Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Tchaikovsky has a knack for making humans supporting actors in his space-faring opera about intelligent animal life. After reading Children of Time, which I enjoyed, I wasn't sure how he would do a second book about a different species in a fresh way. But this second book is just as good as the first.

Told in a similar way to Children of Time, Children of Ruin switches between the past and present. The past being a time when human civilization has basically self-destructed and sent ships into the universe to terraform planets for future civilization. The present being thousands of years after this - as well as several thousands of years after Children of Time. It's amazing how space time really stretches things out and how quickly you get used to the vast stretches between years.

What we get from this second book that wasn't as fleshed out in the first is more about the terraforming project and how it works on a practical level. What we don't get is a lot of detail about our alien friends and how they develop their civilization. But that is forgiven when you learn their own civilization is basically destroyed, hence the ruin. What's intriguing, and what really steals the show is why this ruin occurred. Tchaikovsky has created an existential enemy that is both exciting and terrifying. I loved any scene that involved them. 

Children of Ruin explores themes of AI, immortality, the self, and invasion - both on a planetary as well as individual level. And while I felt he ended things a little too easily, I'll forgive him that because overall it was another great story in the Children of Time series. I can only hope his super villains will come back in subsequent novels, because they really were horribly fun.

Children of Time by Adirian Tchaikosky

I read this book to get my brother to stop talking about alien *insert creepy animal here (I don't want to spoil it)*. Every time I'd see him, he would ask if I read Children of Time and then proceed to explain the premise as if he hadn't explained it to me the last time I saw him. After maybe the fourth or fifth time I decided to read the book to shut him up.

Look, I'm not a big sci-fi reader, but this one did actually sound interesting to me. It's about how Earth begins terraforming planets to prepare them as possible future homesteads for humans. Part of this plan involved developing a nanovirus to speed evolution in a selected species, allowing it to quickly evolve on one of these planets. This was a hail Mary in case the human species didn't survive.

Most of the book occurs thousands of years after these efforts, when humans only have faint memories of the "old empire" that carried out the terraforming and nanovirus projects. A spaceship of hundreds of cryogenically sleeping people has set out to find one of these planets and inhabit it, as Earth is increasingly becoming uninhabitable. After finding a potential planet, they are stopped from landing by what seems to be a keeper of the planet. It's unclear if they are communicating with a human, AI, or a combination of the two. But what is clear, is the entity will do everything in its power to protect the planet and its children.

A great aspect of this book is that we get the perspective of the inhabitants on the spaceship but also the inhabitants of the terraformed planet. While I was less interested in their day to day life and politics (which was still interesting), I was fascinated by their idea of religion, which involved the mysterious keeper of their race. The premise provided a great way to explore the idea of a species origins and the development of religion. While it seems plausible to understand how this civilization came to its beliefs, it really makes you wonder about your own.

This is the first of three books in the Children of Time series, which was awarded the Hugo award for best series in 2023. I liked this one so much, I'll pick up the next, Children of Ruin, which is about a different terraformed planet. I haven't heard anything more about the plot, which probably means my brother hasn't read it yet. I'll have to read it first and tell him all about it!