there was a glossary in the back until I had finished, oops) and there are a lot of characters and places to remember, but the central story is clear and it wasn't hard to keep a finger on the pulse of what was happening. I tossed back and forth on whether I liked the "locations as acts" structure of the book, but overall I think I landed on liking that. There were succinct story lines that wrapped up our adventure at each location, and I ended up really enjoying the buildup to visiting each location: the alien-ness of the environment, the local politics, and the characters we're going to meet...it all was really well done.
I think that's the story of this book. It's a bit tropey, but really well done. And it has enough that's unique about it to stand out. The alien races and such are expertly created and introduced. The factions are interesting and diverse. Even the idea of unspace and FTL travel is thoughtful in it's execution.
All in all, this will certainly be a good series to keep an eye on was my new space opera side-piece when The Expanse wraps to this year. I like having a good scifi series on hand while I mostly read fantasy, just to mix things up a bit. I'm really looking forward to the rest of this trilogy.
n14h8hughes's review against another edition
dark
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
strategineer's review against another edition
5.0
A great space opera by the king of writing alien aliens. It's a fantastic romp where we follow free adventures of a ragtag group of scoundrels doing their best to save the universe.
What could have been just "another one of those" is greatly elevated by the Adrian Tchaikovsky touch.
Check out my more extensive thoughts on the second novel in the series here.
What could have been just "another one of those" is greatly elevated by the Adrian Tchaikovsky touch.
Check out my more extensive thoughts on the second novel in the series here.
qjbrown96's review against another edition
5.0
50 years ago in the future, Aliens attacked humans. Destroying ships and entire planets. The only thing that saved them was Indris, an enhanced elite fighter. Only you don’t know how he did it or how he’s so elite until the story ramps up. Now not only must he fight intergalactic pirates but he and his new crew must save the world again from the Aliens.
What absolutely outstanding book. Adrian’s imagination is just so great with his descriptions of the different alien species, worlds, and cultures. I loved to read about every character in this book and one of the antagonists was dope. I will be finishing this series immediately!
What absolutely outstanding book. Adrian’s imagination is just so great with his descriptions of the different alien species, worlds, and cultures. I loved to read about every character in this book and one of the antagonists was dope. I will be finishing this series immediately!