Title / Children of Time
Author / Adrian Tchaikovsky
Publication Date / 2015
Genre / Science fiction
Series or standalone / standalone
Page no. / 600
Star Rating / ★★★★
Goodreads synopsis: The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age—a world terraformed and prepared for human life. But all is not right in this new Eden. In the long years since the planet was abandoned, the work of its architects has borne disastrous fruit. The planet is not waiting for them, pristine and unoccupied. New masters have turned it from a refuge into mankind’s worst nightmare. Now two civilizations are on a collision course, both testing the boundaries of what they will do to survive. As the fate of humanity hangs in the balance, who are the true heirs of this new Earth?
This is a fantastic sci-fi book with a unique premise and compelling plot. I’m not going to go into too much detail about the book because I think this is one of those books that you should read knowing little about it. I only had a vague look at the blurb when I decided to pick this up. I’ve never read anything quite like this and I loved it. First of all, the writing is fantastic and I thought the two perspective used in the narration was so good. Basically as you can see from the blurb, we have the human perspective but we also have the perspective of the other civilisations on the terraformed world. I’m not going to say anything more about the other civilisation because it can be seen as a bit of a spoiler. Just known that these ‘other’s are incredibly well written. The use of both of these perspectives creates such an interesting and engaging story, because we get to see both sides of the story/conflict, whereas normally when there are ‘aliens’ involved we only get to see the human side of it. The plot itself is incredible. I didn’t really know what to expect going into it but I was blown away. The timeline spans thousands of years and it was fascinating to see how things changed for each civilisation. You can clearly tell that the author has done his research because there is so much depth and detail to this world and characters. I loved learning about this world and the culture of the other civilisation. There is a wide range of characters that are all wonderfully well written too.
This book is epic in scale and I’m impressed with Tchaikovsky for managing to tell this story without us being bogged down or being sidetracked from the main story. Do not be intimidated by the size and scope of this book. At 600 pages it is a long book but it is well worth the effort and time commitment. I have to admit that I was a little intimidated at first as someone who doesn’t read a lot of sci-fi but there was no need to be. There are many good things to say about this book, from the innovative story to the fantastic world building to the writing that will have you gripped from early on. If you are looking for a fast-paced, action-packed sci-fi book then this probably isn’t for you, however if you are a big sci-fi fan then I think this is well worth checking out.
Overall I loved this book. If you are looking for a new sci-fi book to read then I highly recommend checking this book out, especially if you want one that handles the whole alien thing a little differently. Have you read this book? Or have you read anything else by this author? I hope you are all having a wonderful day and I will see you next time.
Pippa
