Reviews with content warning for Religious bigotry - Shards of Earth

Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky

1 review

aulandez's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is my fourth Tchaikovsky/Czajkowski book, and he just keeps impressing me. Children of Time and Children of Ruin were big-ideas sci-fi on the level of Kim Stanley Robinson, Asimov, Herbert, LeGuin, Butler, and for me he quickly entered the same category as those pillars of the genre. Doors of Eden elegantly walked a line between big ideas and character-focused adventure, and I loved the audiobook read by Sophie Alfred (Ace!) of Doctor Who fame. His books don’t exist first and foremost to explore a big idea, being a compelling story is what’s most important to him, but there are ideas he’s consistently interested in exploring, like the nature of biological and social evolution, and whether human beings can meaningfully direct the nature of our ecological, anatomical, psychological, or social future. Everything I’ve read so far, and his two big series Shadows of the Apt and Echoes of the Fall all seem to orbit around these questions, all while his capacity as an author (particularly in terms of character and atmosphere) just keeps increasing with every successive work. While I feel like he has a lot in common with the classics of big-idea sci-fi, and there are lots of echoes of Asimov, Herbert, and KSR, he has less in common with the current crop of hard sci-if authors than he does with the inheritors of LeGuin & Butler’s feminist-infused social sci-fi tradition like Ann Leckie and Arkady Martine, and Shards of Earth reminds me of nothing more than Ancillary Justice.

Shards of Earth is the most fun of his books that I’ve read, and while it doesn’t compare to Children of X in terms of scale or philosophical originality, it shoots past anything I’ve read from him in terms of character and weirdness. Clam alien gods! Lobster-cockroach people who graft LCD screens to their bodies and rent the space out for banner ads. Attitudinal robot archeologists. Queer space amazons who watch pirated k-dramas. Disabled space pirates with killer adaptive-assistive technology. And are the Castigar tunicates or annelids (tube-worms) that shape their shells to imitate human bodies? How much do you wanna bet Adrian has a saltwater aquarium?

I’ve noticed lots of complaints about the book’s failure to live up to their muscular standards of what “hard” sci-fi should be, and it think those readers missed the point of the book. Tchaikovsky pumps books out at a pace that Brandon Sanderson should find threatening, and like Sanderson he seems to mix up his length and vibe in an effort to keep himself engaged and manage the flow of publications. I don’t really think Children of X is hard sci-fi, but its certainly muscular, cerebral, and dense. I think Shards of Earth is meant to be the first in a series of lighter fare, owing more to Star Wars or Miles Vorkosigan than Dune, action-adventure focused, but not skimping on weird sci-fi ideas or political intrigue, ultimately a fun romp for author and audience. As a short, fast, fun action adventure that also provides a bit of meat, it’s great. My biggest complaint is the lack of romance, which Tchaikovsky really seemed to be trying to create space for but didn’t seem to know how to handle. In the end he seems have confirmed particular relationship will move forwards in future books, but it came off lifeless, and that particular relationship really undermines the character development of the characters involved, while he leaves off another that had a lot more narrative potential. I almost wonder if he was hesitant to pick up on the threads of queerness he’s seeded through the book, but maybe he’ll weave something I’ll appreciate more in future books. If it’s meant to be hard sci-fi ala Peter Hamilton or Alastair Reynolds, it’s definitely a failure, starting with the fact that it’s consistently fun to read!

I’ll be eagerly awaiting the next in the series, and despite my intentions to avoid author-bingeing this year, the next book I’m picking up is definitely one of the stack of Tchaikovsky’s I haven’t read yet.

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