Eyes of the void

Idris Telemmier survived his second encounter with an Architect in the first book of Tchaikovsky's fabulous trilogy (Shards of Earth, 2021). The size of a moon and capable of reshaping an inhabited planet into a lifeless work ot art, Architects are an implacable enemy. Idris is working at a site created by another mysterious race called the Originators in order to understand why the worlds of the Hegemony have been immune to such demonstrations of "artistry." When an Architect appears and begins dismantling the site, all the players who survived the previous book scramble to keep Idris from harm for their own reasons. His knowledge of how to end the Architects' reign of terror is incomplete, but taken to an ancient research station positioned above a hellish star that allows him to see the structure and relationship between Unspace and the Thoroughways that allow interstellar travel, he has a precarious chance. Tchaikovsky's artistry is focusing on a few key, well-wrought characters facing impossible odds in keeping Idris safe while allied races turn against each other. This is space opera on the grand scale of Alastair Reynolds and Stephen R. Donaldson, leavened by humor and remarkable world building.

Tchaikovsky again shines with his suspenseful second Final Architecture space opera (after Shards of Earth). The Architects, moon-size alien entities who destroyed Earth 50 years prior, have returned, and Idris, a genetically enhanced Intermediary able to traverse the void of unspace, is one of the few capable of communicating with them. After learning that the architects are slaves to an unknown force that commands them to destroy planets, Idris makes for the planet Arc Pallator to investigate the ruins left by the ancient Originator race, the only artifacts known to repel the Architects. He's then kidnapped by a cyborg, a parasitic alien, and a mad scientist and brought to the irradiated planet Criccieth's Hell, which houses the only known functional Originator laboratory. As an Intermediary, Idris alone can use an ancient Machine left by the Originators to peer into the unspace--where he makes a startling discovery about the relationship between the Architects, the Originators, and unspace itself. Meanwhile, the Parthenon, a cloned race of militant women, work to understand their connection to the Intermediaries. Tchaikovsky's intelligent worldbuilding captures the essence of classic space opera, with an intricate plot that whisks readers along on a humorous, sometimes convoluted, but always memorable adventure. Series fans will be eager for more. Agent: Simon Kavanagh, Mic Cheetham Agency. (May)