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From: Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: "Eyes of the Void (The Final Architecture, 2)" by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2025 14:12:35 -0500
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"Eyes of the Void (The Final Architecture, 2)" by Adrian Tchaikovsky
    https://www.amazon.com/Eyes-Void-Final-Architecture-2/dp/0316705918/

Book number two of a three book space opera science fiction series.  I 
read the well printed and well bound trade paperback published by Orbit 
in 2022 that I bought new on Amazon.  I have NOT ordered the third book 
in the series as I almost DNF'd (Did Not Finish) this book several 
times.  I may change my mind about the third book but, who knows?

Earth was the first human planet attacked and destroyed by the 
Architects, a moon sized race of beings that travel through unspace. 
Billions of humans and aliens died on Earth, unable to get on one of the 
thousands of overcrowded space ships evacuating from Earth.  Earth was 
turned into a spiral object with the core ejected, typical of the 
Architect's massive gravitational forces.  Earth was warned by a 
survivor of another race destroyed by the Architects but the humans did 
not believe it until too late.

The universe of the story is incredibly rich.  There are many alien 
races and many planets, many colonies of all races.  The human race has 
splintered into several groups that are at total odds with each other. 
An alien race found the humans a hundred years before and kindly shared 
their unspace technology with them.  Space Ships can navigate on known 
paths through unspace but going off the known paths requires an 
Intermediary Navigator (an Int), a rare human who has been surgically 
and chemically modified to be like the first human Int, St. Xavienne. 
Some of the best of the Ints like St. Xavienne can barely talk to the 
Architects.

The book was not as good as the first book.  Maybe it was too wordy, not 
enough editing.  Maybe there were too many protagonists.  Maybe the 
author tried to make the Architects too sympathetic.  I have a bookcase 
full of books that I have DNF'd, I do not want to add more so I stuck it 
out.

The author has a website at:
    https://adriantchaikovsky.com/

My rating:  4 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating:  4.4 out of 5 stars (8,697 reviews)

Lynn