Shards of Earth | Blog Tour

Hello everyone, welcome to my stop on the Shards of Earth Blog Tour! Thank you to The Write Reads, Tor UK and Black Crow PR for organising the tour! Shards of Earth is the newest book by sci-fi master Adrian Tchaikovsky, which is published on the 27th of May. I’ll be sharing my thoughts in my review below!

My Review

I have only recently been reading sci-fi consistently, and I have only read 2 of Tchaikovsky’s books previous to this one, but I had a pretty good idea what to expect! His science fiction novels are always action-packed and so imaginative that it is impossible to not get swept up in the world he creates. Shards of Earth is no different, the action is non-stop and every single page is action packed!

This novel follows a group of allies and crewmates who must join forces to battle a returning monster who can wipe out entire planets in one fell swoop. A group of aliens called Architects destroyed the Earth almost eighty years ago, and were only stopped from destroying more planets by a group of human soldiers who’s minds were turned into weapons to counter the Architects. We follow Idris, one of these soldiers, and Solace, a powerful female soldier from a group called Partheni, female soldiers separated from humanity. I love these two characters and their relationship. They are both soldiers who witnessed the initial destruction of Earth, and this jaded and tired demeanour they both have fitted perfectly with the rest of the crew, and with each other.

I love a found-family trope, and this one delivers that trope, and even better its in space!! The members of the crew are already a tightly-knitted group, and when Solace joins them, the relationships are drawn tighter, and in some instances loosened as a result. We really get to know the characters, and see them go through some serious drama too!

This book may seem intimidating at 550 pages, but these pages really fly by, and Tchaikovsky has a perfect balance of space battles and moments of humour and humanity to keep the narrative flowing perfectly. The narrative also comes to a lovely tidy end, which I always appreciate in science fiction novels. This is the first book in a trilogy, and I will definitely be picking up the sequels to follow this group of characters, but this particular novel has an ending which is quite satisfying by itself.

Tchaikovsky has created a large and complex universe which is packed full with alien races. These aliens are so well imagined and described, it was really fun to read about all these different creatures, and to imagine them! The novel covers quite a lot of ground in terms of settings, from space ships, to ruins in a deadly jungle, to cities, Tchaikovsky really stretches his writing style to create a beautiful and imaginative world, which I was completely absorbed with.

I read this 550 page book in 3 days, I just couldn’t seem to put it down! If you liked Becky Chambers’ Wayfarers series, you should definitely give this novel a try, it really delivered on the space opera themes for me!

Thank you The Write Reads, Tor Uk and Black Crow PR for having me on the Shards of Earth Blog tour!

Buy the book from Waterstones here

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