Children of Memory

Strakul reviewed Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky

What does it mean to be sentient?

4 stars

This was a fun book and opens up some interesting possibilities for more potential adventures in this universe. However, in my opinion its the weakest of the three books thus far. While parts of it are very cool, the big mystery of Imir is a bit too dense and drags on without a clear resolution until the very end of the book. Once it does, it's fine and very clever, it just takes too long to get there. I do look forward to seeing how the series continues, with the hope that some of the formula gets shaken up a bit.

For a full review, check out my blog: strakul.blogspot.com/2024/07/book-review-children-of-memory-by.html

Konstantinos Kavourakis reviewed Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky

The weakest of the trilogy

3 stars

Although not bad sci-fi its connection to the previous 2 books is rather loose. The third book takes an entirely different direction, some parts resembling westerns depicting the early pioneers of the time. The weakest of the three books, 3/5 for me.

Flippin' 'Eck, Reader reviewed Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Worth persevering

4 stars

This is the third -- and I believe final -- installment in Adrian Tchaikovsky's acclaimed Children of Time series.

The action once again moves on to another alien world but with many of the same characters and species from the earlier two books. And of course we are introduced to additional new intelligences, as you'd expect from the earlier stories' trajectories.

However it took me well over half the book to really get into it. The multiple plots seemed not only hard to keep track of, but self-contradictory at times as well. Eventually everything does fall into place and there are enough plot twists to keep you intrigued right to the end, but there were definitely times when I had to force myself to keep reading as the frustration was starting to get too much.

I'm glad I kept going, though. In the last third of the book many of …

This is the third -- and I believe final -- installment in Adrian Tchaikovsky's acclaimed Children of Time series.

The action once again moves on to another alien world but with many of the same characters and species from the earlier two books. And of course we are introduced to additional new intelligences, as you'd expect from the earlier stories' trajectories.

However it took me well over half the book to really get into it. The multiple plots seemed not only hard to keep track of, but self-contradictory at times as well. Eventually everything does fall into place and there are enough plot twists to keep you intrigued right to the end, but there were definitely times when I had to force myself to keep reading as the frustration was starting to get too much.

I'm glad I kept going, though. In the last third of the book many of the earlier confusion gets resolved, and that's what's bumped it up from a three-star to a four-star review.

It is ultimately a good book in the end, although it's definitely more openly philosophical and introspective than the previous two. If you like Tchaikovsky's work and are prepared to stick with it, this is rewarding.

SocProf reviewed Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky

A worthy addition to this series

5 stars

I have been a huge fan of this series ever since I read Children of Time. This one is on a par with it. The premise is the same: an Earth Ark ship on its way to a new planet, supposed to have been terraformed in anticipation of human colonists, escaping a dying Earth. In line with the Gilgamesh of Children of Time, this one is called the Enkidu, on its way to a planet called Imir. but they are not the only one. There is also an expedition from the Humans and their non-human allies (portiids, octopi, and the new addition: corvids). There is, I think, a greater sense of tragedy to this one, with a mystery at its center. The ending is ambiguous so I'm not sure whether there will be another "Children of..." entry or not. Either way, this one was a page-turner.

Sam reviewed Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Slow middle, interesting ideas

4 stars

Similar to a lot of the other reviews I'm reading this one just didn't grip me quite as much as the first two books. I liked the folk tale atmosphere and the fact that it uses the first two books being similar to trick you into thinking that this one would follow a similar path, but I didn't feel that the alien life forms were as well explored in this book. We got very little on the actual paired-mind of the corvids, with most of the focus being on the two individual parts of the mind, and the other mind that possibly exists in the book is only hinted at vaguely. I enjoyed the ending, but not as much as the first two since the big reveal at the end felt a bit obvious (albeit the details were all different from my own guesses).

Overall this felt like the middle …

Similar to a lot of the other reviews I'm reading this one just didn't grip me quite as much as the first two books. I liked the folk tale atmosphere and the fact that it uses the first two books being similar to trick you into thinking that this one would follow a similar path, but I didn't feel that the alien life forms were as well explored in this book. We got very little on the actual paired-mind of the corvids, with most of the focus being on the two individual parts of the mind, and the other mind that possibly exists in the book is only hinted at vaguely. I enjoyed the ending, but not as much as the first two since the big reveal at the end felt a bit obvious (albeit the details were all different from my own guesses).

Overall this felt like the middle could have been condensed and that this book was mostly just setting up a plot for a future book without having much of a satisfying story of its own. That being said, I still enjoyed it enough to give it 4 stars and would recommend it if you liked the first two books.

Tak! reviewed Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky

4 stars

Content warning plot arc metaspoilers maybe? also for Nona the Ninth

This one took me on a very Nona the Ninth-like journey, from "I am following the plot and know what is going on" to "I am no longer following the plot, what the hell is going on" to "Wow, I did not see that coming"

Will reviewed Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Meh

3 stars

There's no real way to state why I didn't like this book as much as its predecessors without spoiling nearly the entire thing. Suffice to say, the tone of this book is inconsistent with the rest of the series.

Frank Burns reviewed Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Review of 'Children of Memory' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I am afraid I am going to have to be a little hard here and say this barely scraped 4 stars for me. The middle really dragged. I can't really explain why without going into spoilers (which I am not a fan of doing in reviews). I will say that there wasn't the same sense of progress that you got from the first two books. A sense of something new developing. The middle third is very focused on a (to all appearances) regressive setting, thus the sense of the new wasn't there for me for a good chunk of this read.
The ideas are still top tier. The book started well and the ending was satisfying. Maybe it needed a tighter edit, maybe I was just not in the right place for this.
Still, it is Tchaikovsky and my reservations could just be a me thing. It's still at least …

I am afraid I am going to have to be a little hard here and say this barely scraped 4 stars for me. The middle really dragged. I can't really explain why without going into spoilers (which I am not a fan of doing in reviews). I will say that there wasn't the same sense of progress that you got from the first two books. A sense of something new developing. The middle third is very focused on a (to all appearances) regressive setting, thus the sense of the new wasn't there for me for a good chunk of this read.
The ideas are still top tier. The book started well and the ending was satisfying. Maybe it needed a tighter edit, maybe I was just not in the right place for this.
Still, it is Tchaikovsky and my reservations could just be a me thing. It's still at least a 4 star for me so I can definitely recommend it. Especially if you enjoyed the first two in the series.

Kevin Guertin reviewed Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Review of 'Children of Memory' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Wow. Outstanding! This book is vastly different than the other two. I was frustrated with most of it and was sure I would be rating it 2 stars, maybe 3, even though the writing style was amazing, but the last hundred pages blew my mind.

Take all these 5 stars, Adrian, and go buy something nice with 'em.