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Children of Ruin cover art

Children of Ruin

By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
Narrated by: Mel Hudson
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Publisher's Summary

Children of Ruin follows Adrian Tchaikovsky's extraordinary Children of Time, winner of the Arthur C. Clarke award for Best Science Fiction Novel. It is set in the same universe, with a new cast of characters and a thrilling narrative.

It has been waiting through the ages.

Now it's time . . .

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.

And it’s been waiting for them.

©2019 Macmillan Publishers International Ltd (P)2019 Macmillan Digital Audio

Critic Reviews

All underpinned by great ideas. And it is crisply modern - but with the sensibility of classic science fiction. Asimov or Clarke might have written this (Stephen Baxter)
You know you’re in for a ride. . . This book thoroughly engaged me. Children of Ruin is a humdinger of a book I enjoyed immensely (Neal Asher)
Magnificent. This is the big stuff – the really big stuff. Rich in wisdom and Humanity (note the 'H'), with a Stapledonian sweep and grandeur . . . Books like this are why we read science-fiction (Ian McDonald)
Breathtaking scope and vision. Adrian Tchaikovsky is one of our finest writers (Gareth Powell)
Wonderful – big, thinky SF that feels classic without being mired in the past, absolutely crammed with fun ideas . . . Anyone who likes sweeping, evolutionary-scale stories will love this (Django Wexler)

What listeners say about Children of Ruin

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loved it.

I enjoyed this book very much and would recomend it to all fans of this genre.

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Interesting ideas but....

I enjoyed Children of Time more but the development of the octopus society over time was interesting.

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Great Follow on

Loved the second book in this series, wasn't sure in the first couple of chapters but really enjoyed the end result close to being better then the original. Narration was perfect

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Skillfully developed non humanoid characters

Amazing sequel to children of time and the addition of more well thought out non humanoid 'aliens' and alien societies. Again we see from the perspective of a member of a non humanoid society and how their physiology and prior evolutionary development influences their culture. The world becomes more fleshed out, and we see more of how Kerns world deals with the unknown and dangerous. An immersive listen and kept me going for days.

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Medium

Not as captivating as the first book. The characters were hard to engage with.

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terrifying, beautifully composed, hopeful

loved it, clear, perfect audio, though i preferred the chapter numbering from the first volume.

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Great follow up to children of time

Great story, loved learning more about this universe. Love a good generation ship setting :)
Narrator is excellent too. Please narrate more!

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A vivid exploration of alien otherness

Adrian Tchaikovsky takes us even further into otherness in this sequel. He manages to superbly express what it might be like to be other than human and have completely different concepts, perceptions, motivations and reactions to the universe for species that are so far removed from us that it's difficult to even recognise their distinct intelligence.
Wonderfully narrated, once again, by Mel Hudson, who has a perfect sense of rhythm, timing and cadence to convey this mind-twisting tale.

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Worth hearing

Worth hearing even if the ending seems to loose energy compared to the first. A victim of the (type of) previous success.

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Oh, Adrian.

Adrian Tchaikovsky has a seriously awesome brain. What a wonderful, strange, unnerving and beautiful world he has created in these books. It’s the masterpiece I have been waiting for my entire 21 and a half years of living.

I will happily recommend this to all the sci-fi lovers I know. I am absolutely stunned. Thanks for painting such scenery in my mind, Adrian. Painting and listening to your books has been a dream.

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