Children of Memory

By far the worst book in the trilogy, playing at some intricate story about nature of consciousness and what differentiates sentient being from non-sentient - but we get that only at the end.

I didn't have any expectations for this book. I knew it was different from first two and not as popular but I didn't expect this.

I guessed what's going on the moment Liff met the “Witch”. It's a simulation. :/ Admittedly, it was humorous that Tchaikovsky turned “that” character into a role like this but he also made her even more annoying than ever before. Allegedly she's not suppose to have feelings but disdain, anger and frustration were present in every single dialogue she had. So which is it? Because it's outright stated in the book that she no longer dabbles with emotions. And if she wasn't so full of herself this story could've been shorter.

It was so annoying to go through hundreds of pages of deliberately keeping the twist secret. Not knowing properly what's going on and why, jumping through realities/time periods. Don't get me wrong, I love a puzzle. Malazan is my favorite book series ever. But it needs to be done well. There need to be crumbs left on the ground (pun intended) for it to work. For me to return to previous chapters after twist is finally shown and have the “aha” moment, seeing the puzzle pieces spread throughout the book. The First Law did this brilliantly with Bayaz and Jezal. Here it's simultaneously completely obfuscated and banging your head on the wall with the solution. Which you probably already have guessed 100 pages in.

Setting is boring compared to previous books. It takes place on another world that humans with small h tried to colonize as last resort after Earth fell. There are no interesting aliens as focus of the story, although we are introduced to Corvids which are sentient ravens and our new allies. Although they would argue they are not sentient. And that nor are we. I enjoyed those few philosophizing pages.

It's a wild west mixed with fairy tale. Did not work for the book. At all. Main character from the planet Liff is 12 yo kid through whose eyes we see the world. And world makes no sense. It's explained why. It doesn't mean I liked it. It's a jumbled mix of various scenarios that lead nowhere.

I would really want to know how this story came to be. If Children was sold as trilogy and Tchaikovsky planned this story from the get go, if he had no idea what to write the third book about and this is how it ended, if it was originally a novella and he inflated it (as 120 pages long novella this would've worked so much better!), or if he just had an idea about witch tales and Groundhog Day and decided to put it into this world.

The series ends on huge disappointment. There were so many directions this series could've gone instead and the very last page of Ruin hinted at it. It's post-scarcity hard sci-fi about alliance between several sentient species and we got a fraking medieval village story with witches!

And two more things. What was the point of simulation always ending with Miranda at the gallows? If simulation wasn't hostile to her why did she always end up dead in the most gruesome spectacular way imaginable? It's not explained at all. "Simulation just doesn't work with hostile presence." That is until it does... by miraculously figuring out completely alien millions of years old simulation engine and giving characters "admin" privileges. All off screen, of course...

Overview: “Children of Memory” by Adrian Tchaikovsky represents a magnificent leap of imagination in the ongoing exploration of the alien, expanding upon the rich tapestry of the “Children of Time” series. Tchaikovsky introduces readers to a diverse crew of explorers culled from the previous books, embarking on a quest to uncover scattered remnants of old humanity who stumble across a planet with more mysteries than they expected.

More detailed thoughts: Tchaikovsky continues to skilfully weave his vast narrative landscape, opening with a succinct recap of key points from the previous books, which given the sheer complexity of the timeline, setting and menagerie/cast is really helpful to put it mildly. The tale unfolds through the lens of three waves of human exploration, firstly the ancient terraformers led by the ambitious (and grouchy) Avrana Kern, and then the desperate remnants of humanity seeking refuge, travelling aboard slow-moving ark ships.

The explorers of the third wave, or “current” era are the focus of the book, specifically one crew of explorers that includes a fascinating group of characters: a couple of crows (corvids) that operate in pairs, some spiders, a zero G octopus called Paul, a human, an uploaded replica of Kern's mind running on an ant-computer, and the entity currently identifying as “Miranda”, a once parasitic entity with memories encoded in her DNA. Together they embark on a journey to the potential target world Imir...yes they are going on an adventure!

The narrative unfolds in two layers—the fragile colony established on Imir by one of the ark ships and Miranda's intricate relationship with Liff, a key figure in the colony's survival. Liff's circumstances, reminiscent of a proto-medieval lifestyle with technological dependencies, agricultural practices, and vulnerability to superstition, contribute to the book's almost fantasy feel.

Tchaikovsky's storytelling prowess shines through as he weaves together the diverse threads of the crew's journey, exploring the complexities of human and non-human interactions, the consequences of ancient ambitions, and the dynamics of a society on the cusp of disaster.

Yet as the book progresses more and more elements seem to conflict, to not make sense...and it becomes clear that there is a much bigger, much deeper mystery at play in this story.

“Children of Memory” not only expands the scope of the series but also delves deeper into the philosophical implications of humanity's endeavours, offering a captivating and thought-provoking reading experience. Tchaikovsky's narrative mastery continues to elevate the “Children of Time” series, inviting readers to embark on a journey that transcends the boundaries of traditional science fiction.

I really, really hope that there is more to come in this series.

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.

I heard a lot of negative reviews for this one before I read it, but I still think it was a pretty good continuation of the series even if not quite as strong as the first two. It was definitely a brain-stretcher, and having Miranda as a POV character was quite the Brave New World, but I wouldn't expect a book that's essentially about how we define sentience and the value of “life” to be anything less than a challenge.

Given Tchaikovsky's penchant for references, could the alternate title to this book be “The Meaning of Liff?”

Loved it just as much as the previous two books that it builds on.

Notes:

New planets, new forms of alien intelligence.
The corvids were my favorite alien species in a while.
Are they a form of AI? Can AI be sentient? Are any of us? Questions that loom especially large this year.
Second book looking at the simulation hypothesis that I've read this year.
Liff's story is heartbreaking.
Decanting the swarm intelligence from book 2 into a single person named Miranda is a brilliant solution to the problem of how to address the “we”.
The eventual reveal again comes with a twist and a second, even better reveal. How does Tchaikovsky do this?

This started off well, but then became (in my opinion) unnecessarily confusing from around the 50% mark. Granted the confusion is explained towards the end, but not before I had lost interest in trying to keep track of what was meant to be happening. Also, the final unsatisfactory explanation was effectively - and almost literally - a deus ex machina.

So, the first book in this series was brilliant, followed by two disappointing sequels. In the event there is yet another book in this series, note to future self: don't!

It took me multiple tries to actually get into this series and I'm kind of glad it's over. I enjoyed how the past books focused more on space travel, but this one was set pretty much in one location and it was a bit boring for me. I did enjoy the plot twist (which would be spoilers to talk about WHY I liked it) but it wasn't enough for me to love this. The first two books felt like a lot of build up for something that just didn't happen in this book, but I'm hoping the companion series will give me more of the “epic space opera” I was looking for.






Thank you to Orbit Books and NetGalley for providing me with an eBook copy to review.

Easily my favorite in the series, while it started off weak in the beginning, coming off as another rehash of the relatively boring story and exploration of the prior two novels, “world-building” is what I think someone nicer may call it. Part way through it stops that crap, and actually has a story... It might have taken 2.3 books to world-build a fairly not-at-all-complex-or-interesting-universe, but when it finally finished that we get a weird, unique, matrix-fairy-tale-fantasy novel, and it was great.

The last few chapters inspecting (and explaining) the ideas of self and intelligent life, pushed it from a 2 to a 3.

The repetitive, yet twisting narrative was interesting but lost its momentum for me, and asked for a quicker resolution in my opinion.

Overall a worthy entry to the Children series though.