Shards of Earth

DNF @ 65%.

I think I ruined this book for myself. The ARC I received (thanks, Netgalley!) was formatted very poorly and would do a paragraph break mid sentence constantly. I had to crawl my way through the beginning of the book, and it was very hard to get invested. Then I got an audiobook copy from my library, and instead of restarting, just picked up where I left off. My general apathy to that point combined with the sheer amount of worldbuilding this book does left me confused what was going on half the time, and I kept having to rewind it to catch up. When I got to 65% in and realized I didn't care about anybody or anything going on, I knew it was time to hang it up. Because of that, I can't really say this book is bad. But I also can't recommend it, because I did listen to it and was continuously apathetic about the entire experience. It genuinely seemed like the entire first half is just people telling you a whole bunch of things that happened and people who exist and places to go and creatures there are. Also, why are there SO many named spaceships?? This entire book feels like those Blackwater chapters in A Clash of Kings where Davos is noticing every single ship in the navy and telling you their names and crews, only instead of them then all bursting into flames one by one, these ships just continue to exist, having the audacity to continue having names I'm supposed to remember.

I could see myself giving this book another try someday. The other stuff I've read by Tchaikovsky has been a hit. But I'd rather stop now instead of forcing myself to continue and guaranteeing that I'd dislike it.