«Children of Time», tercera parte de la serie de Adrian Tchaikovsky es una novela algo distinta de las dos anteriores.

Avanzamos en el tiempo con respecto a la segunda entrega en una especie de retelling con un resultado menos space opera y un final súper interesante.

I absolutely loved the first book in this series, Children of Time. - one of my favourite reads ever. Though I stil; enjoyed it, I was less taken by the second book, which seemed to be a bit of a rehash, just with octopi in place of spiders.
At first glance, it felt like this book was going to be more of the same, this time with ravens. But actually, the birds play an interesting but actually relatively small role in the plot. The central focus is on a human settlement, separate from the ones we've seen in earlier installments, where we're given the full history and it quickly becomes clear that something very strange is going on.
For me, this book fell somewhere between the first and second in terms of how much I enjoyed it. It was an interesting plot that kept me guessing and got me thinking in equal measure.

This was a really great finale to the trilogy although my favourite novel from the series is still Children of Time, However, everything that Adrian Tchaikovsky writes is engaging and thrilling. Whenever I pick up one of his novels its always a really well thought out and interesting sci-fi read.

To fully understand parts of this book, you really need to have read the previous two books, or else some parts will make little sense or just fall flat. Highly recommend you read them if you haven't!

Children of Memory is a different beast from the previous two books. Primarily set on the planet Imir, where a fragile colony has managed to survive after fleeing Earth to establish a new outpost, the inhabitants are living a life where much technological knowledge has been lost.

When strangers appear, they start to realise something is not as it seems in this colony where everyone knows everyone else. These strangers process new technologies lost to the colony, but that doesn't help them much when they start losing track of time and memories. Imir's history is wrong.

The characters you meet pull you in from the get-go. There are some returning characters from the previous books, but some new ones too, which really add some delight and help ground the series in the closing chapter. It's hard to explain things without spoilers truly, and I'd really like to avoid that where possible because it's all mind-blowing. A lot of the time, I don't mind spoilers, but I'd have been pretty damn annoyed if I didn't get to experience the second half of this book knowing anything about what was going on.

Children of Memory is a book of two halves. The first half, you spend your time wondering what is going on, as you get to know the new characters and the Imir colony. The second half, it just wow. The end sequence is incredible - just pure sci-fi madness that brings the whole book together as things start to click into place, chapters in the first half suddenly make a lot of sense, and you're just blown away by what has happened.

This, right here, was quite possibly my favourite instalment of the series. I couldn't stop reading as the end came within sight, and I'm pretty sure I said, "oh damn" a few times out loud.

Tchaikovsky's work is consistently excellent and his Children of Time series is no exception. The themes of sentience and what constitutes life value are thoroughly canvassed in the first two volumes, so you could be forgiven for thinking there wasn’t much more to say on the subject, but it’s Tchaikovsky so of course there’s more entertaining and thought provoking discourse to be had. Highly recommend this entire series.

Read courtesy of NetGalley.

What a remarkably inventive book. It feels like it could have benefitted from being slightly condensed, perhaps, but all the same, the ideas Tchaikovsky plays with here, the weirdness of the world, the propulsive and fun readability. Once I was about a quarter in, I couldn't put it down.

(Still not as awesome as Children of Time, but a definitely fun addition to the series.)

I loved the early section of the book which quickly drew me in. Liff is a delightful and sympathetic character, who is just at the age when questioning the status quo is what she should be doing. Unfortunately, this isn’t a society where any form of dissent is welcomed, particularly where her uncle is concerned. Sometimes, this merely causes a bit of family tension, other times her questions are met with blows and punishment. Time is highly mutable in this tale and we revisit key events with very different outcomes.

I enjoyed once more meeting Kern, Portia, Paul and Miranda in their current iterations as they grapple with the puzzle that lies at the heart of the colony. But about of the third of the way through, the pace stuttered. Obviously in a book dealing with time loops, there is a degree of repetition. But I did feel that there were just too many dialogues between the ravens that essentially ended up with them being stumped. And while their back and forth was initially amusing, by the final section I frankly hoped that someone in the colony would shoot the wretched birds and save me from yet another conversation between them.

Fortunately, Liff’s predicament and Miranda’s quirky character kept me turning the pages, along with the examination of memory, guilt and the role of outsiders within a closed society, all of which were nested within the story. The pace once more picked up again in the final section as Tchaikovsky drew all the elements together. I thoroughly enjoyed the ending, which left me moved. I don’t recommend you tuck into this one if you haven’t read at least one of the previous books in the series. Besides, Children of Time is definitely a treat if you haven’t yet had the pleasure. And while in my opinion, neither of the subsequent books in the series quite reach the same heights, both are interesting and thought-provoking reads. While I obtained an arc of Children of Memory from the publishers via Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own.
8/10

This is the third in the series, and you do need to have read the previous instalments or a lot of the world building details don't make sense. In the first two books, spiders and octopi have been "uplifted" and evolved, and here the different species are working together to help a lone colony of humans to survive on a distant planet. It is very much more insular, focusing on the difficulties of the colonists and their seemingly inevitable fall into xenophobia and paranoia as resources become scarce. It seems to reflect the politics of our time and be a little less optimistic than the previous books, but it was still a fascinating read. It is much more complex, playing with time and story, but it rewards careful reading. If you like other serious Adrian Tchaikovsky books, and social/ hard sci-fi like Neal Stephenson, you will like this.

I don't think Adrian Tchaikovsky can write a bad, bland or boring book. I read a lot of them and was always blown away but the complexity, the world building, and how he deals with serious topics making me reflect on them.
This is no exception, the third book in the Children of Time series, as it's mind blowing and a sort of trip I didn't want to end.
Great storytelling and world building.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

“Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.”
Brilliant. Absolutely Brilliant.

This, the third in the Children Of Time series, continues Tchaikovsky’s spectacular riffing on real-world mythologies in a phenomenally well-realised alternative universe.
The world-building he established in the first two novels is expanded upon with all the imaginative detail we’ve come to expect, and there are yet more big ideas and philosophical conundrums to be chewed over, all delivered with wit and intelligence and a real feeling of joy in the sheer act of storytelling.

Where Children of Time played with ideas of creation myths and our relationship to a god or gods, and Children of Ruin spun the Paradise Lost archetypes into a genuinely chilling space horror story, Children of Memory uses the myth of Ragnarok and the cycle of destruction and renewal to take a sideways look at the rise of fascism and the psychological toll of conflict on the survivors returning to their peacetime environments.

For such a prolific writer, Tchaikovsky never just phones it in, and his work is going from strength to strength. Not just a great fantasy writer, one of the most exciting writers working today.

If you’ve yet to crack the spine on an Adrian Tchaikovsky novel, now is the time to do it. There are whole worlds waiting for you to explore.

Adrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Memory is the third in his ambitious, hard-SF series that began with Children of Time and continued with Children of Ruin. I had a mixed experience with the first two books - I struggled with the amount of evolutionary biology that Tchaikovsky included, especially in Children of Time, but loved the horror elements - ancient AIs, abandoned spaceships and invading consciousnesses - that were more prominent in Children of Ruin. Children of Memory sits somewhere between the two. It's set on another planet that was targeted by human terraformers as they sought out new worlds to live on after the destruction of Earth. This planet, Imir, has not fared very well - the small human population has struggled to set up a functioning eco-system, and they live at a subsistence level. Our main protagonist is a teenage girl called Liff, who encounters Miranda, a woman who claims to have come from one of the 'out-farms' that encircle the main settlement on Imir, but who seems to originate from a much more distant place. As Liff tries to work out Miranda's secret, she also encounters the Witch, a powerful woman who is determined to seek out Miranda. This plot-line was compelling (and I loved the final twist), but I was frustrated by the more cerebral material in this novel, especially when Tchaikovsky invents yet another Earth species that has followed a different evolutionary pathway - this time, birds. This felt unnecessary, and the bird chapters were so intensely annoying that I had to skim them. I would have preferred to be immersed in Liff and Miranda's story. I guess I have to conclude that I'm not the right audience for the harder SF elements of Tchaikovsky's work, even though I've enjoyed much of this wildly intelligent and original series.

We now get ot the latest book in the Children of Time series. We have explored how life evolves and becomes advanced; we have explored how life can be evolve in different ways of thinking and evolution plus the power of communication. In the next instalment Adrian Tchaikovsky in the rather magnificent Children of Memory gets the reader to explore an even bigger subject – what exactly is intelligent life? This is a story of mysteries and big questions where the characters have to push themselves to their limits and for the reader that all important feeling of our minds being ever so slightly widened.

It is however a little bit of a strange book to review…

Children of Memory is set many years (possibly centuries) after the events of Children of Ruin. We have again our advanced intelligent giant spider species known as the Portiids but we also now have our enhanced Humans who have a close bond with the Portiids; our enhanced Octopus civilisation and for the first time in a major role the mysterious near immortal alien life form from the planet Nod which can absorb memories and personalities and now has also embraced the key aspect of this multi-species society -to explore the universe and hope for new life to be discovered.

Many millennia earlier a spaceship containing thousands of sleeping passengers arrived at a world that a terraforming technology was preparing for them. The colony ship Enkidu has only just survived this incredible journey with a price for the ship and its precious cargo. The Captain and crew though find the terraforming has not been fully successful the planet is only just habitable and so Captain Holt and his crew agree to create a small settlement to do the hard work to prepare the world for the rest of the crew. Generations late the settlement known as Landfall has grown but the full colony is not yet awake. A young teenager named Liff one of Captain Holt’s descendants is puzzled by her new teacher Miranda who is inquisitive and encourages discovery; she is starting to see Captain Holt’s ghost and a witch is apparently in the woods. The secrets of Imir may finally be about to be exposed.

Now this is a great time if you’re just keen to know if this is a great book that I can tell you it’s actually a brilliant book building on top of what has come before and has quite a few interesting new paths for various characters to create a hugely impressive tale.



Ok for some of you may want a little bit more…

Ready?

As with the other books Tchaikovsky takes a familiar SF idea as one core story strand. Here it’s a forgotten space colony in trouble on the planet they arrived at and then crossing their path the multi-species crew of the Portiid ship Skipper who are delighted to find ancient Humans but then trying to work out exactly what is going on this planet. It’s a very interesting mystery as the people of Imir have slightly regressed to a low tech agricultural society with no chance of ever leaving Imir on their own power as their society just is not big enough to grow very fast. The crew of the Skipper are though aware they could create a cultural earthquake by first contact have to slowly infiltrate the human settlement – who will never have dreamed of large kind sentient technologically spiders, Octopods and more. This sets up an interesting perspective for the reader as we know that the Skipper crew are good intentioned but they’re facing suspicious and scared humans who do not know that they’re no longer alone. How do you do that? What dangers are our aliens facing? This is a fairly tense world of a group of humans very wary of strangers who actually now have strangers hiding in plain sight alongside them. The more we find out we ourselves start to realise how more advanced our Portiid civilisation has grown even more advanced and also on this planet they’re ina huge amount of danger.

Into this we have two species to add to our tale. An unusual character is Miranda – the Nod lifeform in humanoid form who has recently taken on board the willing persona of a human explorer who herself has gone off to do other things. It’s the first time the Nod lifeform has had more open responsibility in a crew and for the first time taking the lead on trying to work out how to help the people of Landfall. The crew of the Skipper also have a new recently discovered uplifted species being allowed on board and are being assessed. A large Covid species that has developed out of another terraforming expedition that have developed the uplift too. But in this case the Covid are a paired species. One with fantastic recall skills and the other capable of analysis and no memory. The pair we meet are named Gothi/Gethi and they’re fascinating – very curious, able to break up and then re-assemble technology (as with earth Covids they’re very clever with tools but to a greater scale) but the jury is out whether this is sentience or just a very smart animal species. Now we as the rest of the crew get to make our minds up.

For me as with Children of Ruin there is a running theme throughout the tale of what do we recognise as life? Is Miranda actually Miranda; a copy or something very old with a new face or a new entity? Are Gothi/Gethi actually smart? We also see again the return of the AI that was once a human the matriarchal no-nonsense Dr Avrana Karn these days more a ship AI but she still thinks of herself as the single human she was at the dawn of this age’s history. Is she alive? The expedition to save the settlers helps explore this theme in many unexpected ways. We as readers are asked to consider the issue of life itself from a very different angle to the ways explored in the series so far and I had the great pleasure of suddenly going ‘ooooh’. This is science fiction that will make you think and then make you have a look at yourself and the world around you just a little bit more differently.

And that’s as far as I can take it with you gentle reader. I absolutely loved Children of Memory it tells a fascinating story with unusual characters but also has its own discussion with the reader. The final acts of the book are wondrous, strange, and just a little unsettling as we consider where we as human beings fit into this narrative and there are no easy answers. Take all three books together now and we have a very intelligent, varied themes that have tackled some of the big biological questions of our age and pushed the readers out of comfort zones in the process. When you read it I will be fascinated to know what you think.

Children of Time has sat on my shelf for a while. When I was given the chance to review Children of Memory, I knew the time had come to immerse myself in this trilogy – and what a ride it is!

Children of Memory is pushed as being either the third book in the series, or one that can be your introduction to this world. Given the complexities and developments that happen in the first two novels, I’m not certain how much will make sense if this is your first foray into this world. Spiders, octopuses, birds, AI’s and a mutating parasite posing as a human might be a little much if you don’t know how they got that.

That being said, the entire trilogy is well worth a read. It’s hard science-fiction: there’s a lot of scientific jargon added in. While some of that went over my head, Tchaikovsky has a way with words that means it never detracts from the reading experience. The science never disrupts the flow; it only adds layers into this complex world. Still, not for the faint-hearted who want an easy science-fiction read.

This review won’t be a rehash of the plot. But I will say it’s a complicated twist of time and fate. There was a point around mid-way where I began to get confused about what was going on. But, true to form, Tchaikovsky brings all these plot points together in a way that left me unable to put the book down. You need your brain switched on for this book, but it’s worth every second.

Like the two prior instalments, it’s a dual narration: one inhabitant of the world; one visitor. It feels more contained, however, possibly due to nearly all the characters having a human form, therefore lacking the time (and words) spent trying to establish communication like before.

Perhaps because of this, I felt there was more connection to the characters this time around. More emotion. I’ve enjoyed all of the narrators up until now, yet there was something personal this time around. While it was still a world at stake, we followed individuals more closely, creating more empathy for the characters.

I loved Children of Memory, and am glad to have read the series. Tchaikovsky creates these phenomenal premises and ideas in such a way you can’t help but accept what is happening. I’ve been a fan of his writing for a while and this trilogy proved why. Not many authors can send me down a rabbit hole with their plot and yet keep me gripped with every word.

While the book isn’t short, I was unable to put it down and got through it relatively quickly. When you’re that absorbed in a story, it’s hard not to.

If you’re looking for your next science-fiction adventure, or ready to finish off an epic trilogy, I can’t recommend Children of Memory enough. It is a literal out-of-this-world novel and takes you on a heck of a journey.

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 been 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 mincing (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.

My thanks to Pan Macmillan/Tor for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Children of Memory’ by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

This is the third book in his award winning epic space opera series, the Children of Time. Tchaikovsky opens with a very handy ‘What Has Gone Before’ followed by a Dramatis Personae. I so appreciated it as it set the scene for what was to come and helped me keep track of who was who.

Given the epic nature of the plot it is quite hard to adequately summarise. In brief terms: following the failure of Earth, a number of arkships were sent out to establish new colonies. The spaceship Enkidu, captained by Heorest Holt, has arrived with its precious human cargo at a suitable planet, named Imir. Generations later a fragile colony has managed to survive on Imir. Yet life is tough and much technological knowledge has been lost.

Strangers arrive on Imir in possession of knowledge and new technology. In actuality they have come from the stars seeking to assist humanity’s lost colonies. They have to keep a low profile as the colonists live in fear of unknown enemies. I won’t say more in order to avoid spoilers though I will say the situation become quite complicated and eventually dangerous.

An important point of contact for the newcomers among the colonists is an imaginative child, named Liff. She serves as one of the point of view characters. Other points of view are provided by new as well as recurring characters from the earlier books including humans, aliens and AI.

I didn’t think I could love this series more until I met Gothi and Gethli, members of an alien species of crows - the Corvids. These join the series other alien species of evolved Portiid spiders and octopi.

Adrian Tchaikovsky is my favourite writer of modern science fiction. His world (or rather galaxy) building is breathtaking, his themes complex and thought provoking, his characters well realised and always relatable. Alongside the science and adventure there is always a degree of wit.

Overall, I highly recommend ‘Children of Memory’ along with the previous two in this outstanding science fiction series.

To be completely honesy, I've struggled to write this review. I don't think I have the words to express how immense this book is. This is a perfectly fitting end to the trilogy, wrapping the interlocking stories perfectly. The twists and turns, the skipping through time, all has the required disorienting effect, leaving you guessing right to the end. It transports you to a world that encompasses you, and simultaneously makes you feel very small in the universal scheme of things. I must have said 'wow' at least a dozen times, and finished the book with a satisfaction I haven't experienced with a book in a long time. Tchaikovsky fans will not be disappointed. 5*"

Children of Memory is another accomplished entrant into Tchaikovsky's Children of Time series - though I highly recommend NOT reading this unless you have read the prior two books.

Here we are reminded of Earth's failure as we spend some time with scientists on an ark ship, heading towards a planet they hope has been terraformed to support human life. Generations later, we see there's a colony barely holding onto life, yet living all the same. A young girl, Liff, becomes our main viewpoint character, planet-side. Elsewhere, some of our spider, Humans and octopi friends from previous books get drawn into the story - and start asking questions about what they see...

This is an interesting, occasionally confusing (by design, so persevere) read, and as always with Tchaikovsky, the kind of SF that really likes to make you think.

Plus, it has crows! Intelligent - probably? - crows!

In this series, I do sometimes find myself wishing for a more hopeful interpretation of what might happen to the fleeing humans from Earth, but nonetheless, the ending was hopeful in its own way (myself hoping all of that was vague enough to not be a spoiler).

Tchaikovsky is one of my favourite SF writers of today, so I'd be delighted if there were any more 'Children of' books to come!

3.5 stars

CHILDREN OF MEMORY is the third book in a series that, in a nutshell, is "people tried to terraform, it didn't go as they expected and now, centuries on, more people are coming to the planet and have to deal with the botched terraform." Where CHILDREN OF TIME is about spiders and CHILDREN OF RUIN octopuses, this book is a little less obvious. There are crows, but also (it appears) humans just trying to eek it out on a planet that is not meant for them.

I really liked the focus on the declining colony, the idea that they'd come all this way to escape this same thing but then it happened. Lots of small things stacking up and propagating. It gave the book a chance to explore "us vs them" mentality that comes from fear in an ultimately unhelpful attempt to survive by retreating inwards.

Like other books in this series, CHILDREN OF MEMORY takes place over several time frames. There were two main ones, so far as I could tell, and then a few "much further back/explanation" time frames. I was able to keep it all straight until about halfway through, when some events happened and seeming inconsistencies cropping up that completely threw me. At this point, I did entertain DNF'ing after completely failing to understand a section. However, I had a suspicion about what was causing it all, so I simply assumed that was true as it let me at least feel like I wasn't entirely lost, and kept reading. (I was correct in the end.)

I'm glad I did keep going (I like feeling vindicated in my guesses) but I also wish I hadn't had to make that choice, that the transition when the "things are odd here" becomes really obvious, had been eased in a bit. I felt at that point like I must have missed something very big.

The book begins with a brief recap of the previous books, introducing the main characters, which was very helpful for following who was who and the references to events that had come before.

I first discovered Adrian Tchaikovsky with the first book in this series, Children of Time, a novel which rightly won some of the top sci-fi awards going. Now onto its third instalment, Tchaikovsky continues to deliver incredible stories, weird and wonderful new worlds and compelling characters, all built upon the foundation of some brilliant concepts. It baffles me how he continues to write so prolifically while still maintaining such a high level of quality.

Rather than going over the same ground as the two previous novels, Tchaikovsky develops his world further, darting off towards new horizons while faithfully developing the themes of the previous stories.

There is a lot of mystery to this book, to be worked out as you go along. The focus on memory points to the fragility and trauma of the past as characters lose their sense of what is real and what has actually happened to bring them to where they are now.

It's a moving novel which will keep you guessing the whole way through. I really hope Tchaikovsky doesn't stop here with this series.

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.