A review by icarusabides
Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky

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

3.5

A good and pretty pacey read that's something of a cross between the Expanse and Wayfarers series. A small crew fighting against the odds on their fairy dishevelled ship to survive in a universe full of imaginatively drawn alien species, world's, and cultures. All while the threat of colossal moon sized beings with a penchant for making origami out of planets looms in the background.

It's a book that maintains a near constant breakneck pace throughout that rarely lets up as the crew lurch from one event to another. This takes a little getting used to, especially early on, as just when one crisis seems to have abated another immediately kicks in. Something which does also unfortunately mean it rarely slows down enough to really hit the character beats as a result and downright robs some moments of their catharsis.

Overall decent. It's full of creativity from the myriad different alien species, and they don't come much more different than those contained in this book, to the really imaginative use of gravitic weaponry and engines that adds a unique element to the combat and space flight but the character work is a little flat. It's a story that could definitely have done with taking some time to look around a little every once and a while.