Children of Memory (Children of Time, 3)

“Children of Time” is a far more ponderous, heady, and fantastical novel than the prior two entires in this series. Surprisingly it also manages to have a much more focused and relevant message. This book ponders significantly on what makes a mind and what makes a being. It explores plenty of fascinating concepts pf sentience and consciousness that feels novel. Yet, and Mr. Tchaikovsky is oddly direct on this point, it does replicate many of the architectures used in generative networks today. The result is a poignant piece on ethics and creation. I can’t help but think this may be the magnum opus. It is a masterpiece and a capstone to a very forward series. You won’t regret this book. Read it.

This third book in the Children series take a different path than the first two book. While the first two were about terraforming projects that did not go quite as planned,this book is set in a second wave human colony that arrives on a world where the terraforming was barely begun. The book actually becomes somewhat confusing as the story progresses, jumping back and forth in time, until you reach the point where the mystery whose very existence was only hinted at up to that point is suddenly explained. While a bit harder read than the first two books, I think in the end it's well worth the effort.

Children of Memory is an incredibly imaginative story with a completely unexpected twist, one that I didn’t anticipate, but made the story so much better once it was revealed. While I still don’t think it was on the same level as Children of Time (it’s going to be really tough to top that book, in my opinion), I liked it a lot more than I did Children of Ruin. Children of Memory is the tale of yet another planet the ancient terraformers of Earth had selected as a candidate for hosting life. The problem with this planet is the terraforming was never completed, and centuries later when the ark ship Enkidu arrives, there’s very little on the planet to help them survive. This part of the storyline alternates with that of a later expedition of human, Portiid, Interlocutor, and octopus scientists who came to that world long after the ark ship arrived, seeking more of their kin from old Earth. In addition to the species from previous books, we’re introduced to uplifted Corvids (crows or ravens), who have some unique problem-solving abilities the others lack. Some of the characters from previous books are back (most notably, Avrana Kern, the terraformer-turned-AI. I was hoping for a bit more about Meshner after book 2, but other than a couple brief mentions, he wasn’t part of this story. Here’s hoping he’ll make a return in later books!) This story requires a certain level of patience from the reader. There were parts in the first 2/3 of the book that had me scratching my head, and I was getting a bit frustrated by what appeared to be major inconsistencies. I say “appeared to be” because they were something else altogether, and it all made sense later on. I think my enjoyment stemmed mostly from that big plot twist and how it altered my perception of everything that came before. The questions the book posed after that point were fascinating too, and I absolutely loved the ending.

I’ve very much enjoyed Adrian Tchaikovsky’s other works, including the earlier entries in this series: Children of Time was epic and blew me away, 5 stars Children of Ruin, quite enjoyable, 4 stars Children of Memory? Ok, 3 stars. While it shows flashes of brilliance, overall I found it confusing. Or else I’m getting dumber. This novel spends about the first 3/4 setting a very nice table, then proceeds to pull out the tablecloth and everything goes crashing down. The plot twist is one of those kind that leaves you scratching your head wondering if the book is really being honest with you? Because once it goes there, you could overlay whatever you want on top of the story and it would still fit. One of my favorite elements of the previous books was that characters such as Portia, Fabian, and Paul were more like archetypes of their species, with a whole series of different individuals inhabiting those personae. That element is gone here- or is it? I also find with the character Kern, the larger role she plays, the less interesting she is. She was a small part of book 1, and increasingly significant in books 2 and 3. The larger her role, the more clear it is that I don’t understand the character. I also find the Nod microorganism a hard character to really understand or cheer for, and it ends up being one of the main characters here. And the octopi? octopodes? are really an afterthought in this, barely utilized in any meaningful way except “Paul is weird”. This book is also much smaller in scale than the previous entries. It’s hard to recapture the epic scope of Children of Time. But this one feels like a small-town Western: despite ostensibly covering a very long time span, the nature of the plot is only a few characters, a few locales, and a few short (in time) vignettes used in different combinations. So it all feels more confining than the previous entries that featured story arcs of planetary and interplanetary scale.

After some 2500 years an Ark ship from Earth had made it to a distant Earth-like planet. It was difficult but the colony was eking out an existence. But there were some mysterious things going on on this planet. Although this book features some characters from the first two books of the trilogy, most notably Avrana Kern, its focus is mainly centered on two new characters, Miranda and Liff. Liff is a young girl of about thirteen and Miranda is her teacher. As it turns out, Miranda is not really from the Colony ship but part of the crew of the exploratory vessel Skipper who have journeyed to Imir to see how the early terraforming project had worked out. The crew also consisted of Avrana Kern and intelligent Portiiid spiders and Octopuses. Also a part of the crew were a pair of Corvids who evolved from a failed (at least for humans) terraforming mission on the planet Rourke. They decide to visit the colony, incognito, to get a feel for how the colony is getting along. They are in for a big surprise. The author takes what is seemingly a simple story (but with an intriguing and marvelous reveal) and transforms it into a near perfect story filled with great characters and interesting philosophical discussions.

The "Children of ..." series is destined to be a classic, in a league with Foundation and Dune in my opinion. The first book masterfully combined sub-genres (ark ship, colony, alien world view, etc.). The second expanded the story to increasingly alien forms of life and the struggles of communication. This third book is a strong addition to the universe, although less powerful as a standalone novel. The hopscotching timeline, although necessary to a degree, became a bit tedious after the point was made. The essential nature of the puzzle box became obvious fairly early on, although the final twist was a surprise, and the twist after the final twist was more of a surprise (and also felt a bit emotionally manipulative), and the twist after the twist after the final twist was something I didn't see coming (and redeemed the depressing penultimate twist to a degree, but only to a degree). I rarely think that a novel is too long, but in this case, I found myself scanning rather than reading chapters, feeling like I was walking a relatively uninteresting connector trail between more challenging mountain hikes. The author, who is the artist, may (and probably does) feel differently, but as an editor I would have found a way to cut 100 pages. Overall, still worth the money and the time, and this third work is a worthy addition to the canon of the "Children of ..." universe. May there be more. This author is creative, knows how to tell a story, and is a master of the craft.

Much more philosophical than the previous two books, re-reading this is much more enjoyable than I remembered. I’m charmed by the authors apparently recent purchase of a thesaurus, grateful to have a dictionary at my fingertips

Ok, I enjoyed reading Children of Memory. Throughout my reading I had several pauses, questioning what just happened🤷🏽‍♀️ I did re-read parts of the story for clarity. This was not a fast pace story for me. As I continued to get further into the story, half way the suspense builds up. A futuristic spaceship Enkidu arrives at a terraform planet Imir in hopes for a human colony to survive. There is no advance technology and their resources are limited. Living conditions are pretty harsh. Eventually, technology is brought in by alien strangers including Gothi & Gethli (birds), Miranda, Kern (uploaded intelligence) and others. These alien strangers are interconnected exploring thoughts on consciousness, identity, and the why of humanity. In the book alien sentients are always challenging human intelligence and emotions. Complicated things start to happen on the planet in the area known as Landfall. There are lots of confusing jumping around. It makes for quite a mystery! My favorite characters: Liff the child, of course the raven birds Gothi & Gethli, and Miranda. When I reached the end of the story, it left me feeling all life, including artificial intelligence, that follow through changes of consciousness of being aware and a sense of caring to where creatures of intelligence of all kinds need to work and communicate together.

Wow, did not see that coming. Nice plot twist. Proper sci-fi. Very enjoyable

This book is amazing. I loved the first one in the series, Children of Time. The 2nd one is as good as the first, but hits you less hard because you're expecting it to be good. But this book goes well beyond. It is so good. It poses a question that is stuck in my mind since reading it, without spoiler, sort of what is consciousness or identity. It seems especially relevant with the advances in AI. I honestly can't recommend this book enough, it is my favourite sci-fi ever.

Ok, still a little dizzy here. I can not make an intelligent, or even coherent, critique of this book, I am afraid. I did enjoy very much! it even when it seem to jump into some kind of solipsists voids, with corvids coming to some kind of rescue. Mr. Tchaikovsky is always worth the time and the effort, though. Brilliant mind that of his, I really look forward to his works.

This was my favourite of all the three books in this series. Spiders, octopus, birds, corvids you name it, its all here. What a great read. It jumped around a tad but all is revealed further in the book. For a moment I thought I lost the plot as Miranda was dead, then she wasn't. I could not predict the ending. A sophisticated writer and excellent story teller. Sad the adventure has come to an end!

This one pushes the boundaries of what a great science fiction could be. And to top it all, keeps you hooked up with its complex narrative till the very end.