Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Synopsis

Earth is failing. In a desperate bid to escape, the spaceship Enkidu and its captain, Heorest Holt, carry its precious human cargo to a potential new Eden. Generations later, this fragile colony has managed to survive, eking out a hardy existence. Yet life is tough, and much technological knowledge has been lost.

Then Liff, Holt's granddaughter, hears whispers that the strangers in town aren't from neighbouring farmland. That they possess unparalleled technology - and that they've arrived from another world. But not all questions are so easily answered, and their price may be the colony itself.

Book Review of Children of Memory

Tchaikovsky's Children of Time and Children of Ruin were two of my all-time favorites when I read them in early 2021. Both of them follow quite a similar structure: two timelines, a new uplifted species and lots of communication problems to be solved.

While Children of Memory first seems to follow this same structure, it very quickly becomes clear that, this third time, Adrian Tchaikovsky had more ambitous plans.

It starts the old, familiar way: Humans, Spiders, Octopuses, the Thing from Nod and Kern, all flying to a new planet called Rourke and meeting intelligent corvids, including Gothi and Gethli. From there, They continue to Imir, a planet where they find another one of the old-earth arkships that centuries before had come to Imir in the hopes of finding a liveable planet.

This is where the story starts to become more complex and confusing, with more time-jumps and at times seemingly contradictory chapters. The mystery keeps building, making the reader wonder more and more how all these pieces could ever fit together into a coherent story. And while at times it was unclear if there could be a satisfying conclusion I must admit that I quite enjoyed the moment when I finally realized what was going on and how the story was going to end!

Along with managing the complex plot, Tchaikovsky manages to simultaneously interweave a thought-provoking discussion about what it means to be sentient. Finally, The story ends in a familiar fashion, with a nicely wrapped up conclusion that still leaves the door open for a possible sequel. Tchaikovsky has stated that he has no specific plans for that sequel, but he has stated the same after both Time and Ruin :)