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.

Dune by Frank Herbert

I can't say if I liked the movie or the book better. I fell asleep during the first (new) movie and I'm just meh about the book.

I don't know, the story was fine. It's grand in scope, literally spanning the universe, but dealing mostly with one planet, the sand planet of Arrakis, inhabited by the Fremen and spaceship eating sandworms that produce something called, spice, which is necessary for interplanetary travel. Herbert writes about the struggle for power over Arrakis between two powerful families, the Harkonnens and the Atraeides while also throwing in corporate interests, the emporer's military force (the Sardaukar), and a quasi-religious order called the Bene Gesserit.

I enjoyed the chapters more that were about the Harkonnens. They just seem like the more dysfunctional, interesting family. There's more intrigue and plotting and dinner parties. When we are on Arrakis with Paul and Jessica, who are Atraeides, it's dust and worms and honor killings and spitting. And the obsession with water! I get it, but I just got sick of the "giving water to the dead" and "taking their water" and the nose plugs. I just can't with the nose plugs.

I will say, I feel there was a real missed opportunity to come up with various terms for sand. On a planet where everything is so dry and sandy, shouldn't there be a multitude of terms for the various iterations of sand? Like how Inuits have dozens of terms for ice? Shame.

And what's with the names? You have some great names like the Harkonnens and the Atreides, and Arrakis. These are names I've never heard before. They help take me out of normal life and bring me to this new society and world order, but then you have Paul and Jessica for your two main characters. Like what? That douchey guy I met back in college and one of the Sweet Valley twins? C'mon. That's just lazy naming. I don't get it.

And I'm hoping I'm premature with this, since there are a multitude of books after this one, but why, in an ancient, mysterious, mystical sisterhood, which prophesies a chosen one, would it end up being a dude...named Paul? There's already a whole savior complex vibe going on with the outsiders coming into the native population and saving them, so it's really rubbing dirt/sand/spice into the wound when Paul is the apparent savior and not his female relatives. But as this article points out, that might be the reaction Herbert intended. 

Maybe I'm just nitpicking here. I didn't hate it. And it sounds like subsequent books further explore the issues and pitfalls of Paul's rise to power. While overall, I think there are a lot of interesting ideas worth talking about, I'm not ready for a long-term commitment to this series. I might just try the second movie instead - but I don't care what you think about Timothee Chalamet, he still looks gross with the nose plugs.