Children of Ruin

, #2

Paperback, 597 pages

English language

Published May 14, 2019 by Orbit.

ISBN:
978-0-316-45253-3
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The astonishing sequel to Children of Time, the award-winning novel of humanity's battle for survival on a terraformed planet.

Thousands of years ago, Earth's terraforming program took to the stars. On the world they called Nod, scientists discovered alien life - but it was their mission to overwrite it with the memory of Earth. Then humanity's great empire fell, and the program's decisions were lost to time.

Aeons later, humanity and its new spider allies detected fragmentary radio signals between the stars. They dispatched an exploration vessel, hoping to find cousins from old Earth.

But those ancient terraformers woke something on Nod better left undisturbed.

And it's been waiting for them.

5 editions

reviewed Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Children of Time, #2)

Interspecies communication is harder than it looks

This was a fascinating book, probably even better than it's predecessor, Children of Time. There is a lot going on plot-wise, and we do need a few sections of exposition, but otherwise it paints an intriguing tale of contact between civilizations. These new aliens are even more alien than the uplifted spiders and it's very interesting to see the characters struggle through to communicate with them.

For a full review, check out my blog: strakul.blogspot.com/2024/06/book-review-children-of-ruin-by-adrian.html

Review of 'Children of Ruin' on 'Storygraph'

This is a terrific follow-up to Children of Time.

Adrian Tchaikovsky is great at writing characters that think differently from how you or I might think but who you can still grow attached to.

Like all of the other books of his I've read, In this one, he managed to find four or five major science fiction ideas I've never come across before.

And this book has octopuses!


Imaginative scifi at it's best

Tchaikovsky's Children Of Series focuses on the lifeforms left behind by mankind's self-destruction. The sentient spiders from Children of Time are back, and are exploring a solar system caught in a civil war. One of science fiction's strengths is being able to imagine other beings, and Tchaikovsky's depictions of their life and thoughts are excellent here as well.

reviewed Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Children of Time, #2)

A worthy sequel to Children of Time

The alien development in Children of Ruin wasn't quite as good as the Portid chapters of "Children of Time", but the overall pacing of the book was much better with no boring human chapters to break up the palp-quivering goodness of the Portid and Cephalopod chapters. The ending of the book, despite sharing a similar flavor to the first book, still hits just as hard. These-of-We are looking forward to going on another adventure with the third book.

Review of "Children of Ruin"

Decent read! Unexpectedly enjoyed having previously read one of the author's reference books (if you have gotten into Children of Ruin you might be able to guess which topic it concerns :) Less bombastic storyline than Children of Time, a larger focus on cognition in general

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Subjects

  • Science Fiction
  • Fiction
  • Space Opera