Lords of Uncreation (The Final Architecture, 3)

Product Information

Tchaikovsky again shineswith hissuspensefulsecond Final Architecture space opera (after Shards of Earth)....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."— Publishers Weeklyon Eyes of the Void Deepwithinunspace,where time moves differently,and reality isn’t quite what it seems,their masters are the true threat. Masters who arejustbecoming aware of humanity’s daring– and taking steps to exterminate this annoyance forever. From Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of Children of Time and winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award, Lords of Uncreation is the final high-octane instalment in the Final Architecture space opera trilogy. Oh, and everybody who has already read the first two books will read this one as well anyway, of course.

As I said before, all the questions that I had about the Architects, the Originators and the enemy behind the Architects are answered. I don’t think theorycrafters will necessarily be surprised by most of them, but for me the answers are never quite as important as how those answers resonate with the characters journeys, and in this case it all fits together immensely well. I received an advanced copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This book is scheduled to be published on May 2, 2023 in the US. **Deep within unspace, where time moves differently, and reality isn’t quite what it seems, their masters are the true threat. Masters who are just becoming aware of humanity’s daring – and taking steps to exterminate this annoyance forever. She even is a bitter person at the reunion at the end because her friends are more successful than her. Which is a fine characteristic in theory that I would appreciate but seems to come out of nowhere and is part of this weird attempt to make her more of a main character than she is. This would have worked if there had been *any* use of her legal and diplomatic skills, but she is just... there, but not really there or important or relevant to any of the story. The Final Architecture is a series of science fiction novels by British writer Adrian Tchaikovsky. It comprises Shards of Earth, Eyes of the Void, and Lords of Uncreation. The series focuses on a group of humans fighting against the mysterious Architects, who destroy inhabited planets. The series has been well-received critically, with Shards of Earth winning the 2021 BSFA Award for Best Novel.

I found the first half of the book rather slow, to be honest. It was mostly focused on squabbles among the assorted human and human-adjacent factions. There wasn’t anything wrong with it; it just wasn’t what I wanted. Yes yes, the nobles from Magda are bastards, there are competing factions within the Hugh, let’s just get on with the Architects, please. The Arthur C. Clarke award-winning author of Children of Time brings us the third and final novel in an extraordinary space opera trilogy about humanity on the brink of extinction, and how one man's discovery will save or destroy us all. Adrian Tchaikovsky just never disappoints. The Final Architecture series is a classic space opera with ridiculously fast space travel, all sorts of aliens, spaceships, space arcs and space colonies, and - of course - a ragtag crew of misfits. Plus a serious threat not just to humanity, but all the sentient life in this Universe, where there just may be something sinister hiding at the center, deep under the thin skin of what we perceive as “real”. Can we talk about how freaking amazing all these alien species and cultures and worlds and just NEW imaginings this book inspires? Reading this series is like stumbling across the joy of reading all over again; opening up every possibility. I love that even through the last book in the series you are still getting MORE glimpse of new and exciting things.It is here in the Eye that the Ints – among them, Idris – have been hooked up to machinery that carefully records physical life signs as they delve into unspace. Idris is supposed to be guiding the rest of the Ints and feeding data to the scientists. Mostly, he is off on his own, trying to find where the Architects live in unspace so that he can begin to understand the power that directs them to kill. The scene shifts to the perspective of Kris, lawyer and knife-fighter, once a crew member of the Vulture God, who is traveling to Estoc. There a piece of tech left by the Originators (an extinct species of great technological advancement) is being adapted to the defense against the Architects. It is a huge slab of stone, now called the Eye, with mysterious markings that has been turned into the headquarters of a group of scientists and Intermediaries trying to locate the Architects in unspace so that they can be destroyed. The Eye is surrounded by fragments of a vast spaceship which turns out to be its own unique design created by some unknown species. When powered up, all the fragments form a single hull, though separated by great spaces, and, with the Eye at its center, a hopefully impregnable fortress against the Architects who had, thus far, avoided injuring any surviving Originator artifacts. The Arthur C. Clarke award-winning author of Children of Time brings us the third and finalnovel in an extraordinary space opera trilogy about humanity on the brink of extinction, and how one man's discovery will save or destroy us all. This was not as satisfying of a read as I hoped it would be (especially after the stunning finale to the second book in the trilogy). But still, even a slightly sub par book for Tchaikovsky is still head and shoulders above most other competitors in the field. And even if my expectations were for it to be something more surprising and exciting, it did provide a satisfying ending to the central mystery of the series (the nature of unspace and the mysterious masters of the architects). The climax had to move a lot of pieces and all storylines got together beautifully. Also, like every book by Tchaikovsky, it was well written. Not showy, but engaging, with vivid descriptions, that don't overstay their welcome and punchy, sometimes very funny dialogue. The actionscenes were tense and the atmosphere of cosmic horror was well evoked. I don't think Chaikovsky will be hailed as the master of prose, but he uses his prose as an instrument for the propagation of his ideas in a very engaging and precise way. His ideas are his forte, and this trilogy is full of weird alien civilisations, human factions, weird metaphysical theories about our universe and some theoretical physics. I think Tchaikovsky characters are always engaging as well, coming across as very human, flawed, but not too flawed to make them unsympathetic, and mostly heroic despite themselves. I like reading about the people he writes about.

The scenes in the "unspace" are too metaphysical to be interesting, and I think the attempted descriptions of the action in this place where things "are" but not really, are difficult to follow. The frequency with which they are entering and being pulled out of that place to deal with yet more inconsequential filler turned the book into a slog. The other great obstacle to striking against their alien threat is Idris himself. He knows that the Architects, despite their power, are merely tools of a higher intelligence. Deep within unspace, where time moves differently, and reality isn’t quite what it seems, their masters are the true threat. Masters who are just becoming aware of humanity’s daring – and taking steps to exterminate this annoyance forever. This series has broken me! I have been too invested in these books. I am suffering from a book hangover. I can't stop thinking about Idris and the entire Vulture God space crew.We follow Idris as he moves step by step more deeply into unspace and sees and understands more and more of its structure. It is this steady advance that convinces him the Architects are only the tools or slaves of another more powerful force that has bent them to its will and that wants to destroy all traces of sentient life from the universe. But why? What is it that sentient beings are doing that arouses the wrath of that deeper force? These are the questions Tchaikovsky and his characters grapple with and slowly discover in this final and immensely satisfying conclusion to his trilogy. Finally, humanity has found a way to repel an Architect. Maybe even two. And what happens? Betrayal. ARGH! Which we do, for the second half of the book, and I had a great deal of trouble putting the book down. a b Carrie Chi Lough (17 Mar 2022). "Review: Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky". Grimdark Magazine . Retrieved 7 Sep 2022.

It’s hard to talk about too much else without spoiling the twists and turns of the plot, but I will say that the great universal-truth reveals that we get in Lords of Uncreation were incredibly satisfying and what I have been waiting for since reading Shards of Earth two years ago, and that I really enjoyed the development of the characters, especially Idris, Olli, and Havaer. Idris has been alive for about a century, never ageing or sleeping, and though that made being in his point of view very depressing at times, I loved seeing him in the Unspace sequences where the strength of his mind could take control and he didn’t have to deal with his physicality or his emotions. Olli, the disabled machine specialist and captain of the Vulture God, is the character that grew on me the most throughout the series, and the way her story ends up entwined with the mysterious Essiel was a really cool element that brought in extra world-building and upped the tension. And Havaer has interested me from the start, because he gives an insight into the nature of the ever-shifting politics and I enjoyed his calm presence and his heroics.vislabāk man patika ieskats Hegemonijas civilizācijā. No malas šķiet, ka kults kurā visi pielūdz austerveidīgus radījumus, kuriem pati ideja par kustību šķiet ķecerība. Viņas sūtņi izskatās pēc klaunu bara, kas brīvi interpretē savu saimnieku teikto. Bet Hegemonijas tehnoloģija un birokrātija ir tik attīstīta, ka neviens viņiem neko nevar padarīt. Un ja vēl spēlē iesaistās Aklu the Unspeakable (the Razor and the Hook) par kura nozīmi Hegemonijā var tikai minēt, tad lietas, kļūst pavisam dīvainas. I loved that this finale not only gave us the answers to the questions we've been asking, but also focused on the unasked questions. Like how the survivors might fare even if everything went splendidly. If people would be able to get a grip and become allies. The inter-personal exploration was as interesting as Idris going into Unspace even deeper to find the Lords of Uncreation. A bit lot on the overly long side. The entire trilogy is too long. A duology would have done nicely. I had to re-listen to the last three chapters, because I had run out of steam at the end and reaching the end I realized that I hadn‘t retained any of it, including the grand finale. It‘s a pity that by the end I was mostly glad to be finally done with this trilogy. Idris Telemmier, one of the last surviving Ints from the first war with the Architects, is a key to this endeavour, but he has his own plans. His modified brain allows him to reach out and touch the mind of an Architect, and he knows that what they do to the planets they destroy is forced upon them, that they are simply slaves to some greater master. Since no one else seems to think it worth trying to find these masters, Idris is scouring Unspace for them in secret. But though this complex research is being supported by factions of multiple species and would benefit the entire universe, there are still those who will see it all burn to regain power and control of the generation ships and research station. As frustrating as it was, it’s depressingly realistic to see politicians and oligarchs causing conflict and sacrificing the majority just for the sake of keeping their status.