I figli della memoria

Children of Time #3

by Adrian Tchaikovsky, Annarita Guarnieri (Translator)

Quando la Terra implose, vennero inviate delle navicelle spaziali per stabilire nuovi avamposti. Così l’astronave Enkidu e il suo capitano, Heorest Holt, portarono il loro prezioso carico umano in un potenziale nuovo paradiso. Generazioni più tardi, questa fragile colonia è riuscita a sopravvivere sul mondo di Imir, conducendo un’ardua e misera esistenza. Fino a quando una popolazione aliena con conoscenze e tecnologie impareggiabili approda sul pianeta per aiutare le colonie umane. Ma non tutto è come sembra. A mano a mano che i visitatori perdono la cognizione del tempo così come i ricordi, scoprono la storia oscura di Imir e dell’entità sconosciuta e terrificante che lo abita. C’è forse un’altra intelligenza all’opera, che si sta prendendo gioco dei coloni e degli scienziati spaziali? Non tutte le domande hanno una risposta semplice e il prezzo da pagare potrebbe essere la colonia stessa e il futuro di ciò che resta dell’umanità. "I figli della memoria" è una space opera che abbraccia generazioni, specie e galassie.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Audiobook, Space Opera, Fantasy, Space, Science Fiction Fantasy

432 pages, Paperback

First published November 24, 2022

About the author

ADRIAN TCHAIKOVSKY was born in Lincolnshire and studied zoology and psychology at Reading, before practising law in Leeds. He is a keen live role-player and occasional amateur actor and is trained in stage-fighting. His literary influences include Gene Wolfe, Mervyn Peake, China Miéville, Mary Gently, Steven Erikson, Naomi Novak, Scott Lynch and Alan Campbell.

Reviews

[Emily (Books with Emily Fox on Youtube) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm torn.

I LOVED the beginning but lost interest towards the end when things got (purposely) confusing. I'm not sure if this is the last book in the series as the ending leaves the story opened for more but I think I'm done.

[Nataliya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating. Mesmerizing. Thought-provoking. And incredibly enjoyable. That’s why Adrian Tchaikovsky is firmly on the list of my favorite writers, sharing the podium with Pratchett and LeGuin. He’s not one of SFF greats-in-the-making; he’s made it to the pantheon, and seems to be having a blast there.

“What you want,”she says disgustedly, “is a zoo where you can come and look at the exhibits in their natural habitat. But what are you really preserving, then? Nothing except a means to sate your curiosity. You’re not doing it for *them*, at that point. Just for you.”

The latest (but hopefully not the last) book in his amazing Children of Time series that started with spacefaring spiders and went on to include spacefaring sentient octopuses and a new truly alien knowledge-thirsty symbiote as well as a grumpy AI, Children of Memory continues the themes of the previous volumes — the question of personhood, the unity vs division, the “Us” vs “Them”, bridging the gap, and the intoxicating appeal of curiosity and knowledge.

And typical for Tchaikovsky, this doesn’t go exactly where you’d think it would, instead branching off in a direction that is way more interesting and thoughtful than I’d ever predict. My expectations just don’t live up to the treasure trove of awesome that is Adrian Tchaikovsky’s brain.

“She had forgotten, somehow, that the people on Imir were, after all, just people, and that they suffered, and that they died.”

Sentience and personhood are the questions we are left with. Naturally, it made me think of Blindsight by Peter Watts, a literary discourse on sentience and consciousness, but done way more accessibly, humanistically and engagingly. There were still moments of sitting still and slow-blinking in astonishment, but in a way that made me feel strangely happy. Because what matters, really — whether a species is indeed sentient or how *you*, a supposedly sentient being, choose to treat them and act towards them?

“Because Liff understands, without needing to know why, that looking different isn’t a good thing.”

Humans are smug, aren’t we? In search for other life we look for something recognizable, something that is close to *us*, since of course our definitions of life and sentience and therefore value gotta be that elusive “it”, right? But of course that says more about us than those we are judging.

‘It’s not *life*,” Kern-major tells her. “It was never life. It was just … life fan-fiction’.
‘We all are. The two of us standing here, and you as well. And any human who uploads or gets transferred to a new body. Or any of it. We’re at a point where we can play all sorts of clever games with minds. Store them, and pour them, and shuffle them back and forth, like playing which cup the ball is under. Yet we still remain ourselves, to ourselves. Don’t you find it arbitrary to draw the line of reality there? To say, “You can be real, if there was once a living exemplar of you, even if now you’re a copied and recopile version made of ants and raw data”?’

Tchaikovsky is a pro at creating worlds that can have good things in them without falling into that recently omni-present sugary cozypunk with too much fiction and too little science. He doesn’t do that; he’s humanistic without pandering to every current “it” issue, considerate without ever being preachy, hopeful without saccharinity. He’s just a genuinely good writer, and that’s a gift to humanity, and I’m not just being a fangirl here, I swear.

“They jostle and joke among themselves, and whoop and say in over-loud voices how this’ll show *them*. She know they don’t even know who *they* are. But that’s not important once you’ve decided there’s an *us* and a *them*. Only the fact of the division matters.”

This series is a modern SFF classic, on par with the “greats” of the genre.

5 stars. Brilliant.

—————
—————
My review for the first book in the series, Children of Time is here.
My review for the second, Children of Ruin is here.

“She is a cultural leech, meaningless without the society she has burrowed into, and because of this she spends her time trying to give back to it. What has more sense of obligation than a parasite, after all?”

[Dom · Rating 3 out of 5]

This series has been a bit hit and miss for me. Children of Time was a delight, I really enjoyed it in almost every aspect. Children of Ruin less so, but it was still okay – there were just a few bits that I wasn’t so much a fan of. Children of Memory, sadly continued and expanded upon that trend.

The overall concept of the series remains a very good one, but I feel this third book was a bit of a reach. There were several bits here that I wasn’t a fan of, and by the time I started to come to the end of the book, I had already decided that it was easily my least favourite of the three. Then the ending itself came along and… I really disliked it. With a fair amount of passion.

Technically, this is a well-written book, as I would expect from Tchaikovsky, but saying that, I did feel at various points that it was also a bit disjointed. The start, for me, was strong, but before too long, it felt like the threads that followed had become too tangled and hadn’t been straightened out again.

There were time jumps to give backstory, but I felt these broke up the flow too much (a common complaint I have with flashbacks), and plenty of confusion outside of that as well. The confusion I had was eventually explained, but that formed part of the ending that I very much disliked.

As far as the positives go, many of them for me were tinged with negatives as well. The writing was good but yet disjointed, as previously mentioned; the worldbuilding was excellent but somehow then seemed a step too far for what we know from the series; the characters are great but then some of them are not quite as we have come to know (and potentially love) them.

So overall, this was a disappointing read for me. Lots of the other reviews I have seen are very much to the positive end of the scale, so that points to this one just not working for me. But if you’re a fan of the series who loved the second book as much as (or more than) the first, then I suspect this would be another winner for you.

[Trish · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my (book-)gods! This is my favorite in the series (so far, I should add, since I'm hoping for more installments).

After the arachnids, octopuses and slime mold we now get ... humans! *lol* Of course, we are on another planet where another colony ship arrived a long time ago and humans settled. Many generations later, the settlers are still trying to survive the planet's harsh ecosystem. The problem is that the tech at their disposal is breaking down and conditions get worse and worse. Moreover, they start getting concerned about strangers with knowledge and tech they shouldn't have.
And yes, of course, it's our favorite gang of galactic explorers: Kern (or the AI with her personality), the spider Portia, Paul (one of the octopuses) and now also Miranda (the slime intelligence).
But something else is going on in the colony. And it's not just that the humans' problems seem to be triggering a stark rise in anger / suspicion / willingness to use violence.

I can honestly say that the thing I loved most about this third installment were the birds. I should have known from the book's title that the next uplifted intelligence would be birds / corvids.
Surprisingly, I also loved the exploration of the human colony though! I liked following along their day-to-day life, their hardships and struggles and seeing how my species is doing so many years after we probably killed off ourselves back home.

Maybe the other two books would have already felt this way if I had known Brin's Uplift books back then. I didn't but do now. And yes, this book's atmosphere very much reminded me of the sense of wonder, exploration and (self-)discovery of those books. In short: I loved it from the first to the last page.

Without wanting to show off, I have to say, that I had guessed at one of the twists about halfway through the book. The hints here and there, my brain going "does not compute", and knowing Tchaikovsky ...
That, in no way, marred my enjoyment of the tale and how it came together though! Not least because there were other twists and turns and yet more things to puzzle about.

The writing, as ever, is top notch. It's intricate, fast-paced, very smart, and sucks you right in.

I think I remember someone telling me this will be a trilogy, making this the finale. However, I'm definitely hoping there will be more installments, maybe even a journey back to Earth to see what has happened to our home planet, what life formed there after humans finally had gone extinct (yes, I'm convinced we did NOT make it). Though I trust the author that no matter where he takes us, we'll have one hell of a time. So yeah, more please!

[Chantal Lyons · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tchaikovsky never fails to amaze and surprise.

I adored 'Children of Time' and 'Children of Ruin'. And yet, 'Children of Memory' is very different. It doesn't follow the formula of [species] + Uplift virus + chronology of the resulting society's twists and turns. I was a tiny bit sad about this - but this would probably have been a case of too much of a good thing.

Instead, this third book in the series takes a step towards something like fantasy, echoing Tchaikovsky's novella 'The Elder Race' and perhaps even a trace of 'The Tiger and the Wolf'. It is utterly intriguing, and the deep mystery at the story's heart sneaks up on you. It's also a philosophy lecture masquerading as a very good book - though I won't say more on that, for fear of spoilers.

The book is long, but easy to consume. It's written with the author's usual witty style, and I grinned or even giggled in places, thanks to the brilliant cast of characters from Avrana Kern to the new Gothli and Gethli. But it's also the most emotional book of Tchaikovsky's that I've read, with a bittersweet ending of sadness and joy.

For some reason, I had thought this would be the final book, but it feels like there's so much more to be explored still - and I have faith that there'll be a fourth.

(With thanks to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for this ebook in exchange for an honest review)

[Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one offered up some pretty great SFnal surprises.

From the start, I had some suspicions that this would be something like a culture-shock kind of novel in a poor human colony world meeting the long list of truly fascinating alien (ish) races that were serendipitously uplifted in the previous Children of Time novels. (All fantastic, clever, philosophical, and well-explored.)

This one, however, takes a right turn to the others. My expectations had to swerve and were nicely pummeled by Tchaikovsky.

Now, as for the new alien race we get to explore, it's a classic Sentience problem with some great Corvids, as conducted by an actual AI, with lots of opinions carried by a slime mold, octopus, spiders, and some human memories. :) I mean... to say I'm intrigued is to say very little at all.

That being said, the author continues a dialogue with older SF but writes it in a great modern way with lots of attention to detail and description. I still say this series is a must-read for any fan of SF.

That twist... whew.

[Khalid Abdul-Mumin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mediocre outing among the rest of the offerings within this trilogy. I don't know exactly what I was expecting but this felt short of it because the characters were much less well developed I think, excluding the fantastic Miranda and the Corvids with their unique quasi 'philosophical zombie' consciousness.

The plotline dragged a bit with some convolutions along the way. It still maintains a tangential connection to the first two plotlines (which I loved) so there's that but not much more.

I enjoyed the perspective of the microbial gestalt entity from Nod, named Miranda in this instance, and that of the alien birds, Gothi/Gethli, though the matter of their sentience is still up for debate. I'll still recommend this to someone familiar with the first two books to give it a try.

2023 Read

[Joe Hainstock · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sadly this is a big miss. I love the first two books in this series, a perfect combination of going on an adventure and interesting philosophical musings. Both thrilling and nuanced. Children Of Memory feels more like a spinoff fan fiction than a continuation of the series, failing to develop the wider narrative in any meaningful way. This would be perfectly fine if the story here supported its own weight, but that isn't the case either. It is a frustrating, slow and obtuse work at odds with the page-turning qualities of the previous two books. The central mystery holds no real interest and whilst the final reveal perks things up a little bit, it is still a long walk for a short drink of water. Feels rather empty from start to finish.

[Faith · Rating 4 out of 5]

“ ‘Sentience,’ adds Gethli. ‘Is what is a what? And, if so, what?’ ‘You think,’ Kern all but accuses them.’ You’d think we think,’ he either answers or gives back a mangled echo. ‘But we have thought about the subject, and come to the considered conclusion that we do not think. All that passes between us and within us is just mechanical complexity.’ ”

“ ‘Think of it this way. You’re an alien symbiote incorporating an encoded memory of a human woman, whom you’re currently simulating with sufficient fidelity, that you can believe you’re her. I’m a simulation of a different human woman who was encoded into a computer, and then spent far too long as ants before being decanted into this blank body. We neither of us have much in the way of intellectual property rights, now do we?’ “

No one could ever claim that this author lacks in ideas. This book continues the story of a terraformed planet. It explores memory, sentience and identity in the author’s usual intelligent and witty way. The spiders and octopuses from the prior books were less prominent in this book, but it has birds. My favorite book of this trilogy (possibly series) was the first, but I really enjoyed the last 20% of this book and the concepts presented there.

I was listening to the audiobook, but I also had the ebook. Since the book skips around among many points of view, it was helpful that the ebook chapter headings identified who was speaking. I read the second book in this trilogy in 2019. Frankly, I remember almost nothing about the first two books. I don’t recommend reading this book as a standalone, and if it has been a while since you read the other books you might want a refresher. I sort of managed to keep up with this book, but I’m sure that I missed a lot, even though the beginning of the book recapped earlier events.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

[Sergio Ferenczy · Rating 3 out of 5]

5/10 ⭐
A esta novela le doy un aprobado pero muy justito. Sin duda es la más floja de una serie que ha ido de más a menos. Con ilusión la reservé/compré en la librería del barrio y la sensación que me ha dejado una vez terminada es de decepción.

El primero de la serie, Herederos del Tiempo , es una maravilla, una joya de la ciencia ficción contemporánea. Era lo primero que leía de Adrian Tchaikovsky y fue amor a primera vista. Es autoconclusiva y no me cansaré de recomendarla.

El segundo, Herederos del Caos , sigue en la misma línea pero baja un poquito el nivel, comprensible porque el listón estaba muy alto. Lo mejor es que añadió elementos de terror (al menos a mí me inquietaban mucho) y le dio otro aire a la novela.

Y llegamos a este, el tercero y último de la serie, Herederos del Recuerdo , que no sé que demonios ha querido hacer aquí.

La idea como todas las novelas de Tchaikovsky es interesante, os remito a las sinopsis para conocer el argumento, aunque lo mejor, sobre todo en las dos primeras es ir a ciegas para que la sorpresa sea aun mayor.

En esta novela ese interés inicial se va desvaneciendo, llega la confusión y los saltos temporales tampoco me han ayudado. Sigo leyendo, aunque ya con el piloto automático porque sé que en el tramo final viene la gran revelación... y aquí me siento identificado con otra reseña cuando dice: Es una larga caminata para beber un poco de agua, tal cual. Al menos está bien escrito, tiene buena mano.

Pero para mi el problema no es la novela en sí, sino utilizar a los personajes de las anteriores para meterlas aquí con calzador. Estoy seguro que está novela ya la tenía en la cabeza y la ha adaptado para completar esta serie, es la única explicación que veo.
Se pierde totalmente la esencia de esos personajes. Como novela independiente hubiese funcionado mejor.

Un cierre de serie que me deja muy frío.
Por suerte pude conocer a Portia en la primera novela, sin duda lo mejor.

[Rachel (TheShadesofOrange) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.0 Stars
This was a solid entry in this science fiction trilogy. Each novel focuses on a personal creature and this was not at all what I expected… which made the story very fun.

If you love the first two books, you won't be disappointed with this one. The writer is very consistent with strong prose and imaginative science.

My main struggle with this author is that he tends to write macro stories that lack intimacy with the characters. However I was pleasantly surprised to find this one to be the most character focused book within this trilogy.

Even though people describe this as a companion series, I feel that readers really should go back to the beginning and read the books in order. I would recommend this series to readers who love smart science fiction.

Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely brilliant storytelling and mind blowing sci-fi. This is such an amazing tale of evolutionary sci-fi, first contact and so much more where Tchaikovsky explores big questions of sentience, identity, the nature of existence and the purpose of life, especially in a post scarcity world. All with an immense ancient alien mystery lurking at the heart of it all. He is a master at pacing and the gradual reveal, giving juicy morsels along a winding, murky path, all while engendering a deep sense of mystery and discovery. Rather than inventing wild concepts out of thin air he has an uncanny ability to take concepts and beliefs we're familiar with, deconstruct them in a way that's entirely rational, and then layer them atop each other to synthesize something marvelous that is at both once familiar and yet completely novel. Science based speculative fiction at it's best!

[Wick Welker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could feel my own brain while I finished reading this

I've never read anything like Children of Memory. I had some hesitation at first because, although I'm a big fan of Tchaikovsky (especially his Final Architecture) I wasn't a big fan of the preceding book to this, Children of Ruin which I found to be a little too dry without enough dynamic story telling. But I am sooooooo glad I picked this book up because it was a stunning and beautiful piece of science fiction unlike anything I've ever read. This third installment in this series is completely different from the other books and in all the best ways.

The backstory does matter and informs a lot of the characters and plot of this third book, but it's okay if you don't remember a lot of the stuff in the prior books because the author does a good job of recalling to the reader the prior stuff that actually matters. And the characters here are phenomenal. From the sentient-goo occupying a human/spider hybrid to a pair of crows that may or may not have dual sentience, there is some compelling stuff going on right from the get go. And then you have the backstory of the prior earth ark ships that tried to seed the galaxy and all their ecstasy and agony along the way. The narration is very good here at cobbling all these past plot points together to get you to actually care about what now is going on.

The author starts bringing in some welcomed fantasy elements into a new terraformed world where the majority of the story happens. The storytelling and mystery is incredibly engaging. The fledging colony, with all its hope and setbacks, is just really compelling. About 2/3 of the way into this book you realize something weird is happening and that your probably going to have everything turned upside down on you. And guess what, that's exactly what happens. At first I was like "hmm is this some dues ex Machina stuff going on?" The answer is no. What happens instead is the author completely shattering conceptions of autonomy, personhood and shattering and redrawing you expectations and perception of what sentience really is. Yeah. Tchaikovsky really pulls it off here and created just a stunning, though-provoking read that will make you feel your own brain as your reading. It was a little scary tbh.

A note about the writing style: it has a lot of exposition and lots telling over showing. But it works, really, really well. Why? Because the author has the confidence in his story and knows exactly what kind of reader experience he is crafting. This book is a prime example that there really aren't hard rules in writing.

There's nothing like this book at there. I highly recommend it. My overall rating for the series is 5/5 and that's even with Children of Ruin being 3/5. In fact, if you aren't really into Ruin, you could skip it and still pick up this book, which you should because it's amazing.

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tchaikovsky gives us some mindfuckery here that I am still processing in this, the latest volume in the Children of Time series. I loved Children of Time but was pretty mixed on the second installment, Children of Ruin, but Tchaikovsky takes us on a very different path here from its predecessors, although the question of sentience still anchors the novel, perhaps even more here than before.

Children of Memory starts with the crew on one of Earth's arkships that were built by the shattered revival of civilization after the disastrous war/plague ended the 'ancient' human civilization that had progressed to terraforming planets in distant solar systems. Earth was in its death spiral so the arkships were humanity's last hope, seeking to find and colonize the planets the ancients had terraformed millennia ago. The arkship arrives after centuries of travel to find a planet they call Imir, but it is not what they hoped for at all. Yes, while the terraforming efforts centuries ago succeeded in creating breathable air, that was about it. So, in desperation, they have to give a colony the old college try...

Meanwhile, Tchaikovsky introduces a different spaceship, one from the strange, hybrid civilization constituted around the planets from Children of Ruin, with sentient spiders and octopus as crew, along with a 'base' human and the strange creature known as Miranda. Miranda is more a composition than an individual, known as an Interlocutor, as she is the communion of all things that have become part of Nod, the planet-wide intelligence also introduced in Children of Ruin. The Miranda persona is one part of the whole, having been copied by the Nod being from an actual Human Miranda. The last member of the crew is a grumpy splinter AI from Kern's world-- Kern herself (if you can call her that). This ship is on a discovery mission to find out what happened to the terraformed planets left by the ancients and they find a planet inhabited by Corvids-- something akin to ravens.

So, this is part of the mindfuckery Tchaikovsky gives us here-- what does sentience actually mean? Are the Corvids intelligent or merely good mimics? What about Kern? She can pass the Turing test, but what does that actually mean? I have not read such an exposition/exploration into the meaning of sentience since Blindsight by Peter Watts! Tchaikovsky takes us deep down a rabbit hole with this one. The second part of the mindfuckery is what is going on when this intrepid crew finds Imir, and this is where the title comes from (which you figure out as the book progresses), but I will say no more about this to avoid spoilers.

Tchaikovsky might be a bit morose or melancholy in his work; his Cage of Souls seemed to reflect that and so did this, although he gives us a ring of hope here. He is also not afraid to tackle the big existential questions great science fiction asks, like what does it mean to be human, and in this case sentient. What is the meaning of life after all, and no, it is not 42 😎 In this, he excels, but Children of Memory as a text left me a little wanting. Once you figured out the 'trick' if you will on what is going on on Imir, it became a bit of a slog. And the denouement? Perhaps a little to happy and hopeful given the events in the book itself. Nonetheless, if you liked the first two in this series, you will likely really like this. 4 sentient stars!!

[Choko · Rating 5 out of 5]

*** 5+++++ ***

"...“Things fall apart, though, and entropy is the landlord whose rent always gets paid.”..."

One of the best books of one of the best series I have had the privilege to read!!!! I have no words. It is the perfect thinking series on topics like humanity, self, and identity... It is beautiful! I wish everyone would give it a try!!!

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Children of Memory is the final leg of the trilogy, but don’t let that dissuade you from grabbing it. This science fiction posits a universe with terraformed worlds out there, a failing earth, and arks of civilization journeying to establish colonies on the terraformed worlds. One such ark reaches its destination but the survivors feel guilt because the colony was never able to support more than a handful and there are thousands still in orbit waiting to be unfrozen. Those that made it seemingly have a tough hardscrabble agrarian life. But there are other evolved species out there filled with curiosity who are watching the colony develop and are hidden in plain sight despite a real existence as octopuses and spiders and the like. There’s also a colonist girl Laff who sees her grandfather’s ghost and chases it into the woods some 200 years after the shuttle landing.

The trick or conceit that Tchaikovsky plays is that the real story is not the colonists, but the alien brings watching them. And it is through them that he brings us to philosophical questions about what it means to be sentient and what it means to be real rather than artificial.

There are points where the story is quite confusing as the threads begin to separate, but hang in there. It will all come together in the end and make you think and wonder.

[Mogsy · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 of 5 stars at The BiblioSanctum https://bibliosanctum.com/2023/01/24/...

We have now reached the third book in the Children of Time series. If we travel back to the spring of 2017 when I read the first book, which incidentally was also my first novel by the author, I had to this to say: “Children of Time is one of the smartest, most remarkable and innovative science fiction novels I’ve read in years and now I can’t wait to read more by Adrian Tchaikovsky.”

Fast forward to today, and I find myself struggling to put my feelings into words about this latest installment. Because the truth is, if I was rating it solely on my enjoyment, I would be forced to rate this book much lower than I want to. As much as it pains me to say this, and I have a feeling this will be an unpopular opinion, but the story just didn’t do it for me. While the writing was superb, which is nothing less than I would expect from Tchaikovsky, I can’t say I really enjoyed myself. The most I can say about Children of Memory was that it was okay.

Set many years after the events of the previous book, Children of Ruin, this third volume in the sequence once more focuses on the different species of uplifted creatures as well as a line of enhanced Humans who have bonded closely with the arachnoid aliens known as Portiids. The octopoids have also come into their own to feature in a major role alongside a new race of life form discovered from the planet Nod, and the joining of these disparate spacefaring species has amazingly created a new society in which all of them coexist in relative peace. Together, they now look outwards to the greater universe beyond in search for even more civilizations and intelligences.

In their explorations, they come upon a colony where thousands of years before, their ancestors had arrived on the spaceship Enkidu carrying its precious cargo of sleeping passengers preparing to settle the planet. Instead of paradise though, the colonists found hostile conditions and hardship. Generations later, the descendants of a small cohort from the original crew of the Enkidu have still yet to make the planet completely habitable, but then that’s when the visitors arrive. They have come to help humanity’s colonies, or so they say, yet there’s more to them that meets the eye. But then, perhaps not all is as it seems with the colony either.

So, what made this a miss when the first book was such a hit? To be honest, I felt the series was already in decline with Children of Ruin, a sequel marred by uneven pacing and heavy exposition. Unfortunately, these issues have only gotten worse in Children of Memory. I felt the main plot dragged and was encumbered by over lengthy descriptions and too many meandering side discussions and other distractions. Ultimately, as much as I wanted to like this book, the story was made to feel unnecessarily complicated and difficult to follow at times.

Also more diluted in this installment was the “biopunk science” which put the first book on the map, especially with regards to the population biology and social organization aspect. The evolution of human culture took on a more central role, an intriguing topic in its own right, but just a little too off the track from what got me interested in the series in the first place. In as much as there is a main character, I was also not too impressed with Miranda. On the surface, the potential for this unusual character would appear to be limitless, but without spoiling anything, I suppose it shouldn’t have come as a shock that the character development might be on the weaker side.

Will there be more books after this? Well, seeing as the announcements of the sequels to Children of Time actually came as a surprise to me both times, I think it will be hard to say. But then, personally I saw little point in trying to improve or expand upon the already perfect, and we all know what they say about quitting while you’re ahead. I write all of this as someone who is a fan of Adrian Tchaikovsky, but as Children of Memory has proven to me, there’s little doubt that we are straying farther and farther away from everything I loved about the first book. If it does turn out we’ll get another sequel, I expect I’d probably be nervous instead of excited.

[Juraj · Rating 2 out of 5]

By far the worst book in the trilogy, playing at some intricate story about nature of consciousness and what differentiates sentient being from non-sentient - but we get that only at the end.

I didn't have any expectations for this book. I knew it was different from first two and not as popular but I didn't expect this.

I guessed what's going on the moment Liff met the "Witch". It's a simulation. :/ Admittedly, it was humorous that Tchaikovsky turned "that" character into a role like this but he also made her even more annoying than ever before. Allegedly she's not suppose to have feelings but disdain, anger and frustration were present in every single dialogue she had. So which is it? Because it's outright stated in the book that she no longer dabbles with emotions. And if she wasn't so full of herself this story could've been shorter.

It was so annoying to go through hundreds of pages of deliberately keeping the twist secret. Not knowing properly what's going on and why, jumping through realities/time periods. Don't get me wrong, I love a puzzle. Malazan is my favorite book series ever. But it needs to be done well. There need to be crumbs left on the ground (pun intended) for it to work. For me to return to previous chapters after twist is finally shown and have the "aha" moment, seeing the puzzle pieces spread throughout the book. The First Law did this brilliantly with Bayaz and Jezal. Here it's simultaneously completely obfuscated and banging your head on the wall with the solution. Which you probably already have guessed 100 pages in.

Setting is boring compared to previous books. It takes place on another world that humans with small h tried to colonize as last resort after Earth fell. There are no interesting aliens as focus of the story, although we are introduced to Corvids which are sentient ravens and our new allies. Although they would argue they are not sentient. And that nor are we. I enjoyed those few philosophizing pages.

It's a wild west mixed with fairy tale. Did not work for the book. At all. Main character from the planet Liff is 12 yo kid through whose eyes we see the world. And world makes no sense. It's explained why. It doesn't mean I liked it. It's a jumbled mix of various scenarios that lead nowhere.

I would really want to know how this story came to be. If Children was sold as trilogy and Tchaikovsky planned this story from the get go, if he had no idea what to write the third book about and this is how it ended, if it was originally a novella and he inflated it (as 120 pages long novella this would've worked so much better!), or if he just had an idea about witch tales and Groundhog Day and decided to put it into this world.

The series ends on huge disappointment. There were so many directions this series could've gone instead and the very last page of Ruin hinted at it. It's post-scarcity hard sci-fi about alliance between several sentient species and we got a fraking medieval village story with witches!

And two more things. What was the point of simulation always ending with Miranda at the gallows? If simulation wasn't hostile to her why did she always end up dead in the most gruesome spectacular way imaginable? It's not explained at all. "Simulation just doesn't work with hostile presence." That is until it does... by miraculously figuring out completely alien millions of years old simulation engine and giving characters "admin" privileges. All off screen, of course...

[Ben · Rating 1 out of 5]

Children of memory
I looked at a few other reviews before I decided on posting this, and the general consensus of the 3 stars and lower kind of lines up with mine. Although I don’t really understand why they would give it THAT many stars tbh.

Normally I would edit my notes and write a “somewhat” profanity free and grammar // spellcheck review, but I feel like this was such a colossus waste of my time that I’m just going to post my notes as is. I’m writing this outside with frozen fingers, at a temperature of -5C so, you can get a good feel of how much I hated this book. I really liked the first book, and I thought the second book was meh.. so, I was hoping so badly this one was going to improve the overall standing of the series. But it most certainly did not.
FYI massive spoilers ahead. They entire book gets dissected, don’t read this if you plan on reading the book, which I recommend you don’t anyway but: You’ve been warned, this ‘review’ is almost as badly written as the book is. (it’s also not really a review, but more me ranting, because I wanted this to be good)

My notes while reading:

“The first 100 pages or so are a cluster fuck of confusing, different timelines being hinted at, parallel maybe? Jumps backwards and forwards. Maybe even an artificial environment? Grandfathers disappearing, hints at inconsistencies in backstories. Brutal murders, different species being transformed into human form? Idk

It’s getting more and more erratic, the writing is getting terrible, time jumps back and forth, another alternative subset of time??

Different species are appearing as human, so Is the nok entity somehow replicating everyone out of some kind of alien pattern they picked up?!?! Is it all the “thing” from nok just talking to itself?

At this point I’m only reading cause I was invested in the original story, but Oh my god, this is shit.”

What the actual fuck, by the end we learn that as I speculated earlier everything is a simulation. And then we spend another 20 chapters in a cluster fuck of stuttering dialogue to find out, that NOT only was it a simulation, it was a simulation of something that never fucking happened. The whole world was made up.. by some advanced alien tech, and oh we almost get a clue of who what, or maybe a shadow of who or what made all of it…. But then FADE TO BLACK. Seriously? Like literally the only thing in this entire book that would’ve been an original spin on “the simulation” and you don’t put it in the book.

Oh and what about the thousands of “frozen” potential survivors in sleeping pods, (I swear this get never mentioned) if they ever even get decanted. Instead we focus in the remaining chapters discussing the merits of A.I. and if they’re “real” sentient beings.. with, and hold on to your fucking hats… an A.I. variant of a species that made a copy of a real life human. This “cloned” human got cloned again and got send to the planet, where the “device” made a copy of this cloned copy and inserted that copy into the simulation. The copy of the copy freaked out off-screen at this point and ate its cloned human body and disappeared into the ether.
We are talking now literally about a copy of a copy of a copy, that the reinserted back into the wait for, back into the “original” copy, because it’s the only thing/being/creature that has enough computing power to simulate this A.I. (GOOD luck wrapping your head around that one)
Anyways, CopyIV (which is also simultaneously CopyI) starts discussing the merits of sentient virtual “life” of people that are entirely simulated and if they should 3D print them real bodies and insert their fake virtual minds into them. While they’re actually people, not fake people, who are sort of background filling, nobody cares what happens to them still onboard a ark ship somewhere. And I kid you not, they are actually a very presence in the simulated world then they are in the “real” word. Cause the people on the planet feel like shit, guilty, and potentially scared for never unfreezing them. I swear how do you make shit like this up, I don’t mean that as a compliment either, this is objectively terrible writing.

The prose was so bad at times my eyes started to gloss over, there are multiple instances of a character talking to other characters, trying to convince them to take some sort of action, but they never do anything, SEVERAL instances.. (ofc it turns out that half the time it’s actually the same character, that forgot who they were, talking to themselves, which is an entirely different cluster fuck in retrospect) this repeats itself more and more with what looks later on in time, or sometimes earlier on in time. The chapters also deliberately lie to you, claiming it is the “NOW”.

No, this could have been an interesting concept, if executed properly. Instead we got a very badly executed story making a somewhat decent concept absolutely terrible. The desperation of trying to sound original oozes out of the pages. I mean the first book was a great story, that was written poorly, (the endless repetition of the exact same characters felt especially bad, while at the same time the story felt fascinating, but heavily diminished by jet another portia fabian and bianca, like really.. those names?) the second book was a terrible story that was written better, it was readable at least. But it was soooo boring, there was a limited repetition in names this time as far as I can recall, but it’s been a few years. I think there were several instances of paul again… but I can’t be sure. No the ONLY thing this book did right was original sounding names, that actually made sense..

I’d rate the first book 5/5.. the second book 3/5. And this one 1/5 and I’m being generous.. if I’d be honest it would be -3/5 tbh, there’s a lot of 4/5 and 5/5 star reviews that are honestly just people who enjoyed the first book too much, and therefor are giving this one too much credit for just being part of its large shadow.

[Walter · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve enjoyed every Adrian Tchaikovsky novel I’ve read so far, with Children of Time and Children of Ruin being standouts. So naturally, my expectations for this book were sky-high.
The first chapter? A spaceship! Real sci-fi! I was strapped in and ready for launch.
And then the book immediately pulled the eject handle and plummeted back to Earth. No rescue. No survivors.

I now understand what the book is trying to do. I really do. Unfortunately, understanding it did not make me enjoy it. For me, this felt less like reading a story and more like being handed a carefully labeled dataset and told to reflect.

I’ve settled on three stars for now, mostly because I suspect this might be a book that completely changes on a reread. Or completely doesn’t. It could end up a one-star or a four-star experience. Schrödinger’s rating!

This simply wasn’t my kind of book. If you loved it: genuinely, good for you. No sarcasm intended there. As for me, I’m going to take a shower and read something with characters who actually do things.

[Lindsay · Rating 5 out of 5]

The previous two books in this series are a hard act to follow, with the second one ending with an interstellar civilisation made up of uplifted spiders, uplifted octopuses, slightly modified humans, an AI based on an uplifted human and an alien organism capable of subsuming and copying other sentients. There was a hint of a future for this civilisation where embodiment in whichever way was a choice and sentient life is functionally immortal and infinitely variable.

So I was skeptical that the series had anything left to say or explore. But this is Adrian Tchaikovsky, and this form of existence raises all sorts of questions about what it is like to be a sentient in this sort of background culture. And what is sentience anyway?

Enter the ravens of Rourke and the human colony of Imir. The ravens are a new intelligence that the spider/octopus et al. culture have contacted and the first two ambassadors, Gothi and Gethli, have come aboard the Skipper (a spider-built spaceship) to participate in a mission to Imir. The mission is captained by an interlocutor (the copying organism from above) who is currently in the form of a human named Miranda. The story jumps around between the point of view of a colonist, a young human girl named Liff, and Miranda as she secretly observes the human colony, and our two (one?) raven pair as they investigate the profound mysteries of Imir.

Miranda's point of view is absorbing along with small details like the guilt she feels for her past actions as an interlocutor and because of the copied feelings of horror from her original that she experiences about her own existence. But her enthusiasm for novelty and adventure come through loud and clear as well, as well as her compassion for those around her. The reasoning through of the problem of Imir by Gothi and Gethli is also fascinating, as is their own thinking on the subject of sentience. And ultimately as it all comes to a head as to what's really happening, the conclusions that Miranda and the crew of the Skipper come to are profoundly human, even though nothing else about them is.

A wonderful book that's at least as good as the previous two.

[Algernon · Rating 4 out of 5]

We seek for every possibility of life and sentience, because the universe is vast and cold and mostly empty, and variance from that void is to be treasured.

Space: the final destination, the place where no spider, corvid or cephalopod has gone before!
And what a fantastic journey this destination has turned out to be!
Adventures in terraforming, alien biologies, weird intelligence patterns: Adrian Tchaikovsky uplifted his own career with this series, not his first, but deservedly his most popular.
Even if this third volume was the most problematic for me, with its broken timeline and relative lack of action, it is a fitting and challenging finale that pushed the limits of what we consider intelligence and evolution further than the already excellent previous two episodes achieved. My patience with the central mystery of the planet Imir was rewarded with the expected resolutions the author was aiming for.

It’s different, and difference is the only resource the universe is short of. So much of it is just empty sameness. Life is rare, and needs to be studied and admired and encouraged to be itself.

So, let’s backtrack a little and try to put a little order in the events from this third book. The catalyst of the series is given in the first volume as the spread of humanity to the stars, with the help of a fleet of terraforming spaceships, carrying technology and an ‘uplift’ virus that kickstarts and accelerates the evolutionary process of the target biosphere.
The first book presents a spider world and an AI program that copies the personality of Dr. Avrana Kern, the creator of the program. The second one introduces a water world with intelligent octopi, plus a completely alien entity that operates at micro-cellular level, evolved independently of Earth.
This third episode starts with one of the original terraforming ships, the Enkidu , one of the farthest flung Hail Maries launched in the last days of Earth’s first space age. Before Enkidu reaches its destination, it suffers catastrophic destruction of some of its modules, leaving it unable to fulfil its mission.
The planet the crew names Imir is completely barren. The captain decides to land only a small team of scientists, carrying precious soil and seeds and animal DNA, to try to establish a foothold on the planet before waking up the millions of colonists cryo-sleeping in the hold.

They were, after all, from a culture that had struggled out of the gravity well, out of need and want, and into a realm where they could go anywhere, with all the time in the universe had to offer. Curiosity was one of the few drivers still unsatisfied. It bred a certain complacency.
They were always surprised when things went wrong.

>>><<<>>><<<

The structure of the novel is complex and broken. Several storylines and narrators intersect with apparent disregard for the linear flow of time. On the planet Imir, the story is told by a teenage girl named Liff. She appears to remain the same age over a period of more than 200 years of the history of the central human settlement on Imir. She is also a direct witness of events that cover the whole period of terraforming efforts.

Some mastery over lifespan and time that would have let Liff know and remember the things she had been talking to Fabian about.
Who is this girl, and why is she important?

Searching for answers is not only the girl Liff, who is afraid she is going crazy, but also the crew of spiders, cephalopods and humans we met in the first two books. Aboard a shapeshifting spider-constructed ship are the software program known as Dr. Kern, the alien-human symbiote Miranda, the portid crew Portia, Fabian, Bianca, Viola and Paul the octopus. They are searching for other survivors of the original terraforming project, or for any form of intelligent life in the vastness of space.

We are the eye with which the universe beholds itself.

Before reaching Imir, the explorers pick up a couple of new examples of the wonders of evolution from the planet Rourke, another failed attempt to seed a new home for humanity. On Rourke, the only survivors the crew finds are corvids. So we should add these birds to the growing list of Adrian Tchaikovsky’s passion for biology. You can see why he has chosen ravens to uplift on Rourke:

.. notoriously bright birds, fiercely inquisitive, tool-users in a limited sort of way. Wide-ranging scavengers, always up for investigating something new to see if it could be eaten.

Two of these birds join the exploration crew: Gothi and Gethli. They will play a big role in the solving of the Liff mystery, since they are sent to operate independently on the new planet. They have specialized brains, another daring idea to be explored here: their brains have developed for specific tasks, like the mathematical and the graphic processors in a PC. Gothi collects and organizes data, while Gethli interprets and analyses it. It’s like they are two incomplete halves of a normal functioning brain.

Plainly something happened on Rourke, but it wasn’t the uplift procedure that resulted in Portia or Paul. It was just an Earth species interacting with an alien chemistry under harsh conditions, and finding some chance set of mutations that allowed it to survive.

Does she actually think, to the standards of a human? Or does she believe she does through past programming but in fact is nothing more than a very complicated difference engine? In the same way, do we think, co-dependent as we are?

Gethli is the corvid that asks the pertinent questions here. In this example he invites us to consider the very concept of artificial intelligence, a thorny subject in this year 2024 when every company and software developer wants to jump on the AI wagon.
The two corvids from Roarke are also tasked with a little humorous relief in their candid dialogues. The story really needs some lighter moments to compensate for the tragedy of a failing colony on Imir: too few resources, too few colonists to fight against entropy and against an unbalanced biosphere cycle.

We profess an inordinate fondness for beetles.

Because spiders eat the beetles that need eating, and that’s why you should never, ever, under any circumstances, kill a spider.

As a long-time fan of the author, who started my own journey with the Shadows of the Apt books, his fondness for spiders is becoming legendary. I’m glad this passion takes so many shapes in his books, and that it has been expanded to other species with this recent series.
I will try not to spoil the mystery of life on the planet Imir. So I will try to explain instead why I rate this whole Children of Earth series so high: it is a return to the science-fiction of big ideas and of concerns about humanity as a whole, its destiny to reach for the stars. The fact that it is also well written, scientifically daring and emotionally intense is a bonus.
I will close with what I think are the keys we need to unlock the mystery of the broken timelines and the impossible memories:

Sometimes tomorrow’s just a today that got lost.

The most basal part of her was like a great beast on a leash, hauling her forwards in its joyous need to investigate.

Knowledge and understanding is the crown atop the hierarchy of needs, the thing you can’t have enough of.

It is possible the author will return to the setting with a fourth book. The ending of this third one is open: the exploration of the universe will continue for this oddball crew of explorers.
If Adrian Tchaikovsky does it, count me in. Curiosity is also one of my top needs.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

How I imagine Adrian Tchaikovsky's publisher selling his books:

You, The Average Reader are strolling down a darkened street, when The Publisher, an unshaven, seedy looking fellow in a trenchcoat and battered fedora steps out from a shadowy doorway. He signals for your attention.

"Hey! You! Psst! You look like someone who can handle a bit of reading. You looking for some serious action?"

The Publisher pulls a copy of Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Dogs of War from the satchel he is holding and shoves it out towards you.

"Tchaikovsky. Pharmaceutical grade SF. All the action you could want. Strong stuff mate, hardback first edition.”

You make some excuses while you look around for assistance, claiming you have become jaded, need a break from more kinetic novels, etc. The Publisher nods in vigorous agreement, undeterred by your protests, and puts the novel away.

"Right you are, right you are my friend. I can tell you're a connoisseur. How about something to really get your imagination off, make you think some big thoughts about the universe and your place in it?"

The Publisher sidles closer, and opens the right side of his trenchcoat to reveal a copy of Children of Time.

“This is a real head trip this one. A consciousness expander. A little Watership Down, a bit Rats of Nimh but in space, you dig? Bit of action? Some very cool sequences of spiders evolving? Meditations on the nature of intelligence, inter-species cultural clashes… you’ll be spinning after one of these, my friend!”

You, The Average Reader , make some generic noises about not being fond of spiders. The Publisher is undeterred, and taps his nose knowingly.

"Alright, alright, I see ya, I see what you want. Maybe..." The Publisher glances around before opening the left side of his coat to reveal Children of Ruin "... your tastes run more to smart seafood?"

You wave The Publisher off, claiming to not be interested in talking animals, or smart animals in general. A flash of irritation crossed his face as he puts the book back in his coat. He nods to himself, then reaches behind his back, pulling out something he had stuffed down the back of his trousers. Carefuly, making sure there is no-one else around to see it, he turns a book in the dim streetlight, until you can make out the title: Children of Memory.

“OK, this is the special stuff I keep for veterans like yourself. Real top-shelf, 150-proof, blow-your-socks-off shit. Minimal talking animals. Maximal thinkage. The nature of consciousness. The multiplicity of the self. Questioning the very foundations of what it is to be a cogniscent being!”

You, the Average Reader, look down at the shiny paperback in the Publisher’s hands. It looks great. Cool cover art. Not too thick, but no emaciated novella either. At the back of your mind a tickle starts, the memory of how all Tchaikovsky’s other books have made you feel, that mixture of excitement, anticipation, and awe at his audacious imagination. You speak.

“How much?”

The Publisher breaks into a gap-toothed grin, knowing both a sale and an addict when he sees them.

“For you? RRP is £9.99, but you have an Aussie accent, so that will be $24.90. Cash or Paywave?”

***

P.S: Actual review: There are few SF writers as consistently good as Adrian Tchaikovsky.

Iain M. Banks comes to mind, as does Adam Roberts, but it's an elite field, that of authors who smash out book after brilliant book, each of them entertaining, thoughtful and beautifully written.

As you've probably guessed, I liked Children of Memory. It's a solid follow up to the brilliant Children of Time (one of the best SF works of this century IMHO) and the damn fine novel Children of Ruin.

It's a little more slow-moving that either of the two others in the series, but it's worth it as the story builds and Tchaikovsky develops the ideas that underpin this thinky novel that asks some very interesting questions about sentience, personhood and intelligence.


P.S.S: I bought all the novels mentioned here, and loved every single one. Adrian's publisher has me hooked.


Four talking crows out of five.

[Peter Baran · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sadly, the third of Tchaikovsky's "Children Of Time" series is the weakest. The first one was a real crossover hit, its juxtaposition of dying humanity with the accelerated growth of a sentient spider species really worked, particularly with its last act rapprochement between the two. The second book Children Of Ruin initially appeared to repeat the trick with Octopuses, but then also a shifted into non-earthling species by considering a microscopic species, a sort of hive mind virus, that could take over other beings. That had a broad enough canvas to play with, but also tipped nicely into horror - mainly the tiny species' excitement for assimilation is said to be "going on an adventure". Children Of Memory again looks at adding a new type of sentience, but in its conversation between the species of the previous book and an attempt at something extremely alien falls apart.

The main problem I had was with its structure. Like previous books, it flip-flopped between two distinct time streams. However, because the "present" time stream appears to involve what seems to be time loops and characters that potentially should be dead, the mystery in the story gets a little lost. And whilst I don't need huge stakes for a book to work, here the stakes were increasingly unclear. There is still plenty of good stuff here, Tchaikovsky's new earth creature with sentience is crows and he plays an interesting philosophical game to see whether or not the uplifted birds are truly sentient or just mimicing (and what that difference might mean). But the central storyline just didn't hang together for me. I could see the poignancy he was aiming at, and it is worth reminding readers that this is a universe full of death, but the way he discusses the idea of monolithic memory made flesh didn't hang together.

[Gyalten Lekden · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am continually impressed with Tchaikovsky’s ability to combine expansive storytelling, intricate and complicated characters, and countless ideas and social commentaries. Maybe even more impressive is how he builds out series so that each installment refuses to simply be a different version of what came before, but instead push the boundaries of the world he has created and find something new to make out of the pieces he has strewn about, picking apart his meticulous chaos to always bring the reader somewhere new without leaving some of the comforts of familiarity behind.

In this novel he starts with the epic sci-fi scope that has been a hallmark of this series, but it quickly adopts some really exciting and engaging fantasy sentimentalities, and as we move across perspectives and timeframes there is a beautiful fusion of vast interstellar space opera and the colonial village afraid of monsters in the woods. The fantasy vibes are persistent and bring a whole new dimension to the series, after some of the really strong horror vibes of the previous book. And if he had stopped there it would have been enough. But Tchaikovsky was just getting started.

It is very clearly his intent for the reader to start scratching their head and saying, “Wait, what?” at a certain point in the novel. Iterations of ideas start multiplying, collapsing, and overlaying one another, and the readers’ grasp on reality weakens. It is wonderful, because throughout it you continue to have wonderful character exploration and growth and it never feels like Tchaikovsky has lost control of the plot; it always feels like the story is in good hands, which lets you follow it to the wild, trippy, through-the-looking-glass places that it takes you. And in the middle of all that Tchaikovsky wants to explore some important themes. Firstly, as is often in his work, he wants to understand humanity, and how the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves can either be what save us or damn us, depending on which stories we focus on. When we labor under false deities such as the belief that might makes right, or that greed and self-preservation should be prioritized over helping others and communalism, well, things don’t always have fairy tale endings. And yet he is forcing us to ask more than that in this story. He is exploring ideas of sentience, of personhood, of experience, and of the very bounds of reality. It is a bunch of heavy and deeply philosophical questions and the ways they are explored feels genuine and meaningful, not trite or performative.

Every one of the books in this series has expanded the lexicon we have to understand ourselves. While the characters are often not human they are focused on the most critical parts of humanity, namely what it means to live in relationship with others. This story adopts new modes of story-telling form the previous two novels, including not just fantasy but also tipsy-turvy mind-buggery, and it all feels coherent and was an enormously fun ride.

(Rounded from 4.5)

[K.J. Charles]

A third instalment for this series about collapsed civilisations, new non-human societies, and making connections across boundaries of thought, culture, and species. AKA the one with the giant spiders.

This one focuses more on the assimilatory intelligence from Nod that was the Big Bad in most of the last book, and mostly takes place on a semi terraformed planet with people struggling for survival. As very often with this author, it makes sense, then it doesn't, then all the fractured pieces resolve into a completely different picture.

I will admit to not finding this quite as brilliant as the other two, in large part because it wasn't directly confronting the very different minds of the various intelligent species, but rather focusing on human people. Still hugely readable and absorbing.

[Justin Sarginson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is again another incredibly original and succinct science fiction opus from Adrian Tchaikovsky. Subtly difference from previous books, I found this book possessed an increased challenged of perspective and knowledge from a variety of characters contained within, to really challenge the reader to think and ponder.

Fortunate to read this early via NetGalley, this is a joyous ride into discovery and timelines. Not for the faint heartened, but well worth the journey, as are all of Adrian Tchaikovsky's books. Strong, satisfactory and very, very good.

[Kaora · Rating 5 out of 5]

That was unexpected. A bit haunting and sad but really beautiful. All 3 of these books really over delivered on my expectations.

However, I was confused for the first 70% of the book, so I did struggle for a while, but then as the author slowly started to reveal things, I couldn't put it down.

[Muriel (The Purple Bookwyrm) · Rating 3 out of 5]

More accurate rating: 5.5/10.

The short of it:
Wow. That was... so bloody disappointing and not good. 😓

The general of it:
Children of Memory is a very weak conclusion to the Children of Time trilogy – sadly. The prose was about the same as it was in books one and two, but the pacing was off, and the structure...! My oh my the structure of this tale was needlessly convoluted, and all to prop-up a poorly executed Shyamalan-esque plot twist and relatively weak, too-abstract theming centred on the nature of reality and sentience. Sentience was a theme in books 1 & 2, but it was more grounded there and paired with the oh so delicious speculative evolutionary biology of the Portiids and Octopuses. Speaking of which... that element was very much fobbed in when it came to the brand new corvid uplifted species (and oof was that upsetting to this bird nerd). The character work was weaker overall, mostly because pride of place was given to one (too alien) character at the expense of all others. Once the plot twist was delivered, I was done with this book. So. Done. And this coming from freaking Children of Time, a novel I consider an all-time science-fiction favourite. Hot dayum indeed.

I don't know what happened, but it just wasn't up to par. This right here is exactly why I've grown leery of series that get "surprise additions", or that keep expanding, and expanding, without any real purpose. Perhaps there was undue pressure to publish at play here... Whatever the case may be, I am sad to say I wouldn't bother with this one if you haven't read it already.

The specifics of it:
1) I thought the Corvids were awful. Simply awful. The repeated suggestion they didn't truly think, or that they weren't truly sentient, compared to freaking invertebrates, was borderline insulting to me as a bird lover and someone who has loved and lived with a bird (the dedication to Irene Pepperberg and Alex felt all the more puzzling as a result). They didn't feel like actual corvids. This whole thing with their minds being divided between mated pairs just... Oh come the frick on! Using the words neurodivergent and neurotypical in reference to all of that felt way, waaaaay off as well... and all the more surprising given the beautiful, empathetic portrayal of severe clinical depression I saw in Elder Race! I guess it could've been cute to see the little nod to Hugin and Munin from Norse mythology, but since nothing about the Corvids worked for me, I just found it aggravating. What a wasted opportunity!

2) Speculative evolution was laid by the wayside in more than one way: I also didn't like the fact the Nodan Slime Mould "person" was the main character of book three. I have a hard enough time relating to characters as it is... but here? Hoo boy did I not care about this "thing", much less its sympathy for freaking simulations!

3) What the hell was that plotline? How is anyone supposed to feel sympathy for "en-minding" and embodying the freaking, glorified OC of an alien computer faffing about on a dead planet?! All advocated by, again, an alien "personality parasite". Give me a freaking break! Look, maybe that shit will become relevant, somehow, ten thousand years into the future when we've cracked the singularity (just kidding, humans won't last that long ha) and souls can just be copy-pasted and transferred via Bluetooth. But right now? Nope. So I did not give a fuck. Those things were not people, you cannot make me care about fan-fic dreamt up by a computer. It'd by like making a case for taking random NPCs from a human's dreaming brain and arguing for their right to a fleshed existence. Come on now. I like trippy but this was just bloody absurd.

4) And so the whole "Ermagerd are we ALL living in a simulation?!" 😱 thing got old really fast... The discussion about sentience that was interwoven with it felt too convoluted, and it all just tasted of "intellectual masturbation" to me, not genuine depth. 🤷‍♀️

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was thoroughly discombobulated for the majority of my reading experience with this book. That was the way it was supposed to be, of course, so minor spoilers for that I guess? I don't think that's actually spoilers, but some people would probably think it is. Anyway, I didn't anticipate that level of purposeful fuckery on behalf of Adrian Tchaikovsky, and the slow creep of the feeling that something was not right was simultaneously unpleasant and intriguing.

This is the third (and final??) book in Tchaikovsky's Children of Time series, and this one breaks the mold a little. Books one and two followed different types of creatures as they developed sapience and civilization (spiders and octopuses, mainly), and how meetings with other type of sapient creatures in the galaxy created conflict and change in all parties involved. In this one all those parties are basically galactic co-workers, and they have traveled to another planet that was supposed to have been terraformed by a dying Earth and have found a small colony of surviving humans. For a reason we don't learn until later, they infiltrate the colony instead of announcing themselves, and that's when things start to get weird.

I was not as inherently fascinated by this premise as I was with the first two books. The scope is much smaller, so maybe that's part of it. The ending of the book was absolutely great, so that helps to put the rest of the book in context after the fact, but getting there is a bit of a process mentally. My favorite part of the book was of course the pair of talking genius Corvids they pick up who are somehow both chaos and order incarnate, and who are problem solving machines (in the literal, and possibly metaphorical sense, still up for debate apparently). They reminded me why I loved this series in the first place, and that's Tchaikovsky's creative imagination.

Now that this series is finally completed (??), I think it's time I finally start his newest space opera series, which I've been waiting on until it was several books deep. Probably won't be until later this year or early next year. I also want to get to more of his standalones, and finally try some of his fantasy! Too many books in the world, and he's too prolific! World's tiniest violin.