Children of Ruin

Author: Tchaikovsky, Adrian

Space opera

Published on 20 February 2020 by PAN MACMILLAN (Pan Books) in the United Kingdom as part of The Children of Time Novels series.

Paperback | 576 pages
130 x 197 x 36 | 386g

My most anticipated book of the year - Peter F. Hamilton, Britains no.1 science fiction writerChildren of Ruin follows Adrian Tchaikovskys extraordinary Children of Time, winner of the Arthur C. Clarke award. It is set in the same universe, with new characters and a thrilling narrative.

It has been waiting through the ages. Now its time . . .

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.

Books like this are why we read science fiction - Ian McDonald, author of the Luna seriesAll underpinned by great ideas. And it is crisply modern - but with the sensibility of classic science fictionStephen Baxter, author of the Long Earth series (with Terry Pratchett)