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Shards of Earth
- The Final Architecture, Book 1
- Narrated by: Sophie Aldred
- Length: 18 hrs and 41 mins
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Publisher's Summary
From the author of the thrilling science-fiction epic Children of Time, winner of the prestigious Arthur C. Clarke Award. Shards of Earth is the first high-octane, far-future space adventure in Adrian Tchaikovsky' Final Architecture trilogy.
The war is over.
Its heroes forgotten.
Until one chance discovery . . .
Idris has neither aged nor slept since they remade his mind in the war. And one of humanity’s heroes now scrapes by on a freelance salvage vessel, to avoid the attention of greater powers.
Eighty years ago, Earth was destroyed by an alien enemy. Many escaped, but millions more died. So mankind created enhanced humans such as Idris – who could communicate mind-to-mind with our aggressors. Then these ‘Architects’ simply disappeared and Idris and his kind became obsolete.
Now, Idris and his crew have something strange, abandoned in space. It’s clearly the work of the Architects – but are they really returning? And if so, why? Hunted by gangsters, cults and governments, Idris and his crew race across the galaxy as they search for answers. For they now possess something of incalculable value, and many would kill to obtain it.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
What the critics say
"One of the most interesting and accomplished writers in speculative fiction." (Christopher Paolini)
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What listeners say about Shards of Earth
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- SushiGIrl
- 2023-10-05
Worthwhile beginning to fantastic series
Though this book is not without flaws, it's a fun read and will get you to the subsequent books which have all the benefits of the first and none of the flaws. What were the flaws? Mainly some repetition of the core conflict which felt a bit like filler or a tool that wasn't entirely effective. The book has really fun characters though and nicely sets up the interesting world.
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- Aidan
- 2022-04-01
My least fav of his books so far but still good
it's a good book, but I just struggled to like any of the characters that much until the very end.
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- Amazon Customer
- 2021-09-21
Decent
A fun romp through an imaginative and satisfyingly filled-out sci-fi far-future world. Does an excellent job of conveying cosmic horror, though that part of the books lags in the final section. Overall worth a listen, even if it doesn't end up on your "best ever" shelf.
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- Anonymous User
- 2022-08-02
I love the banter
shadows of the apt is one of my favorite series because of the banter. the author does not drop the ball here. nor does he fail to deliver on a exciting emotional science fiction experience.
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- Ivan
- 2022-07-18
Pretty good listen but the plot is a miss for me.
The performance is great, each character feels unique and alive, great execution on emotion and humour as well.
The story as a whole is pretty interesting, the universe is enthralling with different factions and alien species, but it loses me when it comes to characters and plot. My main gripe is with the protagonist, he seems wholly impotent. As the plot move along the protagonist is like a leaf in the wind, all the supporting characters are there to pull him along, save him from every bind, figure out every problem and solve every mystery. Ultimately it feels like he lacks the will and strength to act, he exerts very little authority and half the book is about exactly whose slave will end up being. Other than that the book was pretty enjoayable.
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- Marc R
- 2022-10-08
Mispronounced words were distracting
Overall the performance was quite good. Unfortunately a set of key words was frequently mispronounced.
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- Tsubasa Bolt
- 2023-01-29
Great hard sci-fi
I really enjoyed the story and the performance of the narrator was well done. If you are a regular sci-fi reader/listener, this is for you. Definitely recommend reading the enclosed PDF first to get a bit more context of the different factions and species as there is a lot of set up at the beginning of the book. But once you get familiar with these, it's fabulous universe to dive into.
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- Amazon Customer
- 2023-01-31
Tremendous narration, good story.
Not hard science fiction, for sure, and it felt like a departure from his other works, but I enjoyed it very much. The performance by the narrator is one of my all time favorites.
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- david dumas st-onge
- 2024-01-04
what a ride
that's true scifi imo, non stop ride in a very imaginative universe, highly recommend
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- Rhea
- 2021-08-11
What a Journey
I loved this book, and I'm a bit of a tough reader to please regarding sci fi. The world building is incredible and reminded me of well fleshed out universes like the Mass Effect game where there are many alien races with distinct cultures and politics. I love details like that some of the alien races are confusingly inhuman, which seems very logical to me. The characters are diverse, imperfect and likeable. The action is well paced and really intense when it happens. I don't know, I just enjoyed this book so much and I hope it gets turned into a show or something because it would be perfect.
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