'Shards of Earth' by Adrian Tchaikovsky
'Shards of Earth' by Adrian Tchaikovsky

The good

  • Lovely universe-building; the book creates a vibrant galaxy to explore, full of history, politics, culture, and alien species that are actually unique (not just various colors of humanoid).

  • A number of fun, fully-thought out characters. Idris, Olli, Kit, Solace, and the rest of the Vulture God crew are all memorable, and you actually care what happens to them. The way they do wakes/funerals on space ships is beautiful.

  • The story is built around a central mystery—figuring out why the Architects, a highly unique villain do what they do (I’m intentionally avoiding spoilers)—is highly intriguing.

  • Lots of fun action scenes, drama, love story, politics, humor, and more make this book hard to put down.

The not so good

  • Although most of the book seems to be based around science and technology, the powers of the “intermediaries” seem like pure magic, with no clear limits or bounds, so some plot points are resolved with deus ex machina, which is not particularly satisfying.

Rating: 4.5 stars