#shards of earth

[remnantglow]

(some of) the vulture god crew from the final architecture books by adrian tchaikovsky 🚀

[literallymechanical]

Being good at Names is a highly underrated skill in science fiction, classic and modern. You can't just take an ominous noun and slap a definite article and capital letter on it anymore. What does it mean? What's the vibe? I don't know. The Domain. The Hive. The Facility. The Hierocracy. "A Demesne Capital Ship just came out of hyperspace!" Okay. Sure. Yawn. Is that a good thing? A bad thing? Who cares. I don't care.

Adrian Tchaikovsky is good at names. When something called a "Naeromathi Locust Ark" surfaces from unspace in your outer solar system, you don't need any other information to know that somebody is going to have a very bad day.

[approximateknowledge]

idris telemmier is such a great protagonist

traumatised, malnourished, paranoid 5ft nothing twig of a guy who's almost a century old at this point but he got a bunch of invasive surgeries in his late 20s that made it so he stopped aging and also incapable of sleeping and extra susceptible to brain embolisms

the surgery in question was specifically to make him extra susceptible to *the horrors* because it is in fact his job to talk to the horrors and convince them not to kill everyone. afterwards he's always a comatose wreck regardless of whether it worked or not

the one singular time he chooses violence all he ends up achieving is breaking half the bones in his hand

his end goal is to just fucking leave but sadly people keep needing him to do diplomacy with the planet-strangling horrors

drenched-ass cinnamon roll of a character; he is so fucking tired

[elvynwitch]

Women in books set long past the violent destruction of Earth will be named Mercy and be the most grudge-holding meanest bitch in the space ship

[nickandros]

i am now reading some of adrian tchaikovsky's scifi and i thought i would probably like it less than city of last chances because i do tend to prefer fantasy, but i'm reading now about unspace in shards of earth and.

[no-1-rosalind-lang-apologist]

Transition goals?

[lifblogs]

(Something I wrote in a discord and decided to copy and past here about Disability Pride Month and reading.)

Since it’s Disability Pride Month I want to give a shoutout to *Shards of Earth* by Adrian Tchaikovsky for featuring a disabled character. She’s as rich and full as the other characters; she has her own skills, wants, and desires; she’s heavily featured in fight scenes; she told off someone for being created and bred within an ableist race; and said character who got told off has taken at least 1/3 of the book to work with this information and new perspective instead of immediately getting verbally defensive and rude. Currently on a scene where these two characters fought together, the non-disabled character is helping the disabled character quickly fix her mobility aid while on an enemy ship so they can leave together, and they’re openly sharing their feelings. I didn’t expect such a good plotline for this character! This almost *never* happens, and I didn’t look for it in a sci-fi series written by an able-bodied man. I feel seen and valued. There was even a part talking about how the character’s mobility aid does cause chronic pain as well. This is just so good.

I FIXED THE POST

[joriontel]

*listening to Revelation Space and remembering that one book with the guy who never aged but never slept and he was helped by a crew of trans human salvagers*

…I wanna be a sentient swarm of bees… I bet they never get headaches

[the-space-0wl]

My partner introduced me to Adrian Tchaikovsky's work, and I started reading The Final Architecture saga.

Unfortunately for both of us, we enjoy fiction very differentely, meaning he wants to talk about the accurate segmentation of the arthropods-like or worm-like alien species, while I want to picture sending the enslavor assholes off into the void

[rin-kagamemes]

I’m not necessarily in a reading slump cause I have read 15 books this month but they’ve been mostly nonfiction so I’m definitely in a fiction slump after reading Jasmine Throne and (unfortunately) absolutely hating it. Locked Tomb people please help I need book recs to make me want to read SFF again

[juddgeeksout]

Traveller: Hyperspace

Unspace was different. Things from real space—such as humans—had a tenuous existence there. It was a terrible, lonely place, until you sensed something… other. Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky What does a jump through space look like in your Traveller game? Classic Traveller is a toolbox for making a certain range of science fiction campaigns. I know that there later editions with…

[remnantglow]

commission of solace and kris from the final architecture books by adrian tchaikovsky for @matrose! women 🥰

[literallymechanical]

Very excellent book if you can handle a bit of existential dread. Includes one of my favorite depictions of FTL horror in fiction so far. Took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that faction is called the Parthenon because they reproduce via parthenogenesis. And of course it wouldn’t be a Tchaikovsky book without a sentient swarm of bugs in there somewhere. Five stars, highly recommend.

[approximateknowledge]

reading shards of earth and getting gender envy from the hivers

[roseunspindle]

She ended up half covered by robes, shouldering aside the cultist-turned-missile.

Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky

[nikarodrigues]

My current read is Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky, the first book in The Final Architecture trilogy.

I love stories centered around a team of misfits who form a sort of family, and in space it's even better. There's something very appealing about a bunch of underdogs in an old ship who have bonded over years of shared adventures.

The idea of ​​Unspace as a means of dangerous but faster-than-light-inter-universe travel is very good for resolving the space travelers' time jumps and keeping the story consistent with the inhabitants keeping their feet on the ground.

I really enjoyed Children of Time, but the time jumps necessary to show the evolution of order on the planet is something that bothered me a little while reading.

"The problem with judgement calls is that they’re only ever good or bad in retrospect."

Cover Design © Steve Stone