Children of Strife - Outside of a Dog

Hardcover, 704 pages

English language

Published March 26, 2026 by Tor.

ISBN:: 978-1-0350-5778-8

They thought they’d found refuge. But this paradise became their prison.

Centuries ago, a maverick terraforming team played God with a distant planet. Out of their vanity and spite, something terrible and unexpected arose.

Generations later, tormented scientist Alis is among the crew of the research vessel that rediscovers this lost outpost. But Alis wakes from nightmares of her own making to an all-too-real catastrophe on board. The rest of the crew has vanished – leaving only Cato, the belligerent mantis-shrimp captain, and Kern, the ship’s AI.

Searching for their lost fellows, Alis and Cato must venture into the darkness of the planet below. What did those ancient terraformers unleash? And will their last surviving crewmate become a greater threat than the world itself?

They thought they’d found refuge. But this paradise became their prison.

Centuries ago, a maverick terraforming team played God with a distant planet. Out of their vanity and spite, something terrible and unexpected arose.

Generations later, tormented scientist Alis is among the crew of the research vessel that rediscovers this lost outpost. But Alis wakes from nightmares of her own making to an all-too-real catastrophe on board. The rest of the crew has vanished – leaving only Cato, the belligerent mantis-shrimp captain, and Kern, the ship’s AI.

Searching for their lost fellows, Alis and Cato must venture into the darkness of the planet below. What did those ancient terraformers unleash? And will their last surviving crewmate become a greater threat than the world itself?

3 editions

enne📚 reviewed Children of Strife by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Children of Time)

None

4 stars

I quite liked this fourth book in the Children of Time series. I personally found the first book to be the strongest and then the next two to be enjoyable but not as tight. This fourth book works so well as a capstone to bring everything back together and tell a grippy story at the same time.

Structurally, I really enjoy the three different timelines being interspersed here. The characters and worldbuilding in each bit are all intriguing, and even though they all layer on top of each other, I don't feel like having these multiple perspectives of the same place across time takes away from the tension, either.

What really shines for me in this book are the characters. I love the squabbling five gods. I love Alis and Cato and their band of misfits. I love a tale about an unexpected captain on a generation ship …

I quite liked this fourth book in the Children of Time series. I personally found the first book to be the strongest and then the next two to be enjoyable but not as tight. This fourth book works so well as a capstone to bring everything back together and tell a grippy story at the same time.

Structurally, I really enjoy the three different timelines being interspersed here. The characters and worldbuilding in each bit are all intriguing, and even though they all layer on top of each other, I don't feel like having these multiple perspectives of the same place across time takes away from the tension, either.

What really shines for me in this book are the characters. I love the squabbling five gods. I love Alis and Cato and their band of misfits. I love a tale about an unexpected captain on a generation ship to the stars, fleeing a broken earth.

I didn't know what to expect from a surprise fourth book, but this was way more fun than I could have guessed.

Jensi 🏴🚩 • he/him reviewed Children of Strife by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Children of Time, #4)

A bit weaker, but still a strong instance of the series

5 stars

While keeping this review spoiler-free, I want to tease: We get a new species for our society! Yay! The big downside of book 4 is a shortage of editing, or more so, shortening: Several text passages are redundant, especially in conveying cultural aspects. A smaller downside for me is that a certain character again gets important for the plot; but this character is definitive one of the best parts of the whole series though. So while I found this book to be the weakest of the currently 4 books, it is really relative to its sophisticated environment.