Children of Memory

(Children of Time #3)

eBook, 406 pages

English language

Published Jan. 31, 2023 by Orbit.

ISBN:
9780316466516

View on OpenLibrary

4 stars (13 reviews)

Earth failed. In a desperate bid to escape, the spaceship Enkidu and its captain, Heorest Holt, carried its precious human cargo to a potential new paradise. Generations later, this fragile colony has managed to survive, eking out a hardy existence. Yet life is tough, and much technological knowledge has been lost.

Then strangers appear. They possess unparalleled knowledge and thrilling technology – and they've arrived from another world to help humanity’s colonies. But not all is as it seems, and the price of the strangers' help may be the colony itself.

5 editions

Slow middle, interesting ideas

4 stars

Similar to a lot of the other reviews I'm reading this one just didn't grip me quite as much as the first two books. I liked the folk tale atmosphere and the fact that it uses the first two books being similar to trick you into thinking that this one would follow a similar path, but I didn't feel that the alien life forms were as well explored in this book. We got very little on the actual paired-mind of the corvids, with most of the focus being on the two individual parts of the mind, and the other mind that possibly exists in the book is only hinted at vaguely. I enjoyed the ending, but not as much as the first two since the big reveal at the end felt a bit obvious (albeit the details were all different from my own guesses).

Overall this felt like the middle …

Possibly the weakest of the "Children of" series

2 stars

This one seemed to drag on forever and ever, for various reasons including the narrative architecture chosen for the book. All in all, I found it more frustrating than enjoyable unfortunately. Might be worth your time if you want to be completist about reading the whole series, but I'd definitely grab a copy from the library before you commit to buying it.

Children of Memory

4 stars

Content warning plot arc metaspoilers maybe? also for Nona the Ninth

Review of 'Children of Memory' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I am afraid I am going to have to be a little hard here and say this barely scraped 4 stars for me. The middle really dragged. I can't really explain why without going into spoilers (which I am not a fan of doing in reviews). I will say that there wasn't the same sense of progress that you got from the first two books. A sense of something new developing. The middle third is very focused on a (to all appearances) regressive setting, thus the sense of the new wasn't there for me for a good chunk of this read.
The ideas are still top tier. The book started well and the ending was satisfying. Maybe it needed a tighter edit, maybe I was just not in the right place for this.
Still, it is Tchaikovsky and my reservations could just be a me thing. It's still at least …

Review of 'Children of Memory' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Wow. Outstanding! This book is vastly different than the other two. I was frustrated with most of it and was sure I would be rating it 2 stars, maybe 3, even though the writing style was amazing, but the last hundred pages blew my mind.

Take all these 5 stars, Adrian, and go buy something nice with 'em.

Review of 'Children of Memory' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Summarizing the book won't really do it justice – there are too many inter-locking threads to the tale. The ambition of the book – tackling religion, artificial intelligence, war, exploration, God, fate, progress, discovery, gender roles – is staggering. Tchaikovsky takes a compelling premise and consistently subverts expectations – playing with notions of time, linear progress, and evolution – making the book not only enjoyable, but important. Highly recommended.

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4 stars
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4 stars
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4 stars
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4 stars