
Shards of Earth (The Final Architects, #1)
by Adrian Tchaikovsky, Sophie Aldred (Narrator)
I started reading this as an ebook, but then switched to the Audible version, after realizing that I do like and know the audiobook narrator, Sophie Aldred. So far, so good!
The Arthur C. Clarke award-winning author of Children of Time brings us an extraordinary new space opera about humanity on the brink of extinction, and how one man’s discovery will save or destroy us all.
The war is over. Its heroes forgotten. Until one chance discovery . . .
Idris has neither aged nor slept since they remade him in the war. And one of humanity’s heroes now scrapes by on a freelance salvage vessel, to avoid the attention of greater powers.
When I read the name of the MC, all I could think was… Idris Elba! Full review to come. I am about 30% in and already love the crew of this salvage vessel. Obviously, things go to hell in a hand basket pretty quickly, as they tend to go in this kind of story!
Good introduction here: Shards of Earth review: A rip-roaring space opera with a psychic twist
Don‘t read it, if you want to go into the book completely spoiler free!
And there is a good author interview here. It was really interesting to read about his working day and writing process. I actually skipped the parts where he talks about this book, as I was afraid to spoiler myself too much.
Sophie Aldred also narrated his The Doors of Eden, which I did not love, but liked enough to read a sequel, if one should materialize. Looks unlikely though.
One of my reading buddies mentioned that Shards reminds him of the books by Peter F. Hamilton. My success rate with Hamilton is pretty checkered, from DNF to loving them. Maybe worth another try..
I haven’t read any of Tchaikovsky’s work before, but I’ve heard good things about it. Hopefully I’ll get around to trying something of his soon…
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There are a lot of short stories and novellas. Some short stories should be available for free online, if you want to check out his writing style. If you like Space Opera and biology and aren‘t arachnophobic, try Children of Time!
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That’s a good tip, I’ll see if I can find something of his free online to test out his writing style. I think I’ll skip Children of Time, though… I’m not exactly arachnophobic, but I’m also not really a fan of most spiders…
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They are really nice spiders though… 😏
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Here is one… haven‘t read it, so I can‘t say anything about it.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24833131-100-difficult-times-by-adrian-tchaikovsky-an-electro-band-get-a-weird-gig/
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Cool, thanks!
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Oh, and this one, Precious Little Things, free on Tor.com: https://cathysreadingbonanza.wordpress.com/2019/12/07/prequel-time/
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Have heard very good things about this book, but I think I’m going to wait to pick this up till you’ve reviewed it.
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It‘s great and I will very likely give it 5 stars, unless something dramatic happens in the last third of the book…
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