Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky

NOTE: This is the second book in the Children of Time series. You really do need to read the first book, Children of Time, to have context while reading this book. If you don’t, you can still understand the story, but you’ll lose the richness of the interconnected story. Also some of the main characters/species are introduced in Children of Time.

This is the type of sci-fi I really, really enjoy. It’s technical and it challenges the notion that humans will be the dominant life-form in outer space. The story starts out with humans going to terraform a world, but due to unforeseen circumstances, that mission is scrapped. Instead the humans decide to explore and study the world. In the midst of this new mission, they encounter life and then the book becomes about them and their development as a species/society. This book bounces back and forth from the Past, to the Present. It’s also told from multiple characters/species perspectives, but it was never too difficult to follow.

If you liked The Three Body Problem trilogy, give Children of Time/Children of Ruin a shot. It’s a complex, but engrossing sci-fi that rewards its readers with a very unique story.

Rating: ★★★★★

Book #77 in my My 2019 Reading Challenge