Children of Ruin

Paperback, 592 pages

English language

Published July 28, 2020 by Pan Macmillan.

ISBN:
978-1-5098-6585-7
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4 stars (132 reviews)

The astonishing sequel to Children of Time, the award-winning novel of humanity’s battle for survival on a terraformed planet.

Thousands of years ago, Earth’s terraforming program took to the stars. On the world they called Nod, scientists discovered alien life — but it was their mission to overwrite it with the memory of Earth. Then humanity’s great empire fell, and the program’s decisions were lost to time.

Aeons later, humanity and its new spider allies detected fragmentary radio signals between the stars. They dispatched an exploration vessel, hoping to find cousins from old Earth.

But those ancient terraformers woke something on Nod better left undisturbed.

6 editions

Review of 'Children of Ruin' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I expected a straightforward continuation of what started in Children of Time and I would've been content with just that. But this time, the story took on a darker tone with even some elements of horror. There's still some levity but mostly at the beginning and the end, which fits those parts well.

If there's anything I can criticize it's the pacing; the book starts at breakneck speeds but the middle part is plodding. The finale, while extremely satisfying, compresses a lot of plot onto just a few pages that could easily have been their own chapters when filling in all the details. I would have gladly swapped two of the slow chapters for two more chapters of finale.

But I'm guessing a lot of these details are revealed in the third part of the series, so I'm looking forward to that.

Children of Ruin

3 stars

This is the sequel to Children of Memory. It's got some similar set up to the first book, in that it's got a dual perspective (historical development of Nod and Damascus, and then current time trip there with characters from the first book) and it's got some uplifted non-human creatures (octopuses!!). However, I think this book also has a huge new horror element to it that the first book didn't have that it pulls off very successfully and creepily.

This book suffers a little bit from second book syndrome in that the first book felt much more tightly crafted and the ending resonated in a satisfyingly foreshadowed way. Book two is doing a few too many similar things, and it doesn't quite all come together in the same way. I think for a book two of a (presumed?) trilogy, I was hoping for more indication of some larger planned arc …

Imaginative scifi at it's best

5 stars

Tchaikovsky's Children Of Series focuses on the lifeforms left behind by mankind's self-destruction. The sentient spiders from Children of Time are back, and are exploring a solar system caught in a civil war. One of science fiction's strengths is being able to imagine other beings, and Tchaikovsky's depictions of their life and thoughts are excellent here as well.

A worthy sequel to Children of Time

4 stars

The alien development in Children of Ruin wasn't quite as good as the Portid chapters of "Children of Time", but the overall pacing of the book was much better with no boring human chapters to break up the palp-quivering goodness of the Portid and Cephalopod chapters. The ending of the book, despite sharing a similar flavor to the first book, still hits just as hard. These-of-We are looking forward to going on another adventure with the third book.

A Phenomenal Sequel

5 stars

What a great book. In my last update, I mentioned not being surprised about where the story was at that point, but almost immediately after writing that the story took a wild turn that I didn't see coming at all. The last half of the book took so many twists and turns, making for some very exciting reading. The past couple of days I had a hard time using my free time for anything other than reading this book, it was that captivating.

Children of Ruin builds off its predecessor, Children of Time, and takes the saga to new heights. I can't wait to dive into the final book of the series, Children of Memory, and see how it all wraps up.

Review of 'Children of Ruin' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

we came thirty-one light years from Earth to terraform planets and chew gum, and we’re all out of gum. Actually, there was gum, or at least the means to manufacture it, but that wasn’t the point.

Although there are some cool ideas in this book (viral alien lifeforms, evolved squids and the flow of time) the writing felt rather dull. It never really took up pace and it got nowhere near the awesomeness of the first book.

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