Those who know the story of Marvel’s Silver Surfer will find themselves on somewhat familiar ground with Tchaikovsky’s new trilogy. The Silver Surfer, as you probably remember, was encased in silver and had a space-riding surfboard, and acted as a scout for Galactus, a hungry behemoth that ate up whole worlds, inhabitants and all. He eventually pleaded with Galactus to have mercy on Earth and thus was rewarded with a prison around Earth for all the rest of his days. In Shards of Earth, the first book in the trilogy, destined for an August 2021 release, we find a universe where Architects, vast planetoid-sized beings, appear out of nowhere and find inhabited worlds which they then carve up like jack-o-lanterns or other great works of art. Fortunately, there are Earth colonies out there and, when Earth is carved out and the earthlings flee (although billions don’t make it), there are a few places that they can land and hope beyond hope the Architects don’t find them.

But, the earthlings are not the only ones on the run from the Architects. There are others even more ancient who are completely unlike us and to be feared as well. They too cower in the face of the Architects. Others aliens have found a means of escape by holding onto original regalia left behind in ruins hundreds of thousands of years hence. Those who are willing to be subservient to these aliens can survive on these planets while the Architects molest all else.

The colonies survived the Architects once by the use of ints, who have been bred and altered so that they can navigate through unspace (sort of like the guild navigators in Frank Herbert’s universe, but more humanlike). Somehow three hardy ints were able to communicate with one Architect and the Architects disappeared for at time.

Now the story opens some decades later with a complicated political scene, with factions battling for control, with cults arising, and few left from the last war. The myrmidons, the battling angels bred for nothing but perfection and battle, are in their corner. The last of the original Ints who battled the Architects to a standstill is on a salvage freighter with a motley crew of beings that are difficult to describe. Their mission is to gather a lost ship and bring it back, but bringing it back will be something that they all regret as forces across the universe battle for what they found and the return of the fearsome architects lurk in the background.

What a great story! It is more than just another space opera, filled with depth, with history, with politics, and rather dense and intimidating at times as the reader tries to absorb who is what and who stands for whom among the diplomats, the cults, the warriors, and the hive beings. It is filled with a crew as diverse as you would find in any space bar, but complex as anything you might find out there as each party has its own goals and missions and even allies like these might not be helpful.

This book was provided by NetGalley for an honest review.

I didn't read too much about the book beforehand, so went in a little cold. It was a little slow to start, establishing some characters and world building and I wasn't too sure what to make of it. But, it laid a good foundation and gathered pace as the book went on. All the characters are broken in some way, but with something to bring to the group.

This was part theology, part military scifi, with a twist of the unexpected and first contact vibes.

Definitely worth a read, hopefully the next books build on the story and there's a larger arc.

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.

Tchaikovsky!! So good! The creativity of this guy is always outstanding and this series, after reading this first volume, promise to be something quite impressive! If you're looking for great science-fiction, than search no longer!!

Shards of Earth is an epic space opera that follows the multi-species crew of a run down patched together salvage ship who find themselves at the centre of interplanetary political manoeuvring with the spectre of a second war with the planet-destroying Architects – moon sized entities humans know almost nothing about, but which destroyed Earth – looming.
There are a lot of things that I like about Shards of Earth that would lead me to recommend it to fans of space operas. Tchaikovsky has managed to develop a cast of characters of multiple different species – several of which are far from humanoid – while giving them distinct personalities, avoiding reducing each to a kind of representation of their respective species. Though a little bit slow at the beginning (for perhaps the first 15% or so), the plot moves along at a good pace overall, kept me interested throughout, and contained a few twists I did not see coming. Finally, with Shards of Earth Tchaikovsky has constructed a complex world with many societies, colonies, and alien species; the political and historical dynamics are very well developed without too many detours into ‘info dumping’ explanations.
The book includes indexes of characters, worlds, species, and ships, as well as a timeline for reference – while I appreciate these inclusions, I did not find that I needed them to follow what was going on. I can see them being very useful to revisit before reading the next book in the series as a refresher: this was my first book by Adrian Tchaikovsky but won’t be my last – I’m glad that this is the first book in a series because I’ll happily read the rest (though it’s worth mentioning for those not necessarily wanting to start a long series that this novel works quite well as a standalone – it left me wanting to read more, but not unsatisfied with how it ended).
A minor complaint from a technical standpoint is that I’d prefer if the chapters were shorter for the e-book especially – having only 5 parts plus a prologue in a book this long is not my personal preference when it comes to navigating an e-book table of contents, though these chapters are broken up with line breaks and shifts in perspective that form convenient spots to pause reading if needed.
Thank you to Orbit Books + Netgalley for providing me with an ARC.
Content warnings: violence, war, torture, racism, ableism, slavery

What's the deal with this Shards of Earth? Well, Earth has been flowered (literally shaped into a flower) by the big bad, Architects. They basically form planets into art sculptures, killing most of the population in the process. However, humans stumble upon a young girl Xavienne who can communicate with these Architects and thus begin the Intermediary Program, which surgically alters humans to be like Xavienne in an effort to make the Architects go away and stop destroying worlds. That's where we meet Idris former wartime Intermediary (Int) who essentially helped end the war. Now the Architects are gone and Idris is left drifting around space with his lawyer, Kris. That's when we meet Solace (Myrmidon Executor Solace) a Partheni (genetically engineered badass race of superwomen) whose basically awesome and beautiful and fought alongside Idris in the war, and when she meets up with Idris once again after so many years, that's when the fun begins.

I'm a big fan of Children of Time, but I forgot having read it so long ago that it took a long time to get into it. Shards of Earth is no different. There's A LOT of world building here including many made up Tchaikovsky terms that no dictionary could define for me. In addition to that, there are so many characters in such a short book that aside from the Vulture God crew (Rollo, Kit, Solace, Kris, Olli, Idris, and later Trine) as well as Mundy I had a hard time keeping the others straight. If this appears in the final version (which I sincerely hope it does), there's a character list, glossary, and a timeline at the back of the book. It would behoove you to read this BEFORE you read the book. I for one think it'd be better at the front of the book, but who am I? I didn't realize it was there until halfway through the book, but it made things so much clearer once I read it. Shards of Earth starts off slow and takes a while to build to a crescendo, but once it does be prepared for music. I loved this book. Thank you so very much to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC.

Let me start off by saying, this was one of the best science fiction books I’ve ever read. I read “Shards of Earth” in four straight days and I enjoyed every single moment!

The first third of the book starts slow, of course, it sets up the premise, conflict, and gives the readers a glimpse of our main characters. We have 2 main characters in this novel, Idris and Solace.

Idris is a genetically modified “human,” one who hasn’t slept or aged ever since the big war against the Architect. He also has telepathy like powers but for space, moving about through the void and emptiness of it. Whereas, Solace is a clone of badass, strong, warrior women, who were at the main forefront of the war. Their stories intertwined back during the war, and now it’s been 50 years. The galaxy and universe has forgotten all about Idris, and they loathe Solace and her sisters.

Our story sets off when Idris and his crew are on a regular salvage ship hunt, and they spot an abandoned spaceship floating about. Is The Architect actually back or is someone playing the universe? Read and find out. I forgot to mention the mysterious moon-like destroyer planet called the Architect. They’re very ominous and we have no idea what their motive is, but they’ve caused the death of billions across the galaxy and are not to be trifled with.

Both Solace and Idris’s character arcs are great and the journeys they go through. Although, I wish we had more character development, and less action after action. Maybe we’ll get more in the second book, fingers crossed.
We also get POVs of side characters, and it helps to better understand the political conflict and see the plethora of planets and alien species. We’re constantly being introduced to different characters depending on where you are in the book, it gets hard to keep track of all of the names and planets, etc. I had to flip back to the glossary several times to keep me on track.

The world Adrian Tchaikovsky creates is fascinating and so interesting and full of life. The different alien species and planets were wonderfully described, without being overly descriptive.

We go on many, many space adventures, there’s never a moment of rest for our motley crew of characters. It’s a space opera at it’s finest. I could not put it down. Please check this book out if you’re looking for a band of misfits going on space adventures, with the threat of Architect ever constant.

Adrian Tchaikovsky's novel, Shards of Earth is everything you want in a space opera. Is the entire universe about to be destroyed by an unknowable entity with godlike powers? Right here. Do you need a genius Spacer to slap together a gravitic drive (huh?) with duct tape and cardboard on the crew’s ship, the Vulture God? It’s covered. How about a swashbuckling captain who will do anything for his crew? He’s here along with a ruthlessly modified pilot. There is a giant crab crew member (homage to Attack of the Crab Monsters?) who serves as a purser. There’s even a dueling lawyer (blades) that’s cleverly used for exposition and based on her skills, you want her making your closing argument. There’s Solace, a bioengineered soldier that you want in your corner when things go bad and here, things really do go bad. Also, because the bugman of Lincolnshire wrote this, there are plenty of big and small bugs, which, as always, is something to look forward to.

Good story, first in a series. Can’t wait to read the next book in the series.

Thanks to NetGalley and Orbit books for the ARC.

I requested this one because it might be a 2021 title I would like to review on my Youtube Channel. However, after reading the first several chapters I have determined that this book is not my tastes. So I decided to DNF this one rather than push myself to finish it only to give it a poor review.

Imagine humanity in the stars fighting an enemy that has shows up and destroys worlds with little effort. There seems to be no defense. Then humanity discovered a way to combat the enemy but at great price to the bioengineered warrior, so great the most of the warriors died. The book is full of twists and turns to keep the reader on the edge of their seat until the last page.