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Children of Memory (2023, Orbit) 4 stars

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 could have been condensed and that this book was mostly just setting up a plot for a future book without having much of a satisfying story of its own. That being said, I still enjoyed it enough to give it 4 stars and would recommend it if you liked the first two books.