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bluejayreads's review against another edition
3.75
I generally prefer fantasy over scifi, especially scifi as hard as Adrian Tchaikovksy tends to write. But I picked this up because I enjoyed his novella Elder Race and was willing to try something else. This is fairly hard scifi, but it had solid and likeable characters, a strong plot that manages to have our protagonists hopping from planet to planet without ever feeling contrived or like a fetch quest, and some absolutely amazing worldbuilding concepts. So many of the ideas were unique and tied into a great story. The amazing worldbuilding manages to make the whole story feel intricate and vivid, even though the plot isn't particularly complex. Adrian Tchaikovsky is a great writer and I enjoyed the read. I'm on the fence about reading book two - not becuase I think it will be bad or that there isn't room for a sequel, but becuase sequels are usually not quite as good as book one and while I liked this book, I wouldn't say I love it or call it a favorite. But again, this book was good, so I'm not ruling it out.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, War, Violence, and Death
Moderate: Racism, Genocide, Body horror, Ableism, and Blood
Minor: Slavery, Kidnapping, Xenophobia, Gore, and Confinement
Unrealityiono's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
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? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation, Death, Violence, and War
Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Medical content, Slavery, Blood, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, and Xenophobia
Minor: Ableism, Kidnapping, Murder, and Torture
tiredcreature's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
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
Classical space opera framework with rich worldbuilding;
No unifying high concept, but discusses a number of ideas relevant to the setting;
Clean, polished prose with vivid descriptions;
Especially loved the various cultures encountered in the course of the plot (the random French phrases of the Parthenon, patchwork 'mend and make do' attitude of the Polyaspora, spacer funerals, etc etc); would like to see more of the Hivers and Hannilambra
No unifying high concept, but discusses a number of ideas relevant to the setting;
Clean, polished prose with vivid descriptions;
Especially loved the various cultures encountered in the course of the plot (the random French phrases of the Parthenon, patchwork 'mend and make do' attitude of the Polyaspora, spacer funerals, etc etc); would like to see more of the Hivers and Hannilambra
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief and Gore
Minor: Slavery
Discussion of ableism, disability rights, and eugenics; Discussion of sexism; Discussion of xenophobiamar's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism, Violence, Death, War, and Blood
Minor: Torture, Lesbophobia, and Slavery
tea_overload's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
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? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Slavery
magis1105's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
tense
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? No
4.5
A very interesting battle.
After 50 years of war that humans barely made it out of, the new world still is fighting the same political issues. Worse still they still defend the right to practice slavery using lame excuses that those who are modified have a duty- they are not considered human enough.
Division on made-up moral or "naturalist" standards plays a big role in the social construct. And it's very hard to get over that.
The characters are fighting their own monsters- be it discrimination, or post-traumatic stress from the past war among a few other personal demons.
We have a found family setting, the personal growth, I was deeply moved by the characters and their circumstances- definitely have good fighting and [political intrigues. The con side - the romance or attempts at it were meh.
But overall I really liked it. I will continue the series as soon as possible.
Full review can be found https://bunkerofbooks05.wixsite.com/bunker-of-books/post/shards-of-earth
After 50 years of war that humans barely made it out of, the new world still is fighting the same political issues. Worse still they still defend the right to practice slavery using lame excuses that those who are modified have a duty- they are not considered human enough.
Division on made-up moral or "naturalist" standards plays a big role in the social construct. And it's very hard to get over that.
The characters are fighting their own monsters- be it discrimination, or post-traumatic stress from the past war among a few other personal demons.
We have a found family setting, the personal growth, I was deeply moved by the characters and their circumstances- definitely have good fighting and [political intrigues. The con side - the romance or attempts at it were meh.
But overall I really liked it. I will continue the series as soon as possible.
Full review can be found https://bunkerofbooks05.wixsite.com/bunker-of-books/post/shards-of-earth
Content Warnings
Moderate: Slavery, Violence, and War
solardavy's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
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? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Slavery
laurareads87's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
fast-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
4.25
Shards of Earth is an epic space opera that follows the multi-species crew of a run down patched together salvage ship who find themselves at the centre of interplanetary political manoeuvring with the spectre of a second war with the planet-destroying Architects – moon sized entities humans know almost nothing about, but which destroyed Earth – looming.
There are a lot of things that I like about Shards of Earth that would lead me to recommend it to fans of space operas. Tchaikovsky has managed to develop a cast of characters of multiple different species – several of which are far from humanoid – while giving them distinct personalities, avoiding reducing each to a kind of representation of their respective species. Though a little bit slow at the beginning (for perhaps the first 15% or so), the plot moves along at a good pace overall, kept me interested throughout, and contained a few twists I did not see coming. Finally, with Shards of Earth Tchaikovsky has constructed a complex world with many societies, colonies, and alien species; the political and historical dynamics are very well developed without too many detours into ‘info dumping’ explanations.
The book includes indexes of characters, worlds, species, and ships, as well as a timeline for reference – while I appreciate these inclusions, I did not find that I needed them to follow what was going on. I can see them being very useful to revisit before reading the next book in the series as a refresher: this was my first book by Adrian Tchaikovsky but won’t be my last – I’m glad that this is the first book in a series because I’ll happily read the rest (though it’s worth mentioning for those not necessarily wanting to start a long series that this novel works quite well as a standalone – it left me wanting to read more, but not unsatisfied with how it ended).
A minor complaint from a technical standpoint is that I’d prefer if the chapters were shorter for the e-book especially – having only 5 parts plus a prologue in a book this long is not my personal preference when it comes to navigating an e-book table of contents, though these chapters are broken up with line breaks and shifts in perspective that form convenient spots to pause reading if needed.
Thank you to Orbit Books + Netgalley for providing me with an ARC.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Torture
Moderate: Racism and Ableism
Minor: Slavery
honeyreads1066's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
3.25
First off, this is a complicated sci-fi epic that I was so excited to read.
This book is mainly about 2 people, Solace and Idris. Solace is a soldier from a race of genetically engineered women whose task is to recruit Idris for their cause. Idris is a previous soldier turned navigator who was genetically experimented on to allow him to fight a world-ending being called the Architects. After responding to a normal call for a request to bring back a ship, the crew discovers something that changes everything.
This book is way more plot-based than character-based but saying that doesn't mean that I disliked any of the characters when I was not supposed to. they were written with depth and I found them very intriguing but I didn't feel very emotionally attached to them. That may be because it is plot-based.
In terms of the plot I was hooked, I'm not going to lie I was incredibly confused for line the first 20% of this but I'm glad I stuck it out. It's been a while since I've read anything that is so unlike the real world and thus it took a moment to get used to but once I did I was very intrigued. There are a lot of questions about a lot of things, some that are answered and some that aren't in this book but it does hit you.
The pacing is a little slow but honestly, I think it works well, it gives you a chance to get immersed into the world and understand fully what is happening.
Overall this was solid, I enjoyed myself and I have a few questions I want to be answered so when the next book is read I will be there.
This book is mainly about 2 people, Solace and Idris. Solace is a soldier from a race of genetically engineered women whose task is to recruit Idris for their cause. Idris is a previous soldier turned navigator who was genetically experimented on to allow him to fight a world-ending being called the Architects. After responding to a normal call for a request to bring back a ship, the crew discovers something that changes everything.
This book is way more plot-based than character-based but saying that doesn't mean that I disliked any of the characters when I was not supposed to. they were written with depth and I found them very intriguing but I didn't feel very emotionally attached to them. That may be because it is plot-based.
In terms of the plot I was hooked, I'm not going to lie I was incredibly confused for line the first 20% of this but I'm glad I stuck it out. It's been a while since I've read anything that is so unlike the real world and thus it took a moment to get used to but once I did I was very intrigued. There are a lot of questions about a lot of things, some that are answered and some that aren't in this book but it does hit you.
The pacing is a little slow but honestly, I think it works well, it gives you a chance to get immersed into the world and understand fully what is happening.
Overall this was solid, I enjoyed myself and I have a few questions I want to be answered so when the next book is read I will be there.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Murder, and Torture
Minor: Slavery
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