An Architect appears suddenly over an inhabited world, then quickly reshapes it into a gigantic sculpture, killing everything that lives there. Architects seem unaware they're destroying sentient creatures, almost like humans view gnats.
An Architect destroyed Earth, but humanity still exists on planets and moons elsewhere in the universe. All worlds containing intelligent beings are on high alert, ready to evacuate at a moment's notice, in case an Architect appears in the sky.
Nevertheless, 'sculpturing' by an Architect is so rapid that few can escape, and no weapons - even gravitic drives or mass looms - seem able to stop them.
The first being to successfully interact with an Architect was a human girl called Xavienne Torino. Xavienne's brain could 'connect' with an Architect somehow, and on one occasion Xavienne 'persuaded' an Architect to cease an attack and go away.
Xavienne was dubbed an Intermediary, and an Intermediary Program was started to modify human recruits to mimic Xavienne's abilities. The modification - which consists of genetic manipulation, surgery, and intense conditioning - is so extreme that it kills most trainees.
However a few people get through the Intermediary Program, and several Intermediaries - working together - put a pause in the Architect attacks.
The Intermediaries also have another ability. They're able to guide spacecraft through 'unspace', a dangerous region that permits rapid travel across the universe. Unspace drives almost all creatures insane, and - except for Intermediaries - travelers must be sleeping to get through safely.
As the story opens, there hasn't been an Architect attack in decades, and planets across the universe are engaged in all manner of commerce, import, export, mining, trade, etc. that requires space travel. Thus all societies want Intermediaries.
Of the few existing Intermediaries, all but one are 'leashed' (under binding contracts). The lone 'free' Intermediary, named Idris Telemmier, is a navigator aboard a salvage vessel called the Vulture God, whose crew consists of a handful of humans and aliens.
Any number of organizations, gangs, armies, businesses, politicians and so on - both human and alien - are trying to get their hands (or claws or tentacles or whatever) on Idris....and they'll do ANYTHING to accomplish this goal. Thus everyone seems to be on the lookout for the Vulture God, to get access to the Intermediary.
Idris and the other crew members of the Vulture God are at the center of the story, and we follow their adventures as they crisscross the universe.
One group that wants Idris is the Parthenon, whose members are genetically engineered human women. The females, called Partheni, are among the best fighters in the universe, and they'd like Idris to join their ranks. The Parthenon sends one of its own, a woman called Solace, to recruit Idris, and she (temporarily) joins the crew of the Vulture God to try to persuade him.
On one of it's salvage jobs, the Vulture God finds an object that suggests the Architects are back, and this is the underlying theme of the book.
There's plenty of action in the story, with fighting, shooting, stabbing, stealing, killing, destruction, death, and so forth. There's also plenty of prevarication, scheming, conspiring and negotiation. All this makes for an excellent space saga.
Tchaikovsky does a good bit of world-building in the story, and describes all manner of humans; aliens; societies; civilizations; spaceships; weapons; criminals; soldiers; etc....everything you'd expect in a sci-fi novel.
It can get confusing, but Tchaikovsky helpfully includes a glossary as well as lists of worlds; characters, species; and ships. Best of all the author includes a detailed timeline - an outline that depicts the events in the universe that brought it to it's present state.
I enjoyed the book and look forward to the next novel in the series.
Thanks to Netgalley, Adrian Tchaikovsky, and Tor Publishers for a copy of the book.
4 stars
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