Shards of Earth

I have read Adrian's 'Children of time' book series, and I really loved at least 2 of them. They were hard sci-fi, and they were great. This one is different, it's a space opera, and while I did enjoy it in parts, overall, it did not click with me.

Original: ntavish.in/blog/2024_books/#shards-of-earth-by-adrian-tchaikovsky

Wow. Tchaikovsy spun up another great one! I love his conception of FTL (unspace), with its creeping horror and existential dread. I do have the impression this comes after other books, which of course, I didn't realize. I will say that it stood well in its own though.

He uses many tropes but writes them well enough that the book is still awesome. Deep space crew for hire meets the Angel of Punching People in the Face. One wrong job and they're enmeshed in the survival of life in the universe. It's a rollicking ride, though, and well worth the time.

This is a fun, weird space opera in a weird, alien-filled universe. This book explores how sentient life can experience the universe in a stange, grim world.

The book borders on goofy or chaotic at times, but it's sure fun. I'm going on to book 2.

A great read. It's not big on the science but the plot and characters are fantastic. The action scenes are well handled. There are some times the pacing seems a bit slow and people just sit around waiting for the next event to occur, but besides that thoroughly enjoyed.

Creative new alien species. I'm in love with crabs who rent out ad space on their communication devices. I also enjoyed the Essiel and their enslaved races. No reason why a planetary empire should be homogenous or even coordinated.

I skimmed some of the battles which seemed a bit long. I think I will probably read the next one.

What a fun universe that was built here. Genomic made woman protectors, bureaucratic machinations of worlds, bug collectives, symbiotes, things we can't even label right.. and un-space with those that can fly in between--and maybe more lurking beneath the surface.

I liked it. A few characters got on my nerves with their inability to properly show growth but overall it was a neat read that I'm looking forward to the next book. I kept having visions of Flash Gordon or Guardians of the Galaxy set designs in my head with some of these characters.

Clean, easy writing. Fun arcs. A real wide cast of characters. Nothing so deep it'll make your head hurt and a quality pacing that drives you forward.

I always hate it when I start a book and then discover it's part of a series ...

But it was a fun read, although it started out as a boring adventure/dungeon crawl story, the pace and depth picked up in the second half. I truly love Adrian's world building skills and he created some very intriguing things in this book. Only, no spiders ...

‘My children, let us not do that again. I, for one, am too old for shit even vaguely related to that.’

DNF at 1/3rd, during a very boring extended fight scene. Far too many underdeveloped characters and elongated plotting.

It gets a star for the planet voting to join the autocratic alien empire, and for some interesting and well done opening scenes. But it didn't seem worth skimming to the end. So many authors have done so much better than this.