SHARDS OF EARTH
Adrian Tchaikovsky’s latest.
RELEASED 27 MAY
533 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook Author Adrian Tchaikovsky Publisher Tor
It’s difficult to do the Space War With An Unknowable Enemy interestingly because we’ve seen it so many times, but Adrian Tchaikovsky finds a way with the deployment of a simple, arresting image: his alien menace, the Architects, don’t just destroy planets, they seismically reshape them, with no regard for those who live there. Are they just a particularly driven race of installation artists? No one really knows, and there’s something genuinely unsettling about this – they clearly have a purpose, but what it is remains a mystery.
Earth fell victim to the Architects’ attentions, leaving humanity scattered across its colonies, still scarred by a bitter war that they only just survived. Worse, they don’t know why the Architects eventually left them alone – resulting in a fear that they’ll come back. One of those who helped end the war was Idris, a human trained to navigate unspace, a means of fast travel across the universe. He’s now pilot of the Vulture God, a salvage ship – but an old comrade, Solace, joins the crew with the specific aim of convincing him to come and work for her people, the Parthenon. Then the Vulture God finds a wrecked vessel bearing the stamp of the Architects. This has the potential to change everything…
What Shards Of Earth does really well is to tell a huge life-or-death space opera from the viewpoint of a small group of engaging, relatable characters. Humanity has been severely splintered, not just by the war but by other events.
The Parthenon are humans who reproduce via genetic engineering, highly scientifically advanced and all female – and other humans don’t trust them. Many worlds have accepted dominance by an alien species called the Essiel in return for protection. All this is a lot to take in, but showing us this world via a band of misfits is perfect – and provides plenty of conflict onboard the ship. While the crew all have different angles and agendas, there aren’t always easy answers regarding who’s right and who’s wrong.
When Tchaikovsky writes one of his doorstoppers, he fills it with enough plot for a whole season of a TV show – which is more than you can say for a lot of TV shows these days. There are times when Shards Of Earth feels a little too episodic in its planet-hopping structure, and the reader might wonder if set-pieces are being thrown in front of the crew mostly to prevent them getting to the climax too quickly. However this isn’t a feeling that persists, and in fact each of these incidents brings new elements into play which do ultimately pay off.
Our protagonists are very much changed by these events, with some considerable twists along the way. Tchaikovsky has a habit of throwing these in almost casually, prompting you to re-read a paragraph to check he just did what you thought he did. This creates a sense of unease in the reader that mirrors the everyday lives of the characters: their universe is not a safe place, and they know they could be on the run again at any moment. The novel as a whole asks questions about safety and security, and the lengths people will go to in order to get it.
Shards Of Earth is the start of a new series, The Final Architecture, and it does very much feel like the beginning of something, with substantial areas left unexplored. With this first book, Tchaikovsky has built some solid foundations – but also created a thoughtful, sweeping space adventure in its own right. Eddie Robson
The audiobook of Shards Of Earth is narrated by Sophie Aldred, formerly ’80s Doctor Who companion Ace.
Filled with enough plot for a whole season of a TV show