Book Series Review: "The Final Architecture" is a Triumphant Space Opera

With his powerful trilogy, Adrian. Tchaikovsky demonstrates why he is one of the best writers working in science fiction today.

Hello, dear reader! Do you like what you read here at Omnivorous? Do you like reading fun but insightful takes on all things pop culture? Do you like supporting indie writers? If so, then please consider becoming a subscriber and get the newsletter delivered straight to your inbox. There are a number of paid options, but you can also sign up for free! Every little bit helps. Thanks for reading and now, on with the show!

---

I’ve long been a fan of space opera, ever since I read Frank Herbert’s Dune in high school and found myself swept up in its story of chosen ones, warring noble houses, and existential interplanetary conflict. In the years since then I’ve been on the hunt for a series that would hit at least some of the same notes. Fortunately for me, we seem to be living in a bit of a golden age for richly textured space operas, series which don’t stint on the science, of course, but which are also concerned with the rise and fall of empires and chosen ones who discover that being the one fated to save the universe isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be.

Cue Adrian Tchaikovsk’s The Final Architecture. I knew from the moment that I started reading the first book, Shards of Earth, that this was going to fulfill all of my demands and then some. It’s one of those series that gets its hooks in you from the very beginning and leads you to stay up all night reading when you should be getting ready for bed. I know I say this a lot here at Omnivorous, but this is truly a spectacular series. My only regret is that there isn’t more of it! 

When the series begins humanity has already spread throughout the stars, colonizing planets and systems, encountering a number of other species along the way. Things have become existentially perilous, however, thanks to the arrival of the Architects, titanic beings  who dismantle entire planets and everyone who lives on them. Their assault has been halted somewhat due to the powerful humans known as Intermediaries, particularly Idris Telemmier. As the series advances his fate intertwines with that of several others, including Kris Almier, a knife-dueling lawyer and Solace, a warrior who belongs to the Parthenon, a race of genetically modified women, as well as numerous others.  

Idris is in many ways the archetypal reluctant hero, drawn into a conflict not of his making but in which he has a key role to play. He is one of the few Ints who has managed to survive the tremendous pressures of journeying into unspace–the strange and uncanny realm that exists underneath all of known reality and which is vital to space travel–including an unnamed and largely unseen presence that exists therein. Though he is one of humanity’s most fearsome and effective weapons against the overwhelming power of the Architects, as the series goes on he finds his own moral commitment to the effort called into question by his discoveries about their true nature and motivation for trying to obliterate humanity. 

While Idris is the main character, several others are given more than their fair share in the spotlight. Solace is particularly compelling because, like Idris, she finds her devotion to her native cause called repeatedly into question, particularly once some renegade members of the Partheni decide to take the future of their people into their own hands. Numerous other characters also find their loyalties and philosophies and values called into question, including the spy Havaer Mundy (who I think is my favorite character) and Ollie, who is arguably the feistiest and most badass of the point-of-view characters (and a refreshing glimpse of what a disabled character in speculative fiction can look like when written well). 

As he proves throughout the three books that comprise the series–Shards of Earth, Eyes of the Void, and Lords of Uncreation–Tchaikovsky is one of those authors who has the narrative skill to keep both the intimate dramas and the broader conflict in a productive tension. Thus, though the story is told through many competing and intersecting points of view–which allows us to understand the various characters and their motivations–he never lets us lose sight of the larger conflicts. Indeed, the existential crisis provoked by imminent extinction brings out both the best and the worst of humanity, just as one might expect based on people’s behavior in the real world.

At first the viewpoints are largely limited to the heroes (or at the very least those who have some claim to be heroic), but in the final volume, Lords of Uncreation, we get some insight into such villainous characters as the Uskaro family and the renegade elements of the Parthenon. If you know me, you know I live for some insight into villains and their mindsets, and I particularly relished these chapters, even as I found myself drawn onward by the sheer propulsive nature of Tchaikovsky’s plotting. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that I’m kind of in awe at just how skillfully he manages to give us such a fully-realized world and richly developed characters without ever getting bogged down in plot minutiae. If you’re going to write an immersive space opera, this is definitely how you do it.

Like all good space operas, The Final Architecture engages with some weighty questions. Though the Architects begin the series as the enemy of almost all sentient species, it soon becomes clear that there is more to them than meets the eye and that their destructive actions are not entirely of their own choosing. This adds a further layer of moral complexity to the efforts to destroy them, and the novels ultimately ask: when is it right to engage in a method of self-defense that ultimately amounts to genocide? When does the cost of defending humanity itself become too much? For that matter, how much should be sacrificed in the name of salvation? 

Time and again, The Final Architecture asks us as readers to think beyond what we know. Like Idris, we’re drawn into a world that we sometimes don’t understand, but Tchaikovsky proves to be a remarkably deft and adept guide, navigating us through this tangled world and its complicated politics with a sure hand. This is the type of space opera that will break your heart and make you think, sometimes within the space of a chapter. 

I loved every single minute of it.