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A review by peterkeep
Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky
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.