Tag: Adrian Tchaikovsky

Review of Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Hello readers, it has been quite some time since my last review. I’ve been fully engrossed in my own writing and it actually took me quite a long time to read this. Just a quick update. This is the third of the Children of Time Series. I had already read the first two. So what did I think of this one?

Well first off, I think you’d really need to have read the first two before you could make sense of this. It is set in a complex universe and I think it would be just too confusing without having read the other two.

This is the blurb from the book –

On Imir, Captain Holt founded a new colony on an empty world. In the process, he created hope and a new future for humanity. But, generations later, his descendants are struggling to survive. As harvests worsen and equipment fails, strangers appear in a town where everyone knows their neighbour. Now the inexplicable lurks in the woods and the community fears that it’s being observed – that they’re not alone.

They’d be right, as explorers from the stars have arrived in secret to help this lost outpost. Confident of their superior technology, and overseen by the all-knowing construct of Doctor Avrana Kern, they begin to study their long-lost cousins from Earth.

Yet the planet hides deeper mysteries. It seems the visitors aren’t the only watchers. And when the starfarers discover the scale of their mistake, it will be far too late to escape.

There are two main characters Liff, a young girl growing up on the planet, and Miranda, one of the explorers from the stars. Many common sci-fi tropes are brought up such as when, if ever should a more advanced civilization affect the affairs of a more primitive one.

There is a major twist near the end, but I found it most unsatisfying. It made the whole novel feel somewhat redundant. I still recommend that people read the first two books, especially the first but this one not so much.

I give it 3.5 out of 5.

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Review of “Children of Ruin” by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Well readers, Just a quick recap. Previously I read the first book in the series “Children of Time”. I gave it five stars out of five and thought it was just swell. This is the sequel of a three book series. First off, while “Children of Time” is a great stand alone, this one is not. You would definitely be left wondering what is going on! Also, leave plenty of time in your calendar. It’s a long one.

This novel follows a similar timeline as its predecessor and you already have somewhat of an idea of what to expect. That is, what happens in the opening chapters will play out over a long period of time to be very consequential. This time, rather than seeing the evolution of spiders play out, it is the turn of the octopuses. The writers great creativity and imagination is to be admired. But this time, there is another truly alien species whose evolution also plays out in the same system. It is parasitic in nature and destroys whatever it comes into contact with.

Long ago, Earth’s terraforming program sent ships out to build new homes for humanity among the stars and made an unexpected discovery: a planet with life on a planet they called. But the scientists were unaware that the alien ecosystem was more developed than the primitive life forms originally discovered. Then, the Old Empire collapsed, with ramifications spreading out throughout the galaxy.

Still the humans of the time continued on their mission and terraformed a different planet. It was supposed to be for Humans but it was colonized by octopuses with the same virus that accelerates evolution.

Present day, a ship of Humans and Portiids (spiders) visit the system and find themselves in a system of ruin. This is a story of misunderstandings but also of hope when all appears lost.

I did really enjoy this novel, but it didn’t have that special feel of the original. Therefore, I’m going to give this three stars out of five. Still, I know what I’m going to read next.