Children of Ruin

By: Adrian Tchaikovsky

Narrated by: Mel Hudson

The astonishing sequel to Children of Time, the award-winning novel of humanity's battle for survival on a terraformed planet.

Thousands of years ago, Earth's terraforming program took to the stars. On the world they called Nod, scientists discovered alien life - but it was their mission to overwrite it with the memory of Earth. Then humanity's great empire fell, and the program's decisions were lost to time.

Aeons later, humanity and its new spider allies detected fragmentary radio signals between the stars. They dispatched an exploration vessel, hoping to find cousins from old Earth.

But those ancient terraformers woke something on Nod better left undisturbed.

And it's been waiting for them.

For more from Adrian Tchaikovsky, check out:
Children of Time

©2019 Adrian Tchaikovsky (P)2019 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"Children of Ruin is wonderful - big, thinky SF that feels classic without being mired in the past, absolutely crammed with fun ideas. Anyone who likes sweeping, evolutionary-scale stories will love this." (Django Wexler)

"A novel of sublime plot twists and spectacular set pieces, 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. A hugely satisfying sequel." (Stephen Baxter)

"Magnificent. This is the big stuff - the really big stuff. Rich in wisdom and Humanity (note the 'H'), with a Stapledonian sweep and grandeur. Books like this are why we read science-fiction." (Ian McDonald)

Worth every second

The best sci-fi I've listened to in a long time. Possibly ever. Beautiful. Hopeful. Empathetic. Everything you've wanted from Star Trek but better and delivered in potent tight narrative with lovable characters. I hope there's another!

Incredibly Good!

Wow, what a storyline and concept! Great book made even better by Mel Hudson’s brilliant narration! Highly recommended!

Simply amazing continuation of the series.

The first book in this series was amazing. This book gets even better. The author is truly talented at perspective building from a wide and largely unfamiliar point of view from other species and cognative architectures. Easily one of my favorite scifi stories of all time.

Great storytelling!

I didn't think it would be as good as Children of Time but it surprised me. I enjoyed it very much.

loved it.

This book could be read as a stand alone but is an excellent continuation and follow up to " Children of Time ". Follow the human race through thousands of years of adventure, technacacy, and ultimately war and self annihilation. As man spread throughout the stars no life was found, so the planets were seeded and infected with the human spark of intelligence. More planets than grains of sand on earth but precious few suited to humanity's need. This posses only a delay for terraforming to take affect. Will mankind survive and be able to live in peace with their children...

love the idea of a long lasting legacy of mankind

This series explores a mind stretching approach to alien societies and how we helped create them.

Really Good But...

The subject and premise were very interesting and fresh, the narrator is top notch; I could listen to her all day. However, the story was just a tad to clever by half. So many characters, and concepts were thrown into this otherwise engaging story that I personally found myself very lost at times. That is not to say the book isn't worth a listen, but in this instance I just couldn't focus for all the detail.

Great journey of a book

I was often a bit lost and confused with the story and characters... but that's not a bad thing.

Outstanding sci-fi

Well-written sci-fi with resonant characters and a superb reading performance. I’m finding this series very enjoyable.

Superb!

Another spell-binding space tale full of wonderful science, creatures, and creepy possibilities read by a sterling narrator.