Children of Time cover art

Children of Time

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
1 credit a month to buy any audiobook in our entire collection.
Access to thousands of additional audiobooks and Originals from the Plus Catalogue.
Member-only deals & discounts.
Auto-renews at $16.45/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Children of Time

By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
Narrated by: Mel Hudson
Try Premium Plus free

Auto-renews at $16.45/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $33.99

Buy Now for $33.99

About this listen

Adrian Tchaikovksy's critically acclaimed stand-alone novel Children of Time is the epic story of humanity's battle for survival on a terraformed planet.

Who will inherit this new Earth?

The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age - a world terraformed and prepared for human life.

But all is not right in this new Eden. In the long years since the planet was abandoned, the work of its architects has borne disastrous fruit. The planet is not waiting for them pristine and unoccupied. New masters have turned it from a refuge into mankind's worst nightmare.

Now two civilizations are on a collision course, both testing the boundaries of what they will do to survive. As the fate of humanity hangs in the balance, who are the true heirs of this new Earth?

©2016 Adrian Tchaikovsky (P)2017 Audible Ltd Fantasy Fiction First Contact Science Fiction Space Exploration Space Opera Interstellar Dystopian Survival Solar System

Critic Reviews

" Children of Time is a joy from start to finish. Entertaining, smart, surprising and unexpectedly human." (Patrick Ness)
All stars
Most relevant  
I loved the concept, the 2 different storylines happening side by side of humans and spiders and the struggles they both went through driven by the most basic of instincts of all living things, trying to survive.

The ending caught me by surprise and what a way to wrap up the story. Excellent book

Brilliant, thought provoking.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
It took me a little while to get the story. But before long I was hooked. It is a believable story in a weird way. I was getting concerned on how it would end as the author has you sympathetic to both sides plight. But the ending was great. I really enjoyed it.

This really makes you think

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The 2 stories over such a long time period were awesome, especially the story of the other species - so alien, but making sense. I totally believed their culture. Excellent narrator.

What a fascinating story!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Loved setting and concept but struggled to finish as the build-up was long a the climax was delayed. However, it did leave me eager to listen to the next book 😊

Fresh new take on extraterrestrial life

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I struggled with it in the beginning. but the story gets better as it progresses and the ending is a suprise.

It gets better at the end.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
amazing concept, but very detailed and need to be paying attention to the timeline!

A detailed sci-fi spanning many lifetimes

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Some really great ideas and wonderful story telling. Quite different from anything I've read before, but very good.

Excellent post-apocalyptic sci fi

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The linear storyline makes it really easy to follow while the elaborate ideas and somewhat realistic circumstances result in pleasurable experience.

The perfect audiobook material.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Loved the idea and overall loved the book. The author really captured the destructive tendencies of humanity and the impact that has all over a galaxy. My only real complaint is that at the times the book was slow; not boring - but slow. In parts it seemed like nothing was actually happening to forward the plot, a lot of background and secondary information. A lot to dredge through - maybe a lot of it will pay off in the next book. A detailed and lengthy story, which at times felt excessive but overall a bloody good read if you're into the genre. Will definetely be reading/listening to the next one.

Mostly good, a little bad.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Was surprised to recognise the narrator as Mel Hudson from 'Hudson & Pepperdine' fame. Maybe not everyone's cup of tea, but she did a good job, although some of the character voices were a little indistinguishable. The story has suspense, a good cast of characters and an interesting theme without too much exposition. At some points I found myself thinking that the author's universe had a few logical inconsistencies only for the author to address them quite elegantly. Excellent Sci-fi

Great immersive story and a satisfying ending

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.