Reviews

Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky

strategineer's review

5.0

A great space opera by the king of writing alien aliens. It's a fantastic romp where we follow free adventures of a ragtag group of scoundrels doing their best to save the universe.

What could have been just "another one of those" is greatly elevated by the Adrian Tchaikovsky touch.

Check out my more extensive thoughts on the second novel in the series here.

qjbrown96's review

5.0

50 years ago in the future, Aliens attacked humans. Destroying ships and entire planets. The only thing that saved them was Indris, an enhanced elite fighter. Only you don’t know how he did it or how he’s so elite until the story ramps up. Now not only must he fight intergalactic pirates but he and his new crew must save the world again from the Aliens.

What absolutely outstanding book. Adrian’s imagination is just so great with his descriptions of the different alien species, worlds, and cultures. I loved to read about every character in this book and one of the antagonists was dope. I will be finishing this series immediately!

bartalker's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious relaxing tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

katieinca's review against another edition

4.0

Surprising, in a good way. [b:Children of Time|25499718|Children of Time (Children of Time, #1)|Adrian Tchaikovsky|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1431014197l/25499718._SY75_.jpg|45276208] was very much not my thing and this is SO different. It's closer to a Becky Chambers found family space romp crossed with [b:The Collapsing Empire|30078567|The Collapsing Empire (The Interdependency, #1)|John Scalzi|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1464097677l/30078567._SY75_.jpg|50498420] "the whole human race is maybe gonna die" vibe, and there were no spiders in sight. I loved the widely varying characters despite how difficult it was to keep them straight at first, and how mean Tchaikovsky was in killing off some of my favorites.

wynwicket's review

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

My goodness, that was good.  Compelling as all get out, cosmic in scope but very character-focused, and I genuinely loved our scrappy little crew who now find themselves having to save the world.  Fantastic writing.  I look forward to devouring everything else the author has written. 

alanthomp's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.75

lizthelizars's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

3.75

I think I might just not like space operas all that much.

grumpymonday's review

mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

Whoa this is a difficult book to rate. I thought I would really enjoy it due to the Mass Effect vibes it gives off. But in summary unfortunately I didn't really like it. I really struggled to get through this and had to pretty much skim the last pages to finish it off.

Positives:
Some interesting themes, and technologies and alien races.

Criticism/ negatives:
- Unnecessarily long - cut at least 200 pages of it to make it 3/5. In this format it's wastes readers time, a lot! I kept looking at the bottom of the page to see what page I was on,disappointed by the progress.

- Massive info and character dumps in the beginning of the book. Poor first impressions
- Core mystery is not given enough intrigue to make me want to enjoy the journey.
- Core characters are not given...character to enjoy the journey with them
- Something is off with the writing, I wasn't really caring about anything happening in the book and had to re-read a lot of pages as attention kept drifting.

Why did I read it then? Good question, I guess there was still something in the main mystery I was hoping that would pay off in the end. But no, and would not recommend this to scifi fans either. Unfortunately will not continue with this series.

rsmith0914's review

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

hellified's review

adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0