| Title | : | Eyes of the Void (The Final Architecture, #2) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1668604906 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781668604908 |
| Format Type | : | Audiobook |
| Number of Pages | : | - |
| Publication | : | First published May 3, 2022 |
After eighty years of fragile peace, the Architects are back, wreaking havoc as they consume entire planets. In the past, Originator artefacts – vestiges of a long-vanished civilization – could save a world from annihilation. This time, the Architects have discovered a way to circumvent these protective relics. Suddenly, no planet is safe.
Facing impending extinction, the Human Colonies are in turmoil. While some believe a unified front is the only way to stop the Architects, others insist humanity should fight alone. And there are those who would seek to benefit from the fractured politics of war – even as the Architects loom ever closer.
Idris, who has spent decades running from the horrors of his past, finds himself thrust back onto the battlefront. As an Intermediary, he could be one of the few to turn the tide of war. With a handful of allies, he searches for a weapon that could push back the Architects and save the galaxy. But to do so, he must return to the nightmarish unspace, where his mind was broken and remade.
What Idris discovers there will change everything.
Eyes of the Void (The Final Architecture, #2) Reviews
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“This is the salvage ship Vulture God to whoeverthefuck’s even down there. Call for Idris Telemmier, double urgent. Idris, this is Olli. You remember? Olli, your fucking captain? Being kidnapped doesn’t excuse you from turning up for duty, you skiving bastard. Idris, or Idris’s kidnappers. Say something, damn it!”
Adrian Tchaikovsky can be counted on to provide consistently good quality books at such a speed that I suspect he’s either a conglomerate of writers or a clone army — or maybe he just really likes what he does and is very good at it. No, you know what — it *must* be the clone army thing.
In any case, Eyes of the Void is an excellent follow-up to last year’s British Science Fiction Award-winning Shards of Earth, fully convincing me that despite his amazing versatility Tchaikovsky really shines in science fiction realm. It’s a space opera, like its predecessor, and despite including the genre staples that give it a genre classic feel it still manages to remain clever, fresh, gripping and decidedly not silly. A ragtag crew of misfits in space, interstellar travel, wars, politics, space gangsters, alien cultists, AI — you name it — all manage to create quite a delicious science fiction concoction here.“Because unspace wasn’t real. And when you entered unspace, you weren’t real either. You existed only in the bubble of your own consciousness and, even if you gripped the hand of your neighbour painfully tight, as many of them did, those fingers would become empty the moment the ship dropped from the real.”
“We’re basically standing at the edge of a raw wound between unspace and the real.”
In the face of continued slow destruction of planets and lives by mysterious moon-sized Architects humanity - of fragging course! - has not banded together. Instead it’s business as usual, from petty squabbles to all-out war between humanity’s largest factions, because humans often lack the vision of the bigger picture (“The Architects weren’t only back, they were making up for lost time, losing patience with the universe.”) And our ragtag team on the scavenger ship The Vulture God, having pissed off almost anyone with any semblance of power in the first book, found temporary reprieve among the Parthenon, being viewed as traitors to the greater human race in the meantime. But the reprieve doesn’t last for long as there is not only the continued deadly menace of the Architects but also the continuing squabbles over who gets to “own” Idris Telemmier, an Intermediary whose nature allows him to pilot through Unspace as well as (almost) communicate with the Architects — but doesn’t protect him from being constantly used and kidnapped.“He hadn’t properly asked himself what he would prefer to do. The idea that it would be relevant had never occurred to him.”
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“He was the canary in the mine, and you always brought the canary. Nobody cared that the canary didn’t much enjoy its job and would maybe like to be doing something else.”
And the Originator ruins on a planet from hell may just hold enough clues to the mystery of the Architects and the universe itself.“Then he knew. And it wasn’t what he’d thought. He felt leaden and bitter, even as Ahab exulted that the universe had finally given up its secrets.”
Yes, it’s a middle book in the series that will not give too many answers and that sets up the events to come, but once again it wraps up its storyline nicely, all while continuing wonderful worldbuilding and interesting characters. And while it leaves me wanting more (I need all the answers about the universe, and I want them now! “42” is not a satisfying answer, dammit!) I’m very satisfied with the journey it took me on.“He didn’t want to take the war to the Architects. He didn’t want to be any part of what might be genocide. But neither the universe nor the war was done with him yet.”
4.5 stars, happily rounding up.
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My review of the first in the series, Shards of Earth, is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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Thanks to NetGalley and Orbit Books for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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Also posted on
my blog. -
4.5 Stars
Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾 -
Original review posted on my blog Out of This World SFF:
https://outofthisworldrev.blogspot.co...
Adrian Tchaikovsky is one of my favorite authors for a multitude of reasons, but first and foremost is that he can write brilliantly captivating stories in multiple genres/subgenres. Whether talking about his fantastic Shadows of the Apt fantasy series, his mesmerizing Bio-SF thriller The Doors of Eden, or his monumental space opera work Children of Time, Tchaikovsky's ability to deliver a mind-blowing story is never something that should ever be in doubt. Likewise, his latest series The Final Architecture promises to be yet another classic from the highly-acclaimed author. I had the pleasure of receiving an advance copy of book two in the series EYES OF THE VOID from publisher Orbit and here are my thoughts.
This book is a wonderful continuation in this series and didn't fall prey to the usual middle book pitfalls that plague so many follow-ups. The intrigue is ramped up as the Architects begin to get a little bolder in their probing of vulnerable worlds. For those who don't know, the Architects are moon-sized entities that have destroyed entire civilizations in the past brutally and without mercy. It's almost a sick and twisted game to them as they obliterate and then go into hiding for a time, only to emerge decades later randomly to repeat the process. So getting to feel that tension of a potential attack made this read a lot more dramatic than the first book, Shards of Earth. Would it happen? Would it not? And if it did, how would those aligned against the Architects respond?
Another thing that I love about Tchaikovsky's books, and this one is no different, is that he always injects a central mystery into his stories that make you want to keep turning those pages to discover if that mystery ever gets revealed. And the awesome thing about this series is he gives you TWO mysteries for the price of one. The first being the Originators, an elder civilization that has since disappeared but has left mysterious ruins and artifacts scattered across the universe in their wake. The thought is that some Originators may possibly still exist somewhere, and scholars/scientists have been studying their abandoned settlements in an effort to get more answers. The second mystery involves the enigma known as unspace, which is the underlying nothing beneath the universe. A part of space that allows for travel across light years in just mere moments, but at what cost? And there are those who after journeying through unspace have come out somewhat changed. The reasons for which we are dying to understand. So yes, these tantalizing mysteries are a huge part of this story, besides the political and societal maneuvering that take place between the characters. These elements combined take this SF story to very lofty heights indeed.
EYES OF THE VOID was just the type of sequel that I had hoped it would be. The stakes have been raised considerably, alliances are being formed, enemies are making themselves known, and the epic battle on the horizon promises to be legendary. I'm happy to say that Adrian Tchaikovsky has written another stellar space opera tale that will delight anyone who loves their science fiction smart, tech-heavy, and full of exciting adventure. I don't know how I'm going to pass the time waiting for book three, but if it is anything like these first two books in the series, it will be more than well worth it.
Preorder your copy now because you are not going to want to miss this one. And definitely read the first book in this series, Shards of Earth if you haven't yet because that one is a beautiful introduction to this story. This is space opera the way it should be told. Big ideas, mysterious civilizations, cool alien technology, characters who think and act in ways that surprise, and the ingredient that matters most - it's just downright fun to read. I have visions of this being made into a blockbuster film or TV series someday and I really hope I get the chance to see it. If you are a fan of Iain M. Banks, Peter F. Hamilton, and Gareth L. Powell, then this will be right up your alley for sure. -
Big scope space opera written by one of my favorite modern authors -- and he is doing a fantastic job yet again.
The first book laid out a great number of weird and fascinating alien species with humans just being one of many, combined with gigantic Architects that go about plopping into real space to completely transform planets into weird sculptures, much to the mind-blowing terror of the millions of people or intelligent species living there.
We followed the crew of the salvage ship Vulture God and barely scraped by one such horrifying encounter with a reveal that the big bad is not, indeed, the Architects, but something else that drove them.
And then there are the Originators, another huge mystery that wraps up all the intelligent species in yet another conundrum.
Of course, that hardly describes the USUAL and NORMAL problems of opportunistic species taking advantage of the chaos to start interstellar wars and the like, but here we are.
And nothing quite beats the terrified scrambling of so many intelligent species with all the collateral damage that implies. It makes for a truly excellent space opera. I look forward to following all these, my favorite characters from the Vulture God and their quest to survive. :) -
A thoughtful portrayal of the alien, as usual by Tchaikovsky. Both seamlessly anthropomorphic and otherworldly.
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"The architects are like the universe's will, are they not? Desperate to grind us down and reduce us to dust. And not even through malice, just as a side effect of what they do and what they are."
The central mystery surrounding the originators, unspace and the architects remains thoroughly compelling, and the planetary scale chaos is most gratifying, but the science (usually Tchaikovsky's strong point and wow factor) and character development remain weak spots, the latter in part due to POV overload. -
Eyes of the Void, the second book in Adrian Tchaikovsky's "The Final Architecture" series, manages to avoid many of the typical pitfalls of sequel books.
Readers are thrust immediately into the action of an ever-shifting galactic political landscape, rival factions at each other's throats when the larger threat of the Architects becomes as salient as it had during the first conflict. A conflict where humanity was almost wiped out, along with its alien allies.
Except this time, the Architects, moon-sized entities that use gravity to annihilate whole planets, have managed to circumvent the protection of Originator artifacts that spooked them in the last war.
You'd think humanity and its alien allies would seek a unified approach to this problem, especially since the scare-factor of the Originator artifacts has worn off.
It appears that even the breakaway human religious colonies that joined the protection of the technologically-advanced Hegemony, who have sole dominion over most of the Originator artifacts and can transport them safely, are no longer safe.
Well, to make a long story short, there are powers behind the scenes that are seeing opportunity in the impending destruction and chaos.
Yet, those nominally on the side of a unified front, are seeking a new weapon against the Architects. Among them is our beloved and frankly exhausted Int, Idris Telemmier, capable of interfacing with the Architects and seeing into "unspace," (places where, in theory, nothing made of ordinary matter should be able to exist). Along for the ride is his crew of the salvage ship The Vulture God, led by the new captain, my favorite ever-salty Olli.
When a research expedition on a Hegemony planet known as Arc Pallator goes horribly wrong, Idris is lost to his ship and crew, but lands in the hands of a handful of shady characters on a world named Criccieth's Hell. Let me tell you, this place is aptly named. A planet, formerly more friendly to life, was stripped of its protective atmospheric layers, leaving it vulnerable to their star's harsh radiation.
The only things that survive on the surface are these plants that use a process called "nuclear photosynthesis." I guess when life gives you radioactive lemons, you make radioactive lemonade?
These are scary, scary things, capable of growing faster than plants should, and are literally trying to pry open this facility, waiting for the shields to fail. (I may or may not have nightmares about these murderous plants.)
(Venus flytraps are play-toys compared to the Criccieth's Hell plants.)
Anyways, these renegade scientists have a mysterious "Machine" of Originator origin that is still up-and-running that can see into unspace, the presumed home of the Architects (it is housed in a facility which is barely holding back the life-killing radiation and aggressive plants outside).
Their crew is led by a Naeromathi alien out for revenge against the Architects. (Get this, the alien's name is Ahab.) They need Idris's Int abilities to interface with unspace and find some critical clue that was missed in the disaster of the Arc Pallator expedition.
Spoiler alert, they do find the key to the universe they are looking for. Of course, I won't spoil what it is, but let's just say all hell breaks loose, and Idris and company is trapped in Criccieth's Hell with time running out to get away and share the game-changing knowledge Idris has gained.
Eyes of the Void is an engaging sequel that ups the ante for what appears to be a last stand of humanity and its alien allies in the next (and final) book. It is a trilogy after all, and the way things stand at the end of Eyes of the Void, it's going to be spectacular, I'm sure.
Happy reading!
Find this book and other titles within
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Usually I really like Adrian Tchaikovsky. But sometimes his books are more of a slog, and this series (even only two books in) is definitely proving to be a slog.
It's ostensibly a cool future. There are humans still, but they can be divided into multiple subcategories. There is an all-female group of genetically engineered warriors. There are artificial lifeforms, and aliens, and composite beings made up of an alien surgically attached to a human's spine. There are spaceships, and psychics known as "intermediaries" who pilot those spaceships through subspace.
All of that should be very cool. But, it's too dense.
The author just barely gave me enough characterization to like the rag-tag crew of space mercenaries who are our main characters. One is a kooky female engineer with misshapen limbs, so she built herself a giant metal battle scorpion that she pilots instead of a wheelchair. One of the all-female warriors joined the crew last book. A lifeform composed of a hive of chittering bugs is on the crew. And, of course, our protagonist is a surgically enhanced psychic who can pilot the ship through subspace (or, "nonspace").
But there is just so much happening all the time, and there are really too many species and characters to keep track of. Some of their names aren't necessarily difficult to pronounce, but difficult to remember. We are given enough details about the wacky crew that I like them. But, I feel like the writer really needed to go back and give flashback scenes for these characters more often. Maybe, if I could see a scene where a character was living a quieter life on a farm in their childhood, I could be given time to really identify with them.
Instead, I'm trying to unpack a dense collection of species names and faction names on every page, and I find myself wondering if the story is ever going to slow down and focus on one character long enough for me to feel truly attached to them.
Idris is more or less the primary protagonist, what with his impossibly youthful face and "Intermediary" status driving the plot. I feel pretty invested in him. After him, maybe the next most relatable character in this installment was Emmaneth, a murderous human woman who was then bonded to an alien prawn on her back, forming a new composite being with combined personalities and incredible regenerative powers. She was given depth, what with her past as a killer, and her newfound status causing her constant, unbearable agony.
I have so many books and short stories to read right now. So much stuff came out all at once. This, I endured. But I felt I had to get through it before I could get to newer stuff I would rather read. -
The middle books in trilogies usually are the most "boring" ones. Not this.
Idris has made contact with the architects in the last book and found out that nothing is as it seemed so far. While the aliens are grotesquely reshaping / destroying planets, they are apparently forced to do so by a master race. Are they the Originators of which there are artifacts all around the known universe, which used to protect a civilisation from the destruction by an Architect? Or have the Masters, perhaps, destroyed the Originators? And what the hell IS Unspace?
While Idris is still reeling, he decides that he'll help in the effort to make more Intermediaries like himself by making sure only real volunteers are used (anything else won't work when trying to persuade the Architects to stand down). The problem begins with the differnet known alien races and their definition of "volunteers". *lol*
But there is also the chaos after a staggering number of attacks by the architects and politics, intrigues and a fair number kidnapping.
In the middle of it all, with or beside Idris, is the crew of the Vulture God.
Galactic weapons, bionics, disorientingly alien cultures and the seriously mindbending theories about the artifacts, Architects, Originators, Unspace and Masters (if they indeed exist). You keep zooming through space trying to answer one question after another and finding a way to ensure at least SOME may survive.
I loved the ragtag band(s) fighting on their ships and negotiating on planets. Though I have to admit that for me, the main thing has always been Idris. No, he wouldn't be where he is without the others and I love their loyalty, but he is the key. No idea why him especially, could be a coincidence that could have happened to any Intermediary. But one thing is for sure: we will only get the final puzzle pieces through him.
What I definitely appreciate very much is that we don't just get quirky characters and situations that make you smirk, we get actual science. Hard science. Mind-shattering science. With a healthy dose of speculation drawn from real-life research.
This series is glorious, it really is - brilliantly interweaving so many aspects and warping them into such a wonderful story. Can't wait for the next and final volume! -
The sequel and middle book. I really liked
Shards of Earth, it was one of my favourites of last year and a great adventure yarn of a misfit crew and found family. Ambitious space opera.
I struggled to stay focused though. So many characters, ships, planets, alien races and concepts. And there seems to be so much filler and endless talking. I think picking the audiobook was the wrong choice in this case.
The audiobook narration is well done, if slightly over the top and a little grating at times. The complex and very dense story had me constantly struggling to keep everybody and everything straight. My mind kept wandering off, waiting for some action and plot progression.
So, great concept, world building, plot and well-fleshed out, likeable characters, but the execution of this story just didn‘t captivate me. I had to make an effort to make it to the end, it was a slog. I would pick up another book in the series though, when it is published, to get closure on all those unresolved plotlines. -
Tchaikovsky excels at writing character driven speculative fiction and this is no exception. Eyes of the Void is the second installment of the Architect series and this review will contain some mild spoilers for the first, so read that before this. We left off the first installment with the Architects returning to 'reshape' inhabited planets after 40 years or so. Idris, one of the first 'Ints', or intermediaries, is now almost 70 but he has not aged a day (or slept) since they finished rearranging his brain to become an Int. Ints are able to tolerate 'unspace', a tenuous layer (alternative dimension?) beneath real space that allows for FTL travel, and hence typically serve as navigators on ships. It was also discovered that they can communicate with the Architects and were key in repelling the invasion 40 years ago, basically by just getting their notice ('hello! I am here and alive').
When they started returning at the end of the first installment, Idris was key in once again repelling them, but he also learned that they are acting on orders from something else (aliens? we do not know). In any case, with the Architects returning, the demand for Ints skyrockets, but it is a horrible process to transform a person into an Int and the success rate is very low. Idris agrees to help the Parthenon develop some of their own and hence is taken under their wing. The Parthenon is an all women army or 'force' that during the first Architect war served as the 'shield' to the beleaguered colonial forces to help them evacuate planets before they became macabre artworks.
So, with the Architects returning, and even worse, the strange alien artifacts that the Hegemony (an empire of clams no less) utilized to protect planets no longer working, it would seem that the various factions of humanity and the surrounding alien empires would come together to face the common threat. Of course not! Instead, we have various factions of humanity with different visions if you will of the future and on the brink of going to war with each other...
The characters in this space opera are what really makes it stand out. Olli, the abrasive drone specialist/captain of the Vulture God (the salvage vessel featured in the last installment) is perhaps my favorite. We also have Solace, a Partheni soldier and agent, who was originally sent to recruit Idris, who is slowly reevaluating the world now that she is working in colonial space. Most of the characters from the first installment are back and it was rewarding to see them develop further, even the strange Unspeakable Aklu, the clam gangster!
The science is perhaps the weakest part of this opera however, but if you can ignore the handwaves and just go with the flow it works. Unspace, for example, plays a key role in the story, but it is never quite clear what exactly it is. Another dimension? Yes, unspace allows for FTL travel, which is key, so I can see why it needs to be in the story, but I would have appreciated a bit more on it.
While the middle volume in a trilogy tends to be a 'placekeeper' for the series, this does not feel that way. Yes, many things are not resolved and lots of space for the concluding volume, but the main story arcs wrap up nicely. Tchaikovsky adroitly shifts among a variety of POVs here which really helps to flesh out the characters. Also, we are treated here to more aspects of the world here, learning more about the Hannilambra (crab like aliens) and the Hegemony. Idris really steals the show, however, as he learns more and more about Unspace and the Architects in general; you know he will be key in the conclusion.
So, to wrap up: Great job of keeping the story moving along nicely and excellent character development, a bit weak on the science front, but a very satisfying installment that did not suffer from a sophomore crisis. 4 Clammy stars!! -
Can't wait for the next one.
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4.0 Stars
This was a fantastic sequel in this epic space series. For me, the draw is the incredible worldbuilding. This imagined future is vast and complex with intricate politics between the different factions. The series technically hits on several classic tropes of the genre, yet the story never feels derivative or tired. Instead I love how these elements how these handled.
Once again, the prose is solid. My only drawback appears to be a personal one, but I find that the author always keeps his readers at a distance from his characters. While I love the overarching story, I fail to form much attachment, even for characters that we followed for two books. Despite those small quibbles, I really enjoyed this book.
I would highly recommend this series to science fiction readers but you will need to start back at the beginning with Shards of Earth.
Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher. -
Felt like a kid at Christmas when Eyes of the Void appeared in my library and was peering back at me. Completely forgotten about the pre-order I’d placed months earlier and had to immediately stop what I was reading mid-chapter!!
It was good to catch up with Idris and co, not heard from them for almost a year, if you loved Shards of Earth then you’ll like this too, its’ not too dissimilar from the first book.
Destruction of worlds, webs of conflict drawn from supremacism, politics and piety, space battles, radioactive plants and a scrappy bunch of misfits fighting against it all, what’s not to love.
Olli has to be my favourite character; I like the dark humour she brings to the narrative, and Tchaikovsky doesn’t disappoint in developing a host of weird and wonderful beings.
It’s another excellent book, I kind of enjoyed the first one more, but the journey is still captivating, and I was both happy finishing the book and disappointed that I now have to wait for the next one. -
‘Nothing matters,’ Shinandri echoed, but in a different tone, a speculative one. He understood. Unspace, the Originator walls, the Throughways, the universe, from the void between the stars to the whirling emptiness of atoms, it was all about the nothing and how you arranged it. Which meant that there were no walls at all, if you could just bend the pieces of nothing the right way. This was what a ship’s gravitic drive did, every time it passed into or out of unspace. Even reality was subordinate to nothing. You could take a vessel and make it a dream, and then throw that dream across the universe and make it real again around another star.
So #1 was about the mystery of the Architects, while #2 ups the ante by tackling the horrors and wonders of Unspace.
Review to follow. -
Four well deserved stars.
Very enjoyable, as much as the first book. For me, the best space opera that is currently being published.
The author constructs a story that has you captivated at all times and knows how to combine it with varied characters and a fascinating worldbuilding.
Looking forward to the third and last novel, entitled Lords of Uncreation (it will be published in 2023). -
2nd read: May 2022 - even better the second time. There is so much going on.
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The second book of the Architect series did not disappoint.
Adrian Tchaikovsky managed to keep the story tight, avoided any dragging (sub)plots that sometimes make a middle book a bit of a chore, but served more hints and tiny reveals about the two mysterious species the quarreling aliens and humans are facing.
The changing POVs stayed on plot the whole time while simultaneously developing further the characters we got to know in the first book. Each one of them interesting, layered and with their unique voice. I especially loved the interaction between the two opposites Solace and Olli which made for great banter and (forced) team work. Idris slowly going down the path of the mad scientist was equally fascinating to witness..
I listened to the audiobook version narrated by Sophie Aldred. Her sassy voices and the tongue-in-cheek character writing of Tchaikovsky are a match made in heaven.
After another book inbetween I will listen to this a second time, because there was so much to unpack here. -
Eyes of the Void, the second in the newest series The Final Architecture by Adrian Tchaikovsky, meets all I hoped for in a middle book: a well integrated summary of the first book ( by which I mean there wasn’t a huge info dump), added complexities in the plots, and yet more questions about the Architects and the unknown alien race that has compelled them to destroy inhabited planets. All the players from before are here, meeting up during a last minute effort to understand one of the largest Originator ruins: various humans from Earth’s colonies and their progeny the Huvers and Parthoni; Havaer the Mordant House operative; the Hegemony crowd. And, of course, there are the folks from the Vulture God salvage ship.
When Shards of Earth came to an end Idris, one of the last Intermediaries who can pilot a ship through the spooky unspace without going insane (mostly), had chosen to help the Parthoni Int training program, over the Council of Human Interests, because of their promise that only volunteers be used, volunteers who are aware of the overwhelming possibility that they will not survive. Idris is a haunted sad-sack who the other misfits on this venture rally around, protecting him from the rest of the universe that sees him as a traitor to humankind and it’s savior- if only they can get their hands in him. He just wants to be left alone, protesting, “I ended the war. I saved the world.” And is met with the question, “Yeah but what have you done recently?”
My favorite characters are the shivers and Kittering, the Hanni. Their straightforward dialogue adds humor amidst the conniving humans. One scene has the Hanni setting up a rigged board game to de-escalate an arguments between two academics- cutting them both down to size and turning potential violence between factions to shared laughter.
Everyone is on a knife’s edge and war seems inevitable, yet it’s hard to know who is on whose side when the sides keep changing. Readers will be eagerly awaiting the final book in this series and it’s good to know Tchaikovsky will not keep ya waiting long. -
Adrian Tchaikovsky writing is, as always. masterfully done. In my opinion he is one of the best contemporary SFF authors.
The audiobook was also a lot of fun, though again I would recommend people to take a look in the glossary as not to loose track of all the characters and factions. -
Grāmatai nav ne vainas, bet slimo ar visām otrajām sērijas grāmatām raksturīgām kaitēm. Palielinās risināmās problēmas apjoms; visas iesaistītās puses kļūst spēcīgākas; iepriekšējās grāmatas notikumi ir sīkums salīdzinot pret jaunajiem; autoram vairs nav iekšās nomušīt kādu no galvenajiem varoņiem un, protams, ļaunie ir nesaprasti jēriņi. Visādi citādi izcils uzmanību piesaistošs un noturošs stāsts.
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This is the second volume of Adrian Tchaikovsky’s The Final Architecture (start reading with his 2021 novel,
Shards of Earth). It concerns a very large number of spacefaring intelligent species and polities, characters, worlds, and spaceships. So many, in fact that there is a reference glossary of each of those at the end of the novel, as well as a timeline of events as revealed in volume one. There is also a recap of the plot of volume one at the beginning of this novel. I am thinking that I can discuss general attributes of this novel without plot spoilers regarding the earlier one, and that recapping the plot of volume two is not the purpose of a review anyway.
The characters of principal interest continue to be Idris Telemmier, and Mymidon Executor Solace, and the shifting crew of the independent salvage vessel Vulture God. Idris is an “Int” or Intermediary, adept at entering unspace, where faster-than-light travel is navigated, but also where the planet-destroying Architects can be sensed. Solace is a member of a parthenogenic race of human warrior women, who has some history with Idris. In addition, there is a newly sympathetic character, Havaer Munday, an Intervention Board agent of “Hugh” or the Council of Human Interests. Species, polities, and characters re-align on a constant basis, challenging the reader to keep up. But I followed those characters as my touchstones, even while I began to disregard the rest. This writing is just too broad, populated with relentless conflict, and unfathomable superlatives for my taste.
Modern space opera exists in a continuum between hard-sf and space fantasy. Tchaikovsky’s The Final Architecture is definitely to the side of space fantasy, bearing relationship to his straight-up fantasy writing. “We’re basically standing at the edge of a raw wound between unspace and the real. There’s a lot of fluctuation we don’t fully understand. Interference in the basic substructure of the matter universe,” the cyborg offered which was a lot of words to not really enlighten Solace any further.” As this passage illustrates, pretty much anything required by plot tension is possible, with regard to world-building.
The mystery of the Architects and unspace is further developed in the second half of the novel with the use of an enigmatic “Machine” in the vicinity of a particularly inhospitable planet Criccieth’s Hell. However, there is plenty left unexplained, so a third volume must certainly be in the works. Do not plan on stopping with volume two.
I read an Advance Reader Copy of Eyes of the Void in ebook, which I received from Orbit Books through netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review on social media platforms and on my book review blog. This new title is scheduled for release on 3 May 2022. -
Tchaikovsky consistently gives me 2.5 of the 3 things I crave most in SF: great worldbuilding, speculative science (in this case, biology), and queerness. (His characters are often, uh, sort of beyond queerness. But when they are of a species and life situation where sexuality matters at all, they're often some kind of queer. It's just, you know, when you are a conglomerate entity being pursued by mobile, razor-edged flowers that feed off blood, sometimes you aren't focused on feelings or relationships, and that's pretty much where all his characters spend their time. I get that! But that's why he only gets half a point there.)
So this is rollicking space opera with a massive underlying helping of Themes: the nature of the universe, good vs evil, origins, the meaning of life, revenge. And I will be honest: I do hope he sticks the landing on all of those themes. But if he doesn't, it won't greatly change my enjoyment of these books, because all the worldbuilding and all the weird lifeforms and the page-turning action -- all of that will still be there. Is this perfect? No. But is it perfect for me? Very nearly.
(And if you notice I'm not actually talking about the characters that much: look. I like most of the main characters. I genuinely do. And I love the dueling lawyer and the blunt, furious-at-the-universe disabled tank and the warrior angel and the various odd assemblages of cybernetic insects that have attained sentience. I do. But they're not why I'm reading this series.) -
Great space adventure, a little hand wavy and middle bookish.
This is my fourth Tchaikovsky read and I was not disappointed. I loved the first book in this series and was eager to dive in. You get the same loveable and unusual cast of characters with an unsurprising plot line. The alien races, history politics and intrigue really open up more and enrich the world. The climax and resolution were definitely sci fi logic hand wavy and were overcome with the a wave of vague explanations about the reality of space but I didn't mind it too much. Overall highly recommend! -
I feel privileged to read this book early, as I really enjoyed the first book in this trilogy & do enjoy reading all this author's work.
I always feel the second book is the toughest to write, as it needs to be enjoyable and frankly good, but also link with the first book & cover sufficient ground & prepare the landscape to make a third book viable.
This book stands strongly, but suffers from the second book syndrome slightly where there are lots of explanations and lots of context, which at times caused my attention to drift. Again, the author struggles with human depiction of emotions & actions, but excels at robotic & alien interactions, which still puzzles me.
But overall a great read & I keenly anticipate the next book in this series. -
Second book of a soft science fiction space opera trilogy with elements of high fantasy.
The Topology of Unspace as seen by Idris Telemmier, First Class Int?
My audio version was a lengthy 21 hours. On paper it would have been a moon-sized entity of about 600 pages. It had a 2022 US copyright in both print and audio.
Adrian Tchaikovsky is a British author of science fiction and fantasy novels. He has published more than twenty (20) novels in several series and standalone. In addition, he’s published several novellas and many short stories. This was the middle book in the author’s Final Architecture trilogy. This was the sixth book I've read by the author. The last book being Dogs of War (my review).
Sophie Aldred was the narrator. She did well with voicing the female characters, of which there were many. However, male characters were very similar. Also, her use of accents in voicing the many charters was idiosyncratic. Most folks in space speak with British or British Commonwealth accents?
Middle books are hard. This lengthy book bridges Shards of Earth (my review), the first book in the trilogy and the Lords of Uncreation finale book. I found the first book unremarkable. However, I eye-read it. Its easier to be peevish when eye-reading. I was easily able to pick-it-a-part and identify it as the a
High Fantasy with the accoutrements of a
Space Opera. Specifically, The Lord of the Rings, but in space.In the story, the Dark Lord (The Architects) defeated two human generations ago have returned. The fractious, free human kingdoms (Council of Human Interest (Hugh), Parthenon, Hegemonic humans) and their allied species (Castigar, Hanni, Hivers, etc.) are in disarray. A mysterious, wandering wizard (Harbinger Ash) gathers heroes to face the danger. The best one hope, was the PTSD-affected hero (Idris Telemmier) of the previous Architect War. He, along with a small band of unlikely fellow travelers (spacers: Kris, Olli, Barney, Medvig and Solace) quest through strange lands (planets: Jericho, Tarekuma, Huei-Cavor, Roshu, etc.) inhabited by monsters, strange folks (Nativists, Broken Harvest Society, the Intervention Board, etc.) to save the human world(s).
Having ear-read this book, I found I liked it more. That is despite it reminding me of
The Two Towers, particularly Book IV: The Ring Goes East, in so far as Idris now has The Ring.
This wasn’t a great work, because of its dependence on too many overused tropes and the obviousness of the story. Yet, it was amusing in places. For example, I got a kick out of the obvious British-isms (“Gubbins” and “Legging it.”). The aliens were good. Although that's to be expected from the author. And snarky robots (called "Hivers") are very hip right now.
I've found the narrator's performance creates a different book from the author's original text. For example, the narrator many times corrects the author's grammar errors and may apply intonation to correct or change the intended punctuation of the original text. I've seen poorly written books get better and good books go bad as an audiobook. The true book is still found in the text. However, the audiobook, more likely the narrator (Sophie Aldred) made this book better entertainment. -
The second instalment of the absurdly prolific Tchaikovsky's current space opera series, though like more space opera than you might expect, it comes with a strong undercurrent of cosmic horror. From the off, part of the beauty of this setting is how neatly the usual SF cheats tie together, so the faster than light drives and the shields both derive from the same central idea – and now, it turns out, so do the implacable, enormous Architects who are once more fatally reshaping inhabited planets, and the Originator relics which until recently were almost the only way to stop them, but which no longer seem to do the trick. Obviously, with a third book to come, we don't get all the answers yet, and it would be profoundly unsporting of me to give away all we do get here, but for me it perfectly fulfilled the middle book remit of moving things along, escalating, answering some questions while posing more, without ever feeling like it was cheating or our attention had been unfairly misdirected.
Not that the attraction is only in the cosmic structure; this isn't the Asimov school of SF, where the ideas might be interesting but the characters are cardboard. The worlds are depicted with that Star Wars, Alien, Expanse awareness of how grotty space travel could be, especially when species are having to desert their planets in a hurry. Hence the spacer bar where "Rotary drones wobbled overhead delivering drinks that they only spilled half of. You could get drunk in Skaggerak just sitting around with your head tilted up and your mouth open." Sometimes it threatens to tip into the parodically grim: "a veiny gas giant like an infected testicle crawling up the horizon of Hismin's Moon and leaving precious little of the sky free of its malign radiance." But there's enough life and humour to the leads to pull back from that brink, even in the face of Armageddon.
And that Armageddon...well, since the Event, I've been very reluctant to read anything with certain plausible ends of the world. Plagues are out, and likewise global warming, so that recent sunken world Cat Valente is getting skipped for the foreseeable, and I'd be steering clear of Neal Stephenson's latest even if his last one hadn't been such a misfire. Ruddy great aliens doing macrame with planets, though? That's fine. Except that what becomes increasingly clear this time out is that Tchaikovsky is doing one of them there metaphors which people who don't read much science fiction are always so surprised to find in science fiction. This is most obvious in the central section set on the planet Arc Pallator, which is definitely, visibly and quite imminently doomed, but whose inhabitants are desperately trying to put a brave face on the matter, while the various visiting factions get distracted from the little matter of impending planetary catastrophe in favour of pointless pissing contests and jockeying for short-term advantage. Meanwhile, certain vested interests are wondering if this might not be the ideal time to roll back the clock and redraw the boundaries of who counts as a person. None of this is mere allegory, mind; Tchaikovksy isn't Chris Chibnall or some litfic goon trying to write about the climate, he's a proper writer, so all of this also still works on the level of alien spaceships unveiling cool secret weapons as they engage in spectacular battles, forge desperate alliances, and generally press all the classic space opera buttons.
Moving through these pyrotechnics, our leads. Idris, the almost comically hangdog saviour of humanity, wishing he didn't have to do it all over again, determined that any new Intermediaries he creates should be volunteers like he was, not the convicts who've been used since – but what does consent mean in a militarised clone society? Or indeed, when the alternative is extinction? Solace, one of said clones, uneasily promoted from frontline Angel Of Punching You In The Face to officer and agent. Foul-mouthed Olli, and the gradations of affection which can be detected in what at first sight just looks like being awful to everyone all the time. And knife-wielding lawyer Kris, whose plot during the finale could very easily have felt like a distraction from the massive showdown over the worst planet in the galaxy, but really didn't, because knife-wielding lawyer Kris is amazing. At the end of the book, lots of stuff has blown up in entirely satisfactory fashion, thought-provoking themes of absence and loss have been prodded at, and everything is nicely set for the grand finale. Which, knowing Tchaikovsky's work-rate, he probably dashed off last Thursday lunchtime, but for which the exigencies of publishing mean the rest of us will have to wait a year or so, during which time he'll have three other books out.
(Netgalley ARC) -
** I received an advanced copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This book was published on May 3, 2022 in the US. **
Possible Triggers:
Death | Torture
Summary:
This is the second book in the ‘Final Architecture’ Series. The book starts about 6 months after the events of book 1.
Characters:
This story follows the same characters as it does in the first book.
Idris: So I know I mentioned him in my review of the first book. But, this man is just so freaking relatable. I love that he struggles to formulate the words to communicate his thoughts/ideas. I adore that his friends see and recognize where he needs help and they are willing and able to step in and be there for him when he needs/asks for it. I love that they are willing to tear completely through space not even because Idris has a specific need he’s to fulfill but genuinely because they care about him (this isn't conveyed enough (in other books) where it actually FEELS like they care). I love that he has his Idris-isms. He's just so distinctly himself. Best relatable series hero ever.
Positives:
+ ‘The story so far’ and an ‘important characters’ page in the very front before you even begin? HOW PERFECT. I love when books do this. A++ for refreshing my memory before I deep dive into the story. Also the sexy timeline information in the back of the book as well as a glossary? *chef’s kiss* beautiful.
+ Adrian Tchaikovsky writes the best freaking alien species ever. I love that so many of them are so outside of the realm of anything I have ever read before. Mollusk overlords? Check. Creatures that have to live in a built form in order to maintain a cohesive form to communicate with others? Check! Loch Ness Space Beastie? Check!
+ I really enjoyed seeing some of the Hanni culture in this book. It wasn’t a huge amount, but even getting to dip into the surface level a little more was fantastic.
+ A++ for the increase of stakes in this book.
Final Thoughts:
This review is literally taking me an age to finish (it's going on over 2 weeks now and I still can't formulate the words). How to fully express how awesome I thought this book was without spoiling anything at all. So I wanna preface this review with I LOVE THIS BOOK. I want to talk about it, I want to see fanart of it, I want it to be one of the big ‘talked about’ space operas.
This book took me a ridiculous amount of time to finish. I actually started it a month before it was due to be released and somehow it managed to take me 2 months to actually finish the book. I don’t know what my deal was; this book was fantastic. The pacing was insane, the aliens fascinating. The stakes were ridiculously high. You got to see more culture, more fighting, more intrigue, more EVERYTHING! This is a great second book in a series and I can not wait to see how the series concludes. -
This was an excellent book, because that’s all Adrian Tchaikovsky writes. But it also left me extremely dissatisfied. It’s very much a middle book of a series; we get many more clues, but precious few answers.
Part of what frustrated me about this book is what I will call the “Mass Effect effect.” Why are all of these people so fixated on their petty politicking when there are literal world-destroying monsters running around? I know it’s very much human nature, but I still wanted to take a bunch of these people and bonk their heads together until they got some perspective.
Suffice it to say, humanity isn’t exactly banding together in the face of the return of the Architects.
This story picks up right where Shards of Earth left off, with Idris and the rest of the crew of the Vulture God The politics start up right away; Idris is very much setting the stage for an intra-humanity power struggle here. Meanwhile the Hiver Assembly is also involved, and Agent Mundy & Mordant House and other parts of the Council of Human Interest are each playing their own game, and who the hell knows what the Hegemony is up to (to say nothing of the Unspeakable Aklu, the Razor and the Hook).
It’s exciting, fast-paced, and well-written, because Tchaikovsky doesn’t write bad books. But I also didn’t get many answers to the questions I really wanted to know. What’s up with Architects? What’s driving them? What’s the thing watching in unspace? Who were the Originators? Where did they go? I know more about all of these things, but I don’t know enough about any of them. So all there is to do, I suppose, is read book 3 when it comes out. Hopefully very soon. -
4.6| Im 2. Band der „Architekten-Trilogie“ von Adrian Tchaikovsky hängt das Schicksal der Menschheit am seidenen Faden, nachdem die Architekten nach achtzig Jahren nicht nur zurück sind sondern daran sind, alle bewohnten Welten zu zerstören. Originator-Artefakte, die einst Planeten vor diesen von Mondgröße geschützten Aliens geschützt haben, funktionieren nicht mehr. Aus der Leere, bzw. dem Unraum kommt der Tod zu allen, nicht nur zu den Menschen oder den Menschen-Abkömmlingen. Dazu kommen Auseinandersetzungen zwischen diesen Menschenabkömmlingen, der sich zu einem heißen Krieg zu entwickeln scheint.
Nachdem die mondgroßen Architekten einen Weg gefunden haben, diesen Schutz mittels Fragmenten der ausgestorbenen Spezies der Orginatoren zu umgehen, gibt es nur noch eine Möglichkeit, die Planeten zu schützen.
Die Verwendung von Vermittlern oder INTs, Menschen, die durch den Umraum reisen und mit den Architekten kommunizieren können, scheint die einzige Lösung zu sein, die noch übrig ist.
Trotz miserablen Erfolgsquoten ist es von größter Bedeutung, mehr INTs zu schaffen. Die Fehde über die Kontrolle dieser INTs ist einer der Gründe einen neuen galaktischen Krieg hervorbringen.
Idris Telemmier ist einer der ersten und einer der erfahrensten Umraum -Piloten. Sein zweimaliger Kriegsheldenstatus ist jedoch mit einem polarisierenden Ruf versehen.
Idris hatte die Architekten im Krieg abgelenkt. Mit der Menschheit am Rande der Vernichtung beobachten nun alle Parteien Idris.
Idris Telemmiers Not in diesem Buch ist ein packender Klassiker. Während er nichts weiter will, als aus dem Zentrum der Aufmerksamkeit des Universums zu verschwinden, erkennt er seine Verantwortung an.
Seine Entscheidungen werden den Verlauf der Menschheit für immer verändern. Idris als widerstrebender Held beweist dass Tchaikovsky inzwischen auch das Space Opera Handwerk perfekt beherrscht. „Die Augen der Galaxis“ las ich jedoch eher als Setup -Stück für den dritten Teil der Serie. Bei diesem zweiten Teil fügt Tschaikowskys jedoch dem Universum Tiefe hinzu.
Wir erfahren mehr über etablierte außerirdische Spezies und den Unraum. Tschaikovsky ist außergewöhnlich, wenn es darum geht, wirklich ausgefallene Aliens zu präsentieren und ihnen Authentizität zu geben. Gleiches gilt für seine genetisch oder biologisch modifizierten Menschen. Ich habe es besonders genossen, mehr über das Parthenon und die symbiotischen Tothiate zu lernen.
Ich liebe Tschaikowskys Konzept des Unraums. Seine Darstellung dieser realen und nicht existierenden Leere verstärkt meine Fantasie. Das im Unraum versteckte Geheimnis fühlt sich wirklich unbegrenzt an. Ich bin gespannt auf die Auflösung.
„Die Augen der Galaxis“ verstärken alles aus dem ersten Teil. Es gibt mehr Schlachten, mehr Architekten und viel mehr, um etwas über Tschaikowskys Universum zu lernen.
Inzwischen kann ich sagen, dass sich Adrian Tchaikovsky meines Erachtens sich in der Linie der Space Opera-Meistern wie Peter F. Hamilton oder Alastair Reynolds eingereiht hat, mit seiner Fähigkeit ein intelligentes Worldbuilding mit mehreren großen Ideen zu einem komplexen und überraschenden Gericht zu kombinieren.
Der große Umfang der Geschichte mit seiner unübersehbaren Anzahl von außerirdischen Arten, Planeten und Charakteren macht es jedoch manchmal schwer, der Geschichte zu folgen; wem das aber trotzdem nicht abschreckt, dem bleibt eine großartige Leseerfahrung mit einer der besten Space Operas der letzten Jahre, für mich unverzichtbar ! -
2.8⭐ 09/28/22
Middle volume jn this high flying space opera trilogy, populated by a confusing number of alien species and human factions.
Earth has been destroyed by moon sized aliens known as Architects, the remnants of humanity scattered across dozens of colony planets or wandering here and there in space ships. After disappearing for many years the Architects are back to their old planet wrecking ways.
Tchaikovsky adds more detail to his universe and piles the adventures on our hero, Idris, and crew of the salvage ship, Vulture God. Very standard fare but pretty well written and good fun. -30-
12/04/22 Fat fingered update. Nothing added, just fixed the rating I messed up with my fumbling.
