SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

A few questions to get us started:


1. What did you think of the world?
2. What did you think of the characters?
3. What worked or didn't for you?
4. Overall thoughts?

Non-spoiler thread here: First impressions

Hmm so I read this book (the series actually) and I found it to be compelling. I read this book on the heels of the 3 Body Problem series and that might color my view on it.

The sheer scale of this series is what blew me away. I consider it to be cosmic horror-lite. The way that that Idris Telemmier and the rest of the intermediaries worked was an incredible idea.

My favorite character was Myrmidon Executor Solace and I owe that mostly to the author’s abilities to telegraph combat. It reminds me a lot of the current series I’m reading by Ryan Cahill’s Bound and the Broken fantasy series. They both write combat very similar. It’s not overly complicated, easier to follow, and still effective.

What happened to earth, being artwork, plays on the idea that there is some strange beauty in destruction. I might post more as I think back on that book. I’d rather stay in my lane and not give away spoilers from the other books in The Final Architecture series.

I'm on the third book

Nick Gaspard’s wrote: "Hmm so I read this book (the series actually) and I found it to be compelling. I read this book on the heels of the 3 Body Problem series and that might color my view on it.

The sheer scale of th..."

I've only read the first and look forward to reading the rest of the series. Your comment about artwork and a strange beauty in destruction is intriguing and I hope you'll comment more on that later.

battle/fight scenes very well written
lots of deaths
love the Hivers
Idris, Kris, Solace and Ollie are some of my favorites with Kittering and Haever coming in just below them

I’ve just started this book. I like it but in the first 100 pages struggle with someone just screaming away such a powerful alien presence. I’m assuming this is going to be explained especially since sound doesn’t travel through space.

I read Adrian’s Children of time and loved the evolutionary, scientific explanations. Not getting that in this book yet but hope I will. Only 100 pages into this book.

I'm not finished yet, but I'm up to the last part. I didn't start this thinking it'd be a 5 star read for me, but I kind of think it will be. I see now that "unspace" is not a place so much as a character and I'm very eager to finish the book to see if my theory about what that character is suppose to be and represent in a literary sense is in the ballpark.

I like the diversity of characters, both the individuals and the different species, factions and cultures, in this universe. It's fun and imaginative and it keeps the novel from feeling heavy. I think Tchaikovsky did a really creative job at populating this universe and filling in all the important niches for a good, engaging story. It's quite an intriguing juxtaposition--this very vibrant cast of characters navigating and interacting in their known universe intertwined with a deeper story involving the Architects, the Originators, the intermediaries and unspace--and I am very impressed so far with how well Tchaikovsky pulls it off.

I finished it yesterday and loved it. Of course, I will have to read the rest of the series to get the answers I want but I can say I'm very impressed with Tchaikovsky's imagination, his capacity for presenting differing worldviews and perspectives and his ability to incorporate a real sense of existential dread into the story that for me goes beyond popular culture's ideas of that sort of thing. Like, he gets it on a different level, and still manages to make it accessible. Love it.

My main gripe is at times the story got a little bogged down with the interpersonal conflicts and fighting between factions but overall I felt the novel rewards the reader for getting through that stuff, with both its character and plot development, so it's not a big gripe on my part.

Idris is easily my favorite character. I love how layered he is, how the sense of his life experience feels deep and authentic, and that he has a strong moral character and principles rooted in the experience that force those around him to work with him and not simply strongarm him into doing what they want.

Also, as a disabled reader, I want to say that I think Tchaikovsky does a fairly good job with writing disabled characters. Idris, who I consider a disabled character, is written exceptionally well, and Olli is also good and very realistic. I think the writing for Olli gets a little heavy-handed but it's forgivable. Sometimes you need to be blunt. If you meet any of us angry disabled folks, you probably can see a bit of Olli in any one of us.

I finished the book today. It has an interesting, complicated storyline and intricate world-building. Thankfully, the book includes a glossary of terms and characters. Adrian does like his insects.

Pharmacdon wrote: "I finished the book today. It has an interesting, complicated storyline and intricate world-building. Thankfully, the book includes a glossary of terms and characters. Adrian does like his insects."

yep, the Shadows of the Apt series has all sorts of Insect Kinden.

I finished this today, and I really liked it - much more than I anticipated. I found the idea of the architects and how they destroy worlds by turning them into art to be intriguing. I loved the world building, the interesting array of alien characters, and the crew of the Vulture God. I especially liked Kit and the Hivers, though I felt a stronger connection overall to the point of view characters. I was sad that some of the characters from the original ship crew died so soon.

The only thing that bothered me was that a number of times there were multiple close-call situations one after the other after the other. It was a little too much adrenalin for me, and also, it made it less believable to me that many of the main characters kept surviving. I wanted a bit more breathing room at times, but it didn't keep me from enjoying the book overall. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

In the end, I gotta say, I wasn’t crazy about this book. I like Adrian’s other books much better. In this I just wasn’t comfortable with the premise of book of a single alien ship being so massively destructive, and people who could mentally weave in and out of some sort of sub space.

The characters were ok, but I felt kinda like I was in a marvel movie, which I place in fantasy.

What I enjoyed about Children of Time so much was the abilities of the spiders were based on actual spider physiology, and the use of evolution to expand those abilities was fascinating.

While I enjoyed Shards of Earth in a few ways, it didn’t really do it for me like Children of Time did.

Fun space opera with lotsa action and alien hijinx. The book was exciting, but not brilliant. It had flow, but not structure. It had interesting characters, but I didn't care about them. All sizzle, no sausage.

It was an action-adventure book that happened to be set in space. I liked it okay, but it was long and a struggle to finish. The ending was enough to explain things, but it wasn't satisfying, just a set-up for book two. Wah waah.

BTW, for those of you like me, that are not going to finish the series, the series's article on Wikipedia has a great summary of what happens to our heroes, the Architects, and the mystery of the Originators.

Yeehaw, what a BLAST. Action, humor, great characters, exciting plot, fun read. I sure hope this book has a sequel. Nice choosing for October y'all.

Took me a while to finish this because it was an 18 hour + audiobook and I hate setting it to 1.5x or anything like that, whereas I tend to skip some descriptions when reading. There was a point where I'd thought, this is one too many fights with indestructable aliens in a spaceship, just get back to the moon-sized space artists please but I basically listened to the last 5 hours straight which is a sign of a good book. I basically got the next book in the series straight away.

The ideas and concepts of unspace and creatures in the void are very well realised. My favourites were Solice initally but eventually Idris, I hope he gets some sleep that doesn't involve basically dying and then being resusitated soon.

No one told me this was Tchaikovsky's version of Mass Effect!

I've moaned elsewhere about such characteristics and comparisons being used but I would not have put off reading this series for so long if it were sold to me as that. The story that makes up the Mass Effect trilogy is what space opera writers should be aspiring to (imo).

Anyway, I'm glad Tchaikovsky wrote this. I didn't love it, but I'm still glad. The humour didn't work (for me), the whining occasionally grated, and at no point was I invested in the survival of the characters who for whatever reason failed to feel like actual people with complex desires and motivations.

That the defeat of the architects was wholly dependent on one person irked me, even though its more than common for our genre to do. I just wish one person saving the universe was more in the vein of Shepherd bringing people together than a head to head.

I immediately went on to read book two but it may be some time before I get around to actually finishing the trilogy.

Ryan wrote: "No one told me this was Tchaikovsky's version of Mass Effect!

I've moaned elsewhere about such characteristics and comparisons being used but I would not have put off reading this series for so l..."

There are multiple "Mass Effect" books in goodreads. Who wrote it, Ryan?

Mass Effect is a computer game trilogy. There are spin-off books set in the universe and books that are meant as prequels for the games story but unfortunately there are no books that manage to encapsulate the greatness of the gaming trilogy.

Ryan wrote: "Mass Effect is a computer game trilogy. There are spin-off books set in the universe and books that are meant as prequels for the games story but unfortunately there are no books that manage to enc..."

Oh, duh on my part. Thanks 😀

Lots of good comments here that I can relate to. Lots of fighting. More fantasy and less science. I think I like some of the science oriented space books more. I may have read one too many shoot-em-up with aliens books recently. Unspace seemed more like magic than science. But apart from getting bogged down a little past the middle it kept my attention and I read it quickly.

I agree with those who say that compared to his classics like CHILDREN OF TIME and CHILDREN OF RUIN the Shards of Earth books don’t match their intensity/skill (for me). I did think the first book in the series (both, actually) were the best.

I actually just finished ALIEN CLAY and I was somewhat disappointed. His creativity is off the charts but the book itself isn’t as enjoyable as some of his earlier work.

Glad to see some discussion on this book. I read the whole series last year and (no spoilers) was super disappointed. This first installment was the best - I think it would have done better if he'd condensed the second and third books into one. My review of book 3 was really scathing....

I'm waiting to be blown away by AT. I know Children of Time is supposed to be his best.... but... SPIDERS.....