Eyes of the Void

The Final Architecture is space opera on a truly epic scale. Eyes of the Void, the second book in the series takes up where the first book left off with Idris, the Int who forms the heart of the tale, now trying to help find people in the Partheni, rivals to his native Hugh, who can potentially become Ints as well. His fellow crew members on the Vulture God are helping out with Partheni intelligence to earn their keep. Things quickly devolve from there as we learn more about the Hegemony, Unspace, the Architects and the various factions all stand on (or just over) the brink of war.

What Tchaikovsky does so well is balancing these different factions, playing them off against each other (and internally) giving a dense political tapestry to the tale, whilst allowing the universe ending action to play out as a backdrop to it all. I think the tendency to focus on the small problems when major disasters are going on around you is a definitely a very human reaction, and something that the human factions noticeably do in this story, allowing the alien factions to be a bit more distinctive yet leaving us a familiar backdrop.

I thoroughly enjoyed this, the balance between intimate and epic is excellently maintained. The found family of the crew of the Vulture God is well balanced with an excellent level of camaraderie and banter that gives the whole thing a sense of life. Each faction has its own distinct character, and each species also is distinctive. The aliens do feel genuinely alien, from the mysterious Architects to the weirdness of the Essiel Hegemony. The universe feels real, lived in and just excellently built.

Thoroughly looking forward to diving into the final book in the series!