Children of Ruin

Maybe it was the comedown after the originality of the first book, but I found this sequel somewhat of a hasty do-over. I also had a hard time reading it: the octopus communication takes a long time to get used to, the parasite poetry doesn't add anything really, and the AI/implant parts are confusing. Here's hoping #3 is a return to form.

Wonderful book with an amazing detail of world building. Some of the sub ply towards the end can get a bit tedious but overall it’s a great read.

Children of Ruin treads also somewhat similar pathways as Children of Time. This time, though, the uplifted spiders and Humans who live among them head out to look for Others. (I was going to say "head out for adventure", but OMG the phrase "we're going on an adventure" will never be quite the same for me after this book. O.O) CoR has the same jumping back and forth in time as CoT, so we get to see how the world the Humans and spiders find came to be. I honestly found that a little more interesting than what happened after they arrived at Nod and Damascus (two planets in the new system.) Though honestly, who wouldn't be interested in a book starring uplifted OCTOPI???? I thought Tchaikovsky did a decent job of trying to imagine what a society of even more intelligent (and long-lived) octopi would be like. He managed to incorporate new research that shows that these molluscs essentially have separate brains that govern their tentacles in a way that made me nod and think "Yeah. It might be like that." I did have to wonder if there could ever actually BE any way to communicate meaningfully with such very different species as spiders and octopi, though. He even tosses out Wittgenstein's line "If a lion could talk, we could not understand him." But then he just kinda drops that line in the middle of the story and then marches forward as though he hadn't said it. Communication with different species, mediated by some very advanced technology, proceeds apace. These are surprisingly hopeful books, I think. Communication is difficult, but not impossible. The universe is big, but we have time to explore it. I kinda liked that. I enjoyed a few little easter eggs that I noticed (there may be more that I didn't.) The spiders' computers are operated in part by ants. Of course I thought of Pratchett's wizardly computer, Hex, with its label "Anthill Inside"," LOL. And there's a throwaway reference to a bowl of petunias in space. There is, however, no record that it thought "Oh no, not again." this time. Reader, I laughed. The narrator on this audiobook was good, not speaking too slowly, and having distinct voices for the characters. I like Mr. Tchaikovsky's writing, and look forward to reading more.

Octopuses, spiders, humans, and adventure! As enthralling as the first book. "Only by accepting the other can it truly find diversion and inspiration; only by allowing the universe to be separate from it can it have the infinite variety it craves."

This epic story, and the prequel, are *stellar* explorations of life, sentience, communication, relationship and personhood. If we met life, even life we had created, could we recognise our reflection in it? (Do we recognise it now?) Both stories are far more hopeful about humanity than it first appears, with a fantastic twist in the tale that reframes everything you thought you knew. And a whole lot of adventure. Not light reading, but you’ll love every minute.

It was a very good follow up to the first one. The ideas in the first were marvelous and this one they were interesting. I think the conflict in this was a little too predictable to be a five star book, but I still enjoyed it immensely

A fascinating thought experiment, but dragged as a novel.

."We are going on an adventure!" Children of Ruin is a fine sequel to Children of Time. It doesn't just xerox what the first book did, like some sequels to, or erect structures for a third book. Instead Tchaikovsky offers a kind of deep variation on Time, picking up and developing its themes further, while offering an alternative history to the first novel. To sum up: Children of Ruin starts around the same time Children of Time does, and with a similar plan. A human expedition leaves a troubled Earth to terraform a new world. As with Time, Ruin sees things go badly awry. Meanwhile, we pick up where the first book left off, as a human-spider joint mission visits another star. I don't want to say much more here before raising spoiler shields. For now, suffice to say that Tchaikovsky works around multiple timelines. He adds another uplifted species to his world. And he creates a very scary enemy, whose cheerfully invasive battlecry opens this review. The title is evocative, in that the first half or so of the book is filled with ruins and people living amongst them. Characters ruminate on past glories, lament recent collapses, and try to deal with shrinking options for survival. The opening paragraph ends on this note: "They knew how to build them back in those days." Throughout the novel are passages signaling this melancholy note:She feels as though she is creeping through some vast, endless, unsafe ruin, searching for doors that might fit the verdigrised keys chance has given her. (286)Yet Children of Ruin builds on these ruins, leading to a conclusion as optimistic as Children of Times's. Tchaikovsky has honed his prose, sneaking in more observations and clever word choice than in the first book. For examples, The asteroid belt has been colonized. Elsewhere, less radiant, there are installations that must be acting as spittoons for the distant tardigrades’ mining expectorations, catching the missiles and processing them or sending them on.(111-112) Paul 97’s understanding of the world is ephemeral, inhuman. He hangs in the water column between the angel and the ammonite. (247)"between the angel and the ammonite." And the way the fearsome intruder appears is nicely woven into language (chapter 7 is where it starts). It's a pleasure to read. And now for spoilers.(view spoiler)[The last half of the book scales up in complexity, stacking multiple scenes, inventions, timelines, and problems. There's first contact, tabu violation, civilizational complex, hardware and computer engineering challenges, a version of virtual reality, and more. From this the author restates his theme from the first novel when he describes how the bad alien learns to live:It has learned the limits of monoculture, turned inward in an everlasting round of tedium. Only by accepting the other can it truly find diversion and inspiration; only by allowing the universe to be separate from it can it have the infinite variety it craves. (541)Then he goes a little further along this line:If we met them, though, those other travellers, we would be able to look each other in the eye and see our own reflection. What else is an interlocutor for?(562-563)Definitely a political statement for 2020. (hide spoiler)] These are the only books I've read by the author. Which others should I check out?