Children of Ruin

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.

The way Tchaikovsky brings total alien intelligence to life is just spellbinding.

Another brilliant exploration of other minds with even more high stakes.

Join in and read it, we’re going on an adventure!

(That phrase will give you chills)

It's not an idle read, but the concepts are intriguing and there is plenty of humour in the writing. A worthy successor to Children of Time

Decent read! Unexpectedly enjoyed having previously read one of the author's reference books (if you have gotten into Children of Ruin you might be able to guess which topic it concerns :) Less bombastic storyline than Children of Time, a larger focus on cognition in general

If Children of Time was about survival, book 2 - The Children of Ruin - is about discovery. And Tchaikovsky shows discovery can be awe-inspiring, strange, bloody difficult, downright terrifying and deadly both on a personal and species-wide level. The book is filled with amazing feats of imagination and scientific extrapolation and - as with book 1 - Tchaikovsky creates a credible, alien mentality (not with spiders this time, but with octopuses and... something else) as well as keeping up the humour, terror and wonder that made Children of Time so enjoyable.