Children of Memory Audiobook By Adrian Tchaikovsky cover art

Children of Memory

Children of Time, Book 3

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Children of Memory

By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
Narrated by: Mel Hudson
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About this listen

They dreamed of a new home. They woke to a nightmare.


From the award-winning master of sci-fi Adrian Tchaikovsky, Children of Memory is the unmissable follow-up space opera to the highly acclaimed Children of Time and Children of Ruin.

On Imir, Captain Holt founded a new colony on an empty world. In the process, he created hope and a new future for humanity. But, generations later, his descendants are struggling to survive.

As harvests worsen and equipment fails, strangers appear in a town where everyone knows their neighbour. Now the inexplicable lurks in the woods and the community fears that it's being observed – that they’re not alone.

They’d be right, as explorers from the stars have arrived in secret to help this lost outpost. Confident of their superior technology, and overseen by the all-knowing construct of Doctor Avrana Kern, they begin to study their long-lost cousins from Earth.

Yet the planet hides deeper mysteries. It seems the visitors aren’t the only watchers. And when the starfarers discover the scale of their mistake, it will be far too late to escape.

Children of Memory by Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author Adrian Tchaikovsky is a far-reaching space opera spanning generations, species and galaxies.

Praise for the series:

‘Entertaining, smart, surprising and unexpectedly human’ – Patrick Ness, author of A Monster Calls

‘Brilliant science fiction and far-out world-building’ – James McAvoy

‘A fabulous sense of scale that only someone as talented as Adrian Tchaikovsky can pull off’ – Peter F. Hamilton, author of Exodus: The Archimedes Engine

©2022 Adrian Tchaikovsky (P)2022 Macmillan Publishers International Limited
Fiction First Contact Hard Science Fiction Science Fiction Space Opera Technothrillers Thriller & Suspense Technology Exciting Mind-Bending Thriller
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Critic reviews

One of the most interesting and accomplished writers in speculative fiction (Christopher Paolini, author of To Sleep in a Sea of Stars)
Brilliant science fiction and far-out world-building (James McAvoy on Children of Time)
Breathtaking scope and vision. Adrian Tchaikovsky is one of our finest writers (Gareth L. Powell, author of Embers of War, on Children of Ruin)
All underpinned by great ideas. And it is crisply modern - but with the sensibility of classic science fiction. Asimov or Clarke might have written this (Stephen Baxter, author of Time and Proxima, on Children of Ruin)
Children of Time is a joy from start to finish. Entertaining, smart, surprising and unexpectedly human. (Patrick Ness, author of A Monster Calls and the Chaos Walking series, on Children of Time)
Philosophical Exploration • Unique Consciousness Concepts • Superb Narration • Creative Alien Perspectives
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"Brilliant" is precisely the word that kept spontaneously coming to mind as I approached the end of this book. I'm so glad I tried it despite some of the negative reviews that I'd read which put it down as not living up to the first two books in the series. To spell out just what made it brilliant would spoil things though, so I won't. I will say, however, that I am so very impressed by how thoughtful and creative the author has been in his exploration of the different forms that life might take and at least one very intriguing vision of the future in this series.

In a word - Brilliant

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Para mim essa Saga se tornou o verdadeiro sucessor espiritual de tudo que há de melhor em star trek

Fantástico

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This is another great work by Tchaikovsky building a bit of philosophy into his sci-fi genre. It really has a jaw dropping moment when you figure out where the world he’s built really is.

A great book and listen that I didn’t want to stop.

Great work

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Not as good as the two prequels
Children of Time
and
Children of Ruin.
But a decent Sci-fi novel

Mediocre

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Struggle to finish it and follow it. Lacks the amazing scientific detail and imagination of the previous books.

not nearly as good as previous books

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While good concepts, the majority of the story falls flat in a repetitive blur where nothing happens and doesn't even matter in the end. A shadow compared to the previous books.

Third one out

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Interesting story. It raises some interesting philosophical questions and the ending was satisfying.

Unfortunately, the middle part was not written in a way that made it an enjoying read. It's the kind of book that I'm happy to have read, but did not enjoy reading.

I remember thinking the author was trying too hard to make something different from the previous two books (which were great) and ended up overshooting his goal. It's a natural continuation of the previous books, but it's written in a convoluted way. The mystery is made more obscure by the unnecessarily obscure writing. It felt repetitive, the bad kind of philosophical where it's lofty for loftiness' sake, and it felt like the story could have been shortened substantially without losing anything important. I understand the need to give the feeling of time passing, but it should be possible to achieve without getting tiresome/boring.

Based on what I've seen in other reviews, I'm not the only one who thinks this way. And yet, they tend to give it 4 or 5 stars. I assume it is because they're writing the review right after they've finished the book and are still marvelling at the ending. For me the ending made it 3 stars instead of two. And the ending IS great! But a book, in my opinion, is more than the ending. Or it should be. If not, why not just skip to the ending or read a summary?

Happy to have read but did not enjoy reading

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Shorter, more concise and limited in pure epic grandeur, Children of Memory might seem like a downplaying of all the greatest hits from the first two books, but it feels more like the first two books were the understandings needed to be able to tell this one story about foreigness without it being too foreign. In this story, the actors are mostly too human, the setting very well-known from our own more primitive days, but the world mechanics themselves -- alien, and yet familiar in a way in which dreams of not yet realized futures usually are. We know the words, but Avrana Kern has to shepard us to there. A wonderfully optimistic read, even more so than the best of Star Trek.

An evolution of the Children series

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Bueutiful story with relatable characters and an unexpected flow. An adventure you won't forget

Beat book of the year 2022 for me

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It should only be read after the others in the series, but it’s worth it! It is filled with wild imagination and it has a beautiful set of characters!

What an amazing book

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