Children of Memory (Children of Time, #3) in SpecFic Buddy Reads

Jan 30, 2023 Nataliya rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2023-reads

Fascinating. Mesmerizing. Thought-provoking. And incredibly enjoyable. That’s why Adrian Tchaikovsky is firmly on the list of my favorite writers, sharing the podium with Pratchett and LeGuin. He’s not one of SFF greats-in-the-making; he’s made it to the pantheon, and seems to be having a blast there.

“What you want,”she says disgustedly, “is a zoo where you can come and look at the exhibits in their natural habitat. But what are you really preserving, then? Nothing except a means to sate you

...more

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Nov 25, 2022 Trish rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Oh my (book-)gods! This is my favorite in the series (so far, I should add, since I'm hoping for more installments).

After the arachnids, octopuses and slime mold we now get ... humans! *lol* Of course, we are on another planet where another colony ship arrived a long time ago and humans settled. Many generations later, the settlers are still trying to survive the planet's harsh ecosystem. The problem is that the tech at their disposal is breaking down and conditions get worse and worse. Moreover Oh my (book-)gods! This is my favorite in the series (so far, I should add, since I'm hoping for more installments).

After the arachnids, octopuses and slime mold we now get ... humans! *lol* Of course, we are on another planet where another colony ship arrived a long time ago and humans settled. Many generations later, the settlers are still trying to survive the planet's harsh ecosystem. The problem is that the tech at their disposal is breaking down and conditions get worse and worse. Moreover, they start getting concerned about strangers with knowledge and tech they shouldn't have.
And yes, of course, it's our favorite gang of galactic explorers: Kern (or the AI with her personality), the spider Portia, Paul (one of the octopuses) and now also Miranda (the slime intelligence).
But something else is going on in the colony. And it's not just that the humans' problems seem to be triggering a stark rise in anger / suspicion / willingness to use violence.

I can honestly say that the thing I loved most about this third installment were the (view spoiler). I should have known from the book's title that the next uplifted intelligence would be (view spoiler).
Surprisingly, I also loved the exploration of the human colony though! I liked following along their day-to-day life, their hardships and struggles and seeing how my species is doing so many years after we probably killed off ourselves back home.

Maybe the other two books would have already felt this way if I had known Brin's Uplift books back then. I didn't but do now. And yes, this book's atmosphere very much reminded me of the sense of wonder, exploration and (self-)discovery of those books. In short: I loved it from the first to the last page.

Without wanting to show off, I have to say, that I had guessed at one of the twists about halfway through the book. The hints here and there, my brain going "does not compute", and knowing Tchaikovsky ...
That, in no way, marred my enjoyment of the tale and how it came together though! Not least because there were other twists and turns and yet more things to puzzle about.

The writing, as ever, is top notch. It's intricate, fast-paced, very smart, and sucks you right in.

I think I remember someone telling me this will be a trilogy, making this the finale. However, I'm definitely hoping there will be more installments, maybe even a journey back to Earth to see what has happened to our home planet, what life formed there after humans finally had gone extinct (yes, I'm convinced we did NOT make it). Though I trust the author that no matter where he takes us, we'll have one hell of a time. So yeah, more please! ...more

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Nov 25, 2022 Bradley rated it it was amazing

Shelves: worldbuilding-sf, sci-fi, 2022-shelf

This one offered up some pretty great SFnal surprises.

From the start, I had some suspicions that this would be something like a culture-shock kind of novel in a poor human colony world meeting the long list of truly fascinating alien (ish) races that were serendipitously uplifted in the previous Children of Time novels. (All fantastic, clever, philosophical, and well-explored.)

This one, however, takes a right turn to the others. My expectations had to swerve and were nicely pummeled by Tchaikov ...more

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Dec 02, 2022 Lindsay rated it it was amazing

Shelves: science-fiction

The previous two books in this series are a hard act to follow, with the second one ending with an interstellar civilisation made up of uplifted spiders, uplifted octopuses, slightly modified humans, an AI based on an uplifted human and an alien organism capable of subsuming and copying other sentients. There was a hint of a future for this civilisation where embodiment in whichever way was a choice and sentient life is functionally immortal and infinitely variable.

So I was skeptical that the se The previous two books in this series are a hard act to follow, with the second one ending with an interstellar civilisation made up of uplifted spiders, uplifted octopuses, slightly modified humans, an AI based on an uplifted human and an alien organism capable of subsuming and copying other sentients. There was a hint of a future for this civilisation where embodiment in whichever way was a choice and sentient life is functionally immortal and infinitely variable.

So I was skeptical that the series had anything left to say or explore. But this is Adrian Tchaikovsky, and this form of existence raises all sorts of questions about what it is like to be a sentient in this sort of background culture. And what is sentience anyway?

Enter the ravens of Rourke and the human colony of Imir. The ravens are a new intelligence that the spider/octopus et al. culture have contacted and the first two ambassadors, Gothi and Gethli, have come aboard the Skipper (a spider-built spaceship) to participate in a mission to Imir. The mission is captained by an interlocutor (the copying organism from above) who is currently in the form of a human named Miranda. The story jumps around between the point of view of a colonist, a young human girl named Liff, and Miranda as she secretly observes the human colony, and our two (one?) raven pair as they investigate the profound mysteries of Imir.

Miranda's point of view is absorbing along with small details like the guilt she feels for her past actions as an interlocutor and because of the copied feelings of horror from her original that she experiences about her own existence. But her enthusiasm for novelty and adventure come through loud and clear as well, as well as her compassion for those around her. The reasoning through of the problem of Imir by Gothi and Gethli is also fascinating, as is their own thinking on the subject of sentience. And ultimately as it all comes to a head as to what's really happening, the conclusions that Miranda and the crew of the Skipper come to are profoundly human, even though nothing else about them is.

A wonderful book that's at least as good as the previous two. ...more

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Dec 31, 2024 Justine rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2024-read

4.5 stars

What an excellent finish to a brilliant trilogy. Each book is so different and Children of Memory is no exception. I’m constantly impressed by Tchaikovsky’s imagination. This book in particular would, I think, make Ursula Le Guin proud, she being one of the masters of using stories as philosophical thought experiment.

”At the end, then. Fitting. Means some waiting around, I suppose. But, at the same time, no time at all. Sometimes tomorrow’s just a today that got lost.”

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Dec 09, 2022 Cathy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-2024

“The unmissable follow-up to the highly acclaimed Children of Time and Children of Ruin.“

Reread 2024:

I love the different timelines and how they intersect. It has also been a good decision to reread the whole trilogy back to back. It makes connecting with the story much easier. Loved the ending, but can‘t tell you why without a spoiler. Loved a great many things that would be spoilers… 🤷

Great discourse on sentience and personhood.

This book is quite a brain twister. 🕷️🐙🐦‍⬛🧙🦠

+*+*+
First review fr ...more

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Dec 16, 2024 Lata rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: arc, sf-f-h, 2024-read

Picking up some time after the end of Children of Ruin, we meet young Liff, a descendant of the original colonists, and in fact a many great granddaughter of Heorest Holt, who was in command of the massive ark ship Enkidu that terraformed the planet years ago.

Liff lives on a farm, misses her grandfather Heorest, and has a teacher named Miranda. Miranda is new to Liff's town of Imir, apparently here from one of the out farms, and she lives with Portia (a hunter), Fabian (a whiz at fixing mechani Picking up some time after the end of Children of Ruin, we meet young Liff, a descendant of the original colonists, and in fact a many great granddaughter of Heorest Holt, who was in command of the massive ark ship Enkidu that terraformed the planet years ago.

Liff lives on a farm, misses her grandfather Heorest, and has a teacher named Miranda. Miranda is new to Liff's town of Imir, apparently here from one of the out farms, and she lives with Portia (a hunter), Fabian (a whiz at fixing mechanical things) and Paul (an artist who has a brood of young children).

Liff decides one day to search for her grandfather, whom she believes has gone to consult with the witch who lives on the mountain. Liff instead encounters two beings who are sometimes humans, sometimes crows, and who speak in riddles.

The town has a horror of strangers, and gradually, with crops failing and pests thriving, and through no fault of theirs, Miranda and company are seen increasingly as dangers to the town, and terrible things are done to them.

Then we meet Liff again, who lives on a farm, misses her grandfather Heorest, and has a teacher named Miranda……

This is freaking brilliant! This was totally not what I was expecting, which was the story of the colony's creation, terraforming, and gradual encounter with the spider, octopus and fungal beings we met in the previous books.

It was and it wasn't exactly that. It was puzzling, unexpected, smart, very surprising, and again concerned with the question of sentience while introducing yet another inquisitive species from one of the other colonies that a different ark ship settled.

Tchaikovsky subverted what I thought I was getting and instead gave me something incredibly and differently satisfying and compelling. With some genuinely funny, horrifying and tragic moments along the way. And when he finally revealed what was really going on, I had to sit with the idea for a while, stunned and thrilled, before I had to race through the rest of the novel to find out how he was going to wrap up this story.

I dearly hope there is another instalment, as this series has been thought provoking and just plain fun and great.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Orbit Books for this ARC in exchange for my review. ...more

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Feb 11, 2023 Denise rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2023-books, 2023-january, february-2023

Philosophical corvids with a comedy routine! Loved them- and the other great characters. Free will, sentience, reality, theory of mind- big ideas

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Dec 17, 2022 Vavita rated it really liked it

Where does this author get those great ideas from?
Another great book with engaging characters and emotional questions about what we are, how we are, what we are…
It didn’t get so involved as with the first 2 books. A bit of the wow effect was missing. In any way, it is worth reading. I wanted to give it five stars but the other 2 are too great in comparison. So. I am giving it 4,5…

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Feb 12, 2023 Leticia rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2023-bingo

I won't say much not to spoil anything, but this whole trilogy(?) is a modern classic with deep and important themes and not an easy, but a rewarding read exactly for this reason.

I wonder if there will be more books in this series? ...more

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Feb 17, 2024 Cindy rated it really liked it

Shelves: audiobooks, sci-fi

More mind-bending ideas in this third installment of an excellent series. Now human-spider translators exist and a cooperative effort is underway to explore a planet from where a signal has been received. A well-scripted story of a resource-strapped colony struggling to survive when none were originally trained to weave clothes or make shoes. With no more spare parts for the broken machines, the people blame the “others” for their lot. Can the space mission save them? Great stuff!

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