 Hello friends! Today we are reviewing Eyes of the Void, which is very very bright because of my ring light. It is the continuation of last year's Amazing Shards of the Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky and very likely one of my favourite science fiction novels, most probably my favourite space opera of 2022. The way that things are looking anyway. Now, I'm not going to be doing another very very rambly review, there's certainly going to be some rambling, but also I have written a really lovely review and so I'm going to read it out loud for you with some comments. If that's not what you're after, if you want really involved conversation between me and the camera, you're probably going to get that too, but if you just want to read the review, you can go to my blog. The link is down below and you can read Eyes of the Void. If you need a little bit of information too long to read, phenomenal continuation of what is promising to be one of the best sci-fi space opera series of the 2020s in my humble opinion. But hey, what do I know? I'm only reading books all day every day and other things to do with sci-fi, not saying. Anyway, the sequel to 2021's Shards of the Earth was among my most awaited sci-fi titles of this year when I read Shards last year, I fell in love with its characters, a mishmash of memorable scoundrels who made for one of my favourite found families in science fiction. I fell in love with its world, which recalled the same sense of awe I felt at 14-15 when I first discovered the amazing universe of video game franchise mass effect. I fell in love with Tchaikovsky's prose in a similar way and it is an affliction that befalls me every time I pick up the man's novels. Little wonder that I take my leave of Eyes of the Void as eager as can be to see what the third book brings both the characters and the world. We left Idris Telomir in the part of any angel and soldier solace and the rest of the crew of The Vulture God in an interesting spot, having managed to save Barlenhof, one of the capital worlds of humanity's decentralised Hugh government, from being turned into a horrific crystalline sculpture by the enigmatic, near-unstoppable architects. These sculptures are all that the architects leave behind whenever they interact with a planetary body. Eyes of the Void picks up half a year after those events. With Idris trying to pick up the pieces of a part any project to create intermediaries, this project of course means so much more to him than just about anything else does because the original Hugh project that gave birth to him was something of a butcher's messy job. At the same time, the tensions between the Hugh and the part any are steadily increasing. The architects have not been idle either. Several planets, both in Hugh space and across the borders of humanity's far more advanced neighbours, the Essiel have been approached by the moon-sized lifeforms and turned to cosmic sculptures of infinite beauty and horrifying tragedy. Tragedy? What? Tragedy is what I meant to say. Whatever. It's not long before a crisis forces the Volchegods crew, their part any allies, or at least a ship full of them, and the wacky hyverscientist Trine to plunge themselves into what might be the most dangerous spot in the galaxy. And Trine, by the way, continues to shine throughout. Speaking of characters shining, it is very difficult for me to pin down any one character that I absolutely adored. Anyone that stole the show for me. But I'll try anyway. On a bound lawyer, yet cutthroat practitioner of the legal arts, Chris Elmere, shows better than she ever did in Shard that she is as deadly with the point of a blade as she is with legal arcana. Not that she doesn't show off those truly impressive lawyer skills, yet again. Chris reminds me of my best friend. When she flexes those law muscles she spent five years in law school for. And I do think that in Bulgaria we also have arcane and not wholly legal practices of dueling our fellow students when disagreements come up. Might not be quotable in that. You should probably do your own research on that particular point. Maybe trust me. Who knows? You should probably trust me. Anyway, Chris is not the only one who has just absolute scene stealers of Curse, Solas and Idris are, as ever, the most precious babies. And if you look at them wrong, I'm liable to murder you. But there are a pair of totey art, mad women, an even crazier esiel and bloody Oli Simo in her scorpion being genuinely delighted to herpetrate slotters on a truly massive scale. You can't help but love Oli, can you? If you've read about her. Anyway, Eyes of the Void answers a number of the questions baked into this universe of Tchaikovsky's from the very beginning of Schaatt, while dangling some truly massive courage to those of us who can get enough out of Eyes of the Void. And by the way, my copy is an absolute mess of just underlined, highlighted pieces, commons, including just like grinning faces sketched out with a pencil. And yes, I don't write in my books with a pen because I'm not a psychopath. I do underline a lot. Anyway, the point is, the overarching mystery of the architects, the nature of Unspace, the esiel's bizarre technomisticism, they are touched on, and some of them are explored, and some of them offer us answers, but of course, those answers only invite more questions. What I'm underlining here is that I want to inhabit the universe and learn its every nook and cranny pronto. And let's not forget that while the series might cast the architects in the role of supreme villains, adversaries, an awesome and awe-inspiring threat, at least for now, Tchaikovsky has always done human villains who shine with a particularly evil glint of the eye. Many of our protagonists have a strongly defined moral code that their foes are all too happy to overstep. Ethical issues are begged into so many of the secondary conflicts, the vulture, God and everyone's favorite huge spy have to face. Have ya, Mundi? This is your shout-out. The causes for mental anguish for a pair of our central characters by the close of this novel… delectable. I can hardly keep from slurping the pages, which is, uh, totally a normal thing that normal human beings do with normal humans. What I'm trying to say here is, if you haven't put Eyes of the Void in your online basket at your favorite local bookstore, um, I don't want to be your friend. Go away. And come back with a copy of Tchaikovsky's Shards of the Earth if you haven't read that. You might as well watch my video of it. By the way, I did it last year and I'm very, very proud of it. Very happy with how that one turned out. But yeah, if you haven't done that yet, if you're not ready to pick Eyes of the Void, you're a weirdo. I don't really want to talk with you. And yeah, I have one of those crappy cameras that go to sleep after ten minutes, so if I didn't press that little button, it was going to all go terribly dark and I was going to be back in the void, which I don't want to be. And space is not a happy place, y'all. Anyway, this is this. This is good science fiction. Brilliant space opera film. And written with the customary sharpness, you'll have come to expect by Tchaikovsky if you've picked anything of his up before. There's the hi-vers and no one quite does, like Hive Minds. No one quite writes Hive Minds the way Tchaikovsky does. He returns to that idea again and again and I love it to bits. I read The Doors of Eden some three years ago and I cannot stop yearning for more of Tchaikovsky ever since. I have gone on to some of his other series. I have read Dogs of War, which was phenomenal. I really badly want to read his first sci-fi series, His Fantasy. There's so much, so much out there I need to read of Tchaikovsky's and I am excited and you should be too. So go, get. Oh, and of course, a quote to finish all too... I mean, a quote is all too necessary a finish for this review to make sure that it really ends on a high note. There is a theory, try and say it softly, that when the architects reshape a planet all the sentient people on that planet are taken into some special place, some unspaced repository of people, that the architects are somehow preserving people from their excesses. It dates to an early period of the war, the start of the Polyaspora when people wanted very much to believe that 90% of everyone they knew were undead. It isn't a very good theory, in fact, indeed, on the purely physical level it's manifestly unprovable. This is my favourite part of this quote. But I understand why people would want it to be true because it's hard when you're not finished with someone. Like a book with the final chapters deleted. You want to believe there's an intact copy out there, somehow. The book is full of these amazing quotes and I love it, I absolutely do. I think you should really think about reading it. Excellent, excellent times ahead if you, in fact, decide to take me up on that recommendation. And I could ask you to like this video, share it, subscribe. I don't really care at this point. I realised, some time ago, I don't particularly mind never growing outside of this accursed number of 270 subscribers. I enjoy making these videos for myself. And that is the most important thing I could ever get. Now, if only I could start making them in some better way. But probably not. I'll see you next time. I'm Ferdinand Magnus and I love talking about books. If you'd like to join me, please do. Bye!