IBR - Children of Time Series by Adrian Tchaikovsky

[Ashley, The Tipsy Challenger]

Members Starting the BR: Sammy & Jenny
Challenge: Book Quest Adventures
Series: Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Books: Children of Time, Children of Ruin, Children of Memory

Anyone is free to join in this Buddy Read! Happy Reading!

[Sammy]

starting my re-read of #1 this evening!

[Sammy]

And done!

Still a seriously good book!!

I wonder if it has actually managed to cure anyone of arachnophobia? I don't personally mind spiders (and absolutely love them in this book!), so can't really say for certain.

I should get my daughter to read it. She's utterly terrified of them. In fact, I did buy her husband a copy of the first two books a couple of years ago (he loves spiders. They are an odd couple 😆), so I should probably ask him if he got to them yet, and get him to persuade her.

[Jenny]

I am finishing mine today. I will wait on the other two until after this Turf round though.
I can't say that I am cured of my overall dislike of spiders in my personal space, but I have a much bigger respect for them after reading this one.

I just love how the unintended consequences plot line works out.
I can just imagine Mr. Tchaikovsky sitting at his table having breakfast, thinking of writing a space opera about exploration, and generation ships, and gene manipulation, and the like, and all of a sudden a spider walks across his pancakes, and he has his eureka moment.

[Sammy]

I'm doing mine this week. mostly because none of my other books fit this turf round at all, and I don't want to end up having to cram everything into one week 😆

[Sammy]

Hehe... Love the spider pancakes imagery...

I should really spend more time out and about, so I have a chance of bumping in to him (he lives in Leeds too), then I can ask him all the questions.

Mostly I still want to know why he hates Idris...

[Jenny]

No problem!
These are rereads for me, so I don't mind commenting before I am done.

[Jenny]

The Idris thing always makes me think how anyone could hate something called Idris!
Good connotations in my head after all.

[Sammy]

Right!? My guess is his wife totally has a thing for *that* Idris...

[Sammy]

And done with book 2. I'd forgotten so much about this one (which is weird, because I read it two years ago. I'd read book 1 in 2020 and remembered almost all of it!), so it was fun to get re-acquainted.

Is it me, or do the octopuses sound really pretty? I like the idea of being able to communicate with colour (besides blushing, that one is no fun, because it usually comes with unpleasant emotions, lol).

I've stayed well clear of spoilers for book 3, so don't know if Tchaikovsky will treat us to any more 8-legged creatures in that (please for the love of all that's good don't let it be scorpions. I will 100% bail! 😆). Ticks? Sleipnir?

[Jenny]

Of course it will be fluffy bunnies. I mean, what else could it be? Oops! Spoiler!

Octopuses are amazing, and yes, they sound very pretty. I do like the idea of communicating with color, as long as like speech, one can decide what to communicate. If my internal thoughts became external, I would get in a lot of trouble in conversations. I always wonder about that with books that delve into societies that are telepathic. I mean how hard would it be to actually know what someone else thinks? Also, would that society develop phones of some sort? How would that work? Sorry. Tangent.

The color aspect reminded me of the Ailewons (sp) in Becky Chamber's Angry Planet book.

[Sammy]

I would not want to be a telepath for anything! And please keep them out of my head. It's for their own sanity 😂

Usually telepathy requires line-of-sight, so I guess phones still likely to be a thing...

[Jenny]

You wrote that like it was really a thing. teehee

[Sammy]

Hey, don't you go telling me Babylon 5 isn't real! I refuse to hear it! 😆

[Catherine]

I got the first book and will start reading this month 😍

[Sammy]

Well, there have definitely been bunnies... not particularly fluffy though 😂

I'll be done in about an hour. got to say though, I think this one is my favourite of the trilogy. And they're all excellent!

[Jenny]

Catherine wrote: "I got the first book and will start reading this month 😍"

Yay! Another potential convert! This is such a good book.

[Jenny]

Sammy wrote: "Well, there have definitely been bunnies... not particularly fluffy though 😂

I'll be done in about an hour. got to say though, I think this one is my favourite of the trilogy. And they're all exce..."

I agree. I love the fact that this is such a strong trilogy. He is pretty good at keeping up the interest and plot and not submitting to sequel-itis.

[Sammy]

There's going to be another one! There's going to be another one!!!

expected pub date March 19, 2026

[Sammy]

Just finished #3, and loved it!

I found it a little less hard work than book 2, but still just as rewarding. And if the ideas in this one were nothing new, they were at least executed beautifully!

Tchaikovsky is fast becoming one of my favourite sci-fi authors...

[Jenny]

I wish I could figure out why I find him so amazing with sci-fi, and somewhat less so with fantasy.
Still good, but not as moving. For me anyway.

[Sammy]

No, I feel exactly the same, and have heard others express the same opinion.

My guess is that he just loves sci-fi (and hard sci-fi at that) more than he does fantasy, and it shows in his writing.

[Angie ☯]

I'll be joining you for this one! I can use it for Book Quest and it fits Belle's rule in the Sinister Toys & Haunted Objects Roundup. Thank you, Sammy....I think... for pointing out that is spider kryptonite for us spider haters.

[Sammy]

Lol! Very useful books these. Though from experience, they are the WORST if you're looking for food! Read the first one during the NBRC restaurant challenge and all I could find were eggs (and spider eggs at that! 😆)

[Angie ☯]

Sammy wrote: "I wonder if it has actually managed to cure anyone of arachnophobia?..."

I would say no, with capital letters! I'm only at 4% and I'm cringing. 😆

Portia at least did kill another spider.....
Then we come to the fact that her children will be larger and the children will "inherit the world".
Now if I can pretend they aren't spiders, maybe just maybe, I can read it without having to pause repeatedly!

[Jenny]

Just remember that you do not need to go visit that planet, and concentrate on the personalities.

[Angie ☯]

I had to take a bit of a break! LOL
I'm trying to disregard the species and go with the story/personalities!!

[Angie ☯]

That took me longer to read than it should have!

I will say that I stopped cringing about midway through, but I still hate spiders! 🤣

I can't say I loved it, but it was written very well!

[Angie ☯]

Jenny wrote: "I can just imagine Mr. Tchaikovsky sitting at his table having breakfast, thinking of writing a space opera about exploration, and generation ships, and gene manipulation, and the like, and all of a sudden a spider walks across his pancakes, and he has his eureka moment...."

I'm just reading all the comments because I didn't want to have spoilers - other than the spiders! Then I read this....
you had to pair one of my least favorite things with pancakes! (one of my favorite things!!) I think I may be scarred for life!!

[Jenny]

It was a thought experiment. It will not happen in real life!!!!!!

I'm glad you at least appreciated it, even if you didn't love it. Please tell me there were spiders that you were rooting for by the end though!

[Angie ☯]

I'm full of questions!!

So, are there spiders in book 2 or 3? I want more of this, but without the arachnids!

I want to know if I followed the story...(view spoiler)[ Were the spiders actually robots/machines and not real spiders? And they were made by humans to try to save the species? (hide spoiler)]

You both were talking about loving Tchaikovsky's Sci-Fi over his Fantasy. What is your favorite book/books?

For the love of pancakes, the man must have pet spiders!!! I went in search of other books of his and what do I find, you ask? A reissue of "Spiderlight" (https://www.adriantchaikovsky.com/)

[Angie ☯]

Jenny wrote: "It was a thought experiment. It will not happen in real life!!!!!!

I'm glad you at least appreciated it, even if you didn't love it. Please tell me there were spiders that you were rooting for by the end though! ..."

I think the only reason I didn't love it was because there were spiders! (I *might* have been rooting a little....) (view spoiler)[I thought we lost Portia - that was a little sad. And then even more sad with what Fabian does! (hide spoiler)]

[Jenny]

If you want to try another Tchaikovsky Sci-fi book, go for Dogs of War. It is great.

The spiders were real. (view spoiler)[ the crazy lady Kern had the idea of creating a new evolutionary track of hominids using the monkeys she hoped to set down on the terraformed planet, until they were, you know, blown up and stuff. But, the nano virus that was supposed to make the monkeys smart and speed the evolution made it to the other species on the planet, and it took with the spiders especially. (hide spoiler)]

I do get why Kern went a bit mad, but I also think she started out a bit mad.

Yes, the spiders do show up in the other books, but they are not the focus. In book two, get ready to spend some time with some octopuses, and a couple of new planets.

[Angie ☯]

Okay! I thought they were real and then I got very confused when they were talking to god and at the very end with what happened!

[Lexi]

Hi all, I am dropping by since I saw the comment on Spiderlight to suggest that book as it is a very different look at Fantasy and much more thoughful that the blurb suggests. It is a really interesting book. It is also much lighter on spiders due to a plot point fairly early in the book.

[Sammy]

I've still got to read Spiderlight. Waiting for it to show up in a sale!

My favourite Tchaikovsky book is Cage of Souls, followed by book 3 in this series, Children of Memory (very little in the way of spiders!)

But I also love Dogs of War, Alien Clay, Shards of Earth and their respective series.

The ones I wasn't as fond of (3 stars rather than 4 or 5) were Empire in Black and Gold (read the first 5, I think. bought in bulk in a series sale. never really got into them properly), City of Last Chances, The Tiger and the Wolf (shifters, I'm sooooooooo over them! lol)

[Sammy]

If it helps Angie, mr. Tchaikovsky was unlikely to be eating pancakes for breakfast. It's not a common breakfast food in the UK 😆

[Lexi]

Sammy wrote: "I've still got to read Spiderlight. Waiting for it to show up in a sale!

My favourite Tchaikovsky book is Cage of Souls, followed by book 3 in this series, [book:Ch..."

I really like Cage of Souls and still need to get around to Cage of Memories. I have read the first two. I haven't read any of the ones you don't like so I will probably keep it that way.

[Sammy]

You know, I think you and Tchaikovsky would have a lot to talk about Lexi. Apparently he studied zoology, which is why so many of his books revolve around different animal species.

So long as he stays away from the scorpions I'm good 😆

[Catherine]

A Bit of a late start on this one but here I go. Hoping to finish by end of week.

[Catherine]

I started the book and can't find it in me to care about the spiders. wondering if that part of the story matters or the author had to put it in because of an obsession 😂😂

[Sammy]

Er... yes. Yes the spiders very much do matter, lol. it's also most of the book 😆

And yes, I'm pretty sure Tchaikovsky is indeed obsessed with creepy crawlies...

[Jenny]

There are spiders that will amaze you and hopefully make you care a little bit about them. As l long as they are not invading your personal space, of course.

[Catherine]

Ok guys don't hate me, but I am indeed not a convert. I did not exactly hate the book, but it was definitely not my cup of tea. Maybe I am not a complete sci-fi convert and only like to sprinkle them in here and there. Instead of a whole month full. Sci-fi month has kicked my butt, that's for sure.

[Catherine]

I did read a sci-fi book from Netgalley. I think last year that. I am wondering have any of you read it and what you thought. And if not, I recommend because I do wonder what you think.

Escape Velocity by Victor Manibo

Also what makes a sci-fi book a Space Opera?

[Jenny]

This is definitely a book that leans more towards hard sci-fi. I'm glad you tried it though and didn't hate it!
There are easier sci-fi books to grab if you ever need another for a challenge or just to see if you like them.

[Jenny]

Catherine wrote: "Ok guys don't hate me, but I am indeed not a convert. I did not exactly hate the book, but it was definitely not my cup of tea. Maybe I am not a complete sci-fi convert and only like to sprinkle th..."

I haven't read that one. I will add it to my list.

Space Opera is basically any story that takes place in space.

[Sammy]

Jenny wrote: "Space Opera is basically any story that takes place in space."

True, only it is also a certain type of story. Space Opera is usually a more straightforward story, and more about character interactions, such as The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet for example (and can definitely veer into melodrama!), as opposed to Hard SF, like most of Tchaikovsky's books, which tends to be more about science and Big Ideas.

Every now and then you get a book/series that walks the line between the two, like David Zindell's Requiem for Homosapiens series. When the author is competent, those books tend to be something special!

[Benedicte, Bookmark First, Ask Later]

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