Adrian Tchaikovsky is a British author of science fiction. He arrived at science fiction from interests in zoology and role-playing games. At the time of writing he's written over 30 novels and has received many awards.
Shards of Earth is the first book in The Final Architecture series. It's followed by Eyes of the Void and Lords of Uncreation. Shards of Earth won the Best Novel award from the British Science Fiction Association.
In Shards of Earth a crew of space salvagers find themselves at odds with several different spacefaring civilizations, some of these human and some of them not. While the salvagers contend with various interested parties over the contents and nature of a salvaged ship, the galaxy wrings its hands over the fate of the Architects, a destructive race of beings seemingly absent from the scene for an extended period of time. But are the Architects truly absent from the scene? And can our crew of space salvagers reveal the truth about these Architects before it's too late?
In terms of tone and characterization this book reminded me a lot of Star Wars, although it's a much bloodier take on that type of science fiction. Spaceships vanish into and return from a kind of hyperspace without any thought given to relativistic time dilation, and other futuristic plot elements are also treated in very cursory terms.
I'm not complaining about this aspect of the book because sometimes dwelling on such matters gets in the way of the story the author is trying to tell. It's often enough to let the crab alien in the corner just be the crab alien in the corner, and to let the sentient cockroach colony think its thoughts without trying to explain why it's thinking those thoughts. Pondering such things can be fruitful for many science fiction authors, but not for all of them. In this respect I'm glad that Adrian Tchaikovsky knows what kind of author he is, and what kind of story he's trying to tell.
I found Shards of Earth a bit slow in parts, and the ending seemed to go on longer than it should have, but overall I enjoyed it. The doses of gore peppered throughout the story were appreciated, as were the interactions between the more eccentric human characters and the stranger sorts of aliens. I have the feeling that if someone tried to make a movie out of Shards of Earth they'd probably bungle it, but as the book stands it represents some very solid storytelling that left me wanting more.
I look forward to reading Eyes of the Void and Lords of Uncreation soon. Science fiction of this caliber isn't easy to find nowadays.
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