Great Narrator. Would definitely listen again.



I’ve long been a fan of the author, and have been getting around to reading more of his sci-fi since I came from the fantasy route. I’m loving this huge scope space opera series though. Great world/ universe building and interesting aliens too. Can’t wait for the next one.

Fantastic as always, I really can't get enough of Adrian Tchaikovsky.

An excellent follow up to Shards Of Earth, I just really love Tchaikovsky’s work, his creativity and flare for character building and the whole design of this universe is like no other. (You will need to listen to the first book and look at the provided PDF to wholly understand this book)

For me this was better than it’s predecessor because I am now familiar with all the beings and planets; so it’s much easier to envision in my minds eye. I felt so engaged the whole time and thoroughly part of the team along with Idris, Solace, Oli etc. 

The narrator was outstanding as usual.



Absolutely brilliant, I can’t wait for the next instalment.

Proper canny. I really enjoyed this listen. Captivating and intriguingly gripping! Grab a copy if you are a die hard sci-fi fan, you won't be disappointed.

Banging audio, although you do absolutely have to have read Shards of Earth before Eyes of the Void; you can’t pick this one up as you go along, but don't be disheartened coz the first book is epic aswell.

I love Adrian Tchaikovsky’s creativity and galaxy-building. Sci-fi at its best defo. The novel employs multiple narrators, but the author has titled the pages so you can easily distinguish them.

Defo the right narrator for the job too. Overall a really canny listen & I anticipate the next book in this series.

“She wanted to tell him, Look, they’re clams. You’re kneeling before an altar that’s mostly all-you-can-worship seafood buffet. But, because she was a respectable businesswoman, she said none of it.” -
Uline Tarrant’s private thoughts on the Essiel, the ‘divine’ masters of the Hegemony, an alien empire.

My thanks to Macmillan U.K. Audio for a review copy via NetGalley of the unabridged audiobook edition of ‘Eyes of the Void’ by Adrian Tchaikovsky in exchange for an honest review. The audiobook is narrated by Sophie Aldred.

The above quote from the Prologue of ‘Eyes of the Void’ quickly reminded me of why I so love Tchaikovsky’s writing.

This is Book 2 of the Final Architecture Trilogy and follows ‘Shards of Earth’, which has recently won Best Novel in the 2022 British Science Fiction Awards.

This sweeping space opera continues the story of the salvage ship, Vulture God, and its crew following the events of ‘Shards of Earth’. I won’t say more about the plot in order to avoid spoilers for the first book.

Tchaikovsky opens ‘Eyes of the Void’ with a helpful ‘The Story So Far’ to serve as an introduction to the characters and events of the first book. However, as this is a trilogy with a continuous story I feel that the books are best read in order.

I am constantly amazed by Adrian Tchaikovsky’s creativity and Galaxy-building. Also, his characters are memorable and I love how even in the midst of the many dangerous situations they find themselves in there is always time to exchange quips and banter.

Following the main text Tchaikovsky provides various reference material including a glossary, lists of characters, ships, and worlds, and a comprehensive timeline.

With respect to the audiobook, Sophie Aldred is one of my favourite narrators. She has narrated a number of Tchaikovsky’s previous books, including ‘Shards of Earth’. I find that her reading is infused with energy and enthusiasm that serves to bring the novel’s characters vividly to life.

Highly recommended.

Another great novel from Adrian Tchaikovsky love the characters, pacing.
The narration was one of the best in audiobook loved the different accents.
I received this audiobook from the publishers via Netgalley for a review.

Idris got really really annoying in this one. Like in the first book I enjoyed the representation of the nasty side of anxiety and how difficult it is to communicate verbally sometimes - and the frustration that you get from it - Tchaikovsky did an amazing job at making you feel that sort of helpless frustration and irritation. But in this one I just felt Idris was just listening to his ego. Like his main character complex had completely gone to his dead.

Okay so now thats out of the way we can get onto the actually cool characters - like Ollie. Ollie deserves a whole series to herself. Like her character is very private but what we do see is so heartbreaking as well as just epic. The found family is strong with this series and I love it.

This is a really great sequel for Shards of Earth and definitely doesn’t suffer from second book syndrome. The story progressed really naturally and stakes were definitely raised. I now can’t wait for book 3 !

The Narrator has done an amazing job - the names and places sound really natural and there is great distinction between characters, but not so much so that its theatrical.

EYES OF THE VOID takes the series from high-stakes mystery and pursuit to the brink of galatic war where everyone is arguing with each other over who gets to control Idris (without really consulting him) rather than teaming up to fight off the Architects. Because, of course, all the powers are far more concerned with how much power they might lose in a team up than all the lives.

This combination really makes you root for the narrators because they feel like the lone voices of reason surrounded by corporations/governing bodies who are all villains of one sort or another. Plus it really makes them the scrappy underdog up against literally everyone and highly under resourced as you can never quite trust the group nominally backing them right now.

Olli gets to narrate in this book, in addition to the four narrators from the previous (Idris, Kris, Solace, and Havear.) I like this spunky robot-controlling woman who has such confidence in taking on anyone. I really enjoyed seeing more of her.

The larger cast also lets the book be in more places at once. It's still very tight, location-wise - it's not far flung locations with everyone at different ends of the galaxy - but it does let there be more moving parts in an action sequence. It makes the book feel bigger while still very much feeling like a single, cohesive story (vs some other far-flung cast books that feel so separate.)

This book also very much confirmed to me that I am not a big fan of digital reading. I find it really hard to put down digital books and come back to them (my attention wanders MASSIVELY on putting it down) which means I try to read them in one sitting. And that is very hard to do for a book this big. I want temporary respite from books, particularly long, large ones.

It's a testament to how engaging this book is that I didn't struggle with it, given its digital length. I could certainly feel like I was in need of finishing, to have that break, by the end, but I was still interested in keeping going, still wanted to find out more. I didn't resent the book (which I most certainly have for other long books I felt obliged to finish.)

The finale of this trilogy looks to have a big moral dilemma at the heart of how to defeat the Architects, and a new faction/splinter has joined the game too. Looks to be a promising third book next year!

My only complaint about this book is the lack of spiders but that is completely the authors fault for spoiling me his children of time/ruin books and don’t get me started on there being no dogs of war or genestealers 😉 i just love what this man writes, his imagination is a scary scary place to visit but I am all in for the ride