A ripping yarn that continues the saga admirably. The long arc of the story is satisfying and the characters are engaging throughout. Wonderful narration by Sophie Aldred brings the whole thing to life. Onwards to Part 3! ( )

this one's the middle book of an ambitious sf trilogy with the momentum of an action thriller and a host of Big Ideas. it's a mystery, really: in a future containing many versions of human, post-human, and alien life, some unknown party seems to be trying to uncreate all intelligent life by using The Architects to implement a form of planet-stripping. but an old and dead civilization may have the answer to how to make them stop. and all the players converge on the old salvage ship called the Vulture God and its motley crew, who just want their missing crewmates back. stirring stuff, and a lot of fun. ( )

Second book of the planned trilogy physically matches the first book - it looks very much like a building block or weapon with which you can beat somebody to a pulp (pun intended).

But unlike first book this one feels exactly like a work with sole purpose to put all pieces in place for a final novel. While first novel could stand on its own without problems, Eyes of the Void cannot - it requires familiarity with first book otherwise level of confusion will reach epic proportions because of almost everything - sheer amount of characters, nations, species and outright action will just make uninitiated reader dizzy and completely bewildered.

Book is truly big (around 570 pages) but story flows so naturally I finished it in two multi-hour sittings (and then last 70 pages took me two days due to other choirs.....I am ashamed.... :))
Overall second part of trilogy is more action oriented, once our heroes are sent to join other parties on remote planet with Orginator city like structure, story tempo just increases until it reaches the crescendo that echoes Idris' torment and cries of terror after which silence covers everything, new forces arrive on stage and book ends in a rather abrupt manner.

I wont go into any details because it is very difficult to talk about anything without spoiling the story.

Story is such a bombardment of information, events, characters and constant chaos following both Architects destroying worlds and our heroes trying to figure out the motivations of both Architects and other involved parties (and believe me there are so many factions and hidden motives.... it is incredible). I especially liked author's approach to unspace, mysterious dimension that allows interstellar travel, very much like W40K Warp. I gotta say I am very much interested to see where this part of the story goes to, shall we finally be shown denizens of this dimension.

All in all very interesting part two of trilogy, full of action, shadow and outright warfare between various factions and truly unique aliens with their own agendas and alliances.

Highly recommended but keep in mind that without reading first book in series you will very probably end up confused and with so many questions you will not enjoy this book.

Cannot wait for final book in series. ( )

To be honest, the first book in this trilogy ("Shards of Earth"), didn't do that much for me. The high concept wasn't bad, and it seemed like a viable option in the currently somewhat fallow period for serious space opera, but I found the opening segment clumsy, and the whole enterprise just seemed somewhat bloated.

So then, I approached reading the middle book in the spirit of it being a chore, but I was pleasantly surprised to find it to be much more coherent, to the point that I'm looking forward to the wrap-up book. The main things you need to know is that Idris Telemmier, the "intermediary" who can make contact with the planet-destroying entities know as "Architects," continues to develop as a character, and this novel climaxes in actionable intelligence having been obtained against the Architects; and perhaps the power behind them. ( )

This is book two in the author’s Final Architecture trilogy. It cannot be read as a stand-alone work, so if you haven’t read Shards of Earth, do not begin here.

I’ve had mixed results when reading the author’s work. I found Children of Time to be outstanding, but the sequel, Children of Ruin an exercise in navel gazing. City of Last Chances was not science fiction and I didn’t particularly care for it. I decided to order the author’s Final Architecture trilogy based upon the promise shown in Children of Time. To date, I have been largely disappointed.

This science fiction work is set in a universe in which the Earth and many of its colonies have been destroyed by an alien civilization called The Architects. Periodically, a huge artifact simply appears in the skies over a planet, and systematically destroys it. After a brief pause, occasioned by the development of a special type of human (Ints) capable of communication with the Architects, the Architects have returned.

I have found the first two books in the series to be disjointed, and at times difficult to follow. While there are periods of excellence, they are few and far between, weighed down by an excess of sometimes “stream of consciousness” prose or mind-numbingly lengthy blow by blow descriptions of battles or fights. So far, I reckon I have read roughly 250 excess pages that could have been eliminated with little loss.

This is not awful, but it is a far piece from good. ( )