Eyes of the Void is the second book in The Final Architecture series by Adrian Tchaikovsky and continues the story of Idris, Solace, and their various friends and allies. It picks up only a short while after the end of the previous book with Idris now working amongst the Partheni in hopes of finding a genetic strain of Partheni that would make an easier transition to being intermediaries. At the same time Solace and Olli with the rest of the crew of the Vulture God are trying to find more information about what might be going on. They all end up in trouble though when it is revealed that the architects are no longer scared by devices that belonged to the Originators which means there is no more guaranteed defense. Idris ends up getting kidnapped and then taken to a remote originator city that was abandoned but may still hold answers. As the war gets worse so does galactic tension leading to potential for increased conflict between the Hugh and the Partheni along with whoever else may get dragged into it. Either way things are starting to get rather perilous for Idris, Solace and their friends.
This is a stunning example of galactic warfare and you can tell just by reading that a lot of thought was put into this series. I say that primarily because of the amount of detail that was shown about the galactic politics and relationships between the different groups. It isn’t just humanity against the architects but several different groups of humans that are loosely allied with several different groups of aliens that are against the architects. There was a lot of information provided about how they all relate to each other that did a great job of really fleshing out this setting. In addition to that we also get to see some firsthand hints and views of the different cultures that also add a lot of depth to the story. I found myself just as enthralled by that as I did by the continuing political developments taking place and the developing war. There was just so much going on at any one point that there seemed to be multiple storylines taking place at once. I didn’t mind that too much though there were times some of it seemed to be slightly glossed over in order to highlight other elements and storylines. It was just an incredibly rich world to be reading about. Another thing that rather grabbed my attention was the continuing development of subspace and the intermediaries and the group pushing the architects to attack. I am really curious about how that is going to end up playing out as there seems to be a lot more to that than has been revealed so far and it seems to be perhaps the most important of the various storylines. It also ties in really well with the character development as we see a lot of changes and growth for our characters from the previous book, especially for Idris and Solace but even for Olli and Kris as well. I am seriously enjoying this universe so far and am definitely looking forward to the last book in the series. This gets 4.5 out of 5 stars from me.
This is an awesome example of a science-fiction series that focuses heavily on galactic warfare. If that has any appeal for you than you should really consider trying this one out. That being said I rather doubt it will hold appeal for readers who don’t at least somewhat enjoy that type of story. It is mainly aimed at adult readers and I would mostly agree with that as there is a decent amount of violence present but not enough to be entirely restricted to adults. Readers over the age of about fifteen or sixteen should be fine. If you do decide to try this book make sure to read the previous book first and consider sharing your thoughts in the comments.