I loved Children Of Time, and was a bit cooler towards Children Of Ruin, so this one had the potential to swing the series either way for me. It turns out this isn’t really the right way to look at it. It’s a different beast from those two books, set in the same universe with some returning characters, but the uplift elements are almost incidental. For the first third or so, I thought I was going to be looking at a two-star review. The book initially appeared to be a mess, over obscure and unsympathetic. But soon the realisation came that the author has been putting pieces in place to spring his trap, and as what exactly is going on began to come into focus my enjoyment levels shot up. If you can persevere through the opening then there are worthwhile rewards here.

It’s not a lovable book, suffused as it is with pessimism and a cynical (you might say realistic) view of human nature. But it is a clever one, with an excellent SFnal mystery at its heart. I get the feeling this is one I will enjoy having read more than I did actually reading it.

Children of Memory takes a slightly different turn to the previous books in the series, but still feels very much part of the same universe despite having a fantasy feel at times - both Tchaikovsky's own Elder Race and Terry Pratchett's witch books seem like strong influences. The story takes a bit of time to get going, in a way that seems confusing at first, but of course all makes sense in the end. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC

Superb next part in the children of Time series - the most effective series I can recall reading in a long time. Building effectively on both the events and themes of the previous books, Memory introduces another species developed on a partially terraformed world (this time corvids) and explores what it means to be sentient, ethical arguments and ultimately what it means to be human (or Human, or… etc.).

Fantastic, complex, science fiction that rewards close attention.

I started my journey with this author and this series by reading Children of Time for a book group read.
Being a fan of sci-fi /fantasy in general I was surprised that I’d not read this author before then but I fell in love with this series from then and the rest is history.
I loved the whole concept and what I particularly like with this series is that I can actually imagine these events happening. The way the author intertwines our morals and ethics into his writing, makes the events seem feasible.
This book is a fantastic addition to the series, the depth and complexities he gets into every character and situation makes for a fully immersive read. I can’t fault it.

Thank you to the author, the publisher and Netgalley for my arc.
5 out of 5 stars!

Outstanding and utterly imaginative new sci-fi. This next story in the Children of Time series really moves us on from the uplift stories. It's about ethics, intervention and so much more. It weaves between sci fi and fantasy, which Tchaikovsky is so adept at. A fantastic and unexpected turn for this series. This will stretch your imagination and keep you guessing till the very end.

I received this as an ARC from NetGalley, having read Children of Time. However I did not realise that Children of Ruin came between, and spent quire a number of chapters thoroughly confused. I almost gave up, but I’d enjoyed the first book so much I persevered, and was glad I did. I had a ‘light bulb moment’, when I began to have an inkling of what was going on, though my theory still fell short of the truth.
This is not an easy beach read; it requires a bit of concentration (and quite possibly a flowchart) to keep track of things, but it’s worth the effort.

The Children Of Time setting never had the cheeriest foundations, given its backstory rests on a dying Earth and a colossal act of human self-sabotage, but for all the hurdles in the previous books, there's something about the ever-shrinking world, the nastiness and division here which make it feel like a distinctly 2020s addition to the series. The setting is the colony world of Imir; we open with the disastrous arrival of the ark-ship Enkidu, its captain reduced to making the least unforgivably awful decisions he can. Generations later, his descendants are our lens on the world as the sparse, uninspiring ecosystem which was all the founders were able to establish starts to collapse entirely, a crisis to which the inhabitants respond by pulling together...ah, who am I kidding? They turn on each other, don't they, because that's what people do. And especially they turn on anyone who seems a bit different, such as, for instance, any visitors from the interplanetary, multi-species civilisation established in the previous two books, who are trying to help, but don't entirely agree on what that would mean, and in any case, something seems to have gone wrong for the expedition. By telling the story largely through the lens of the degenerating colony, who are missing crucial information the reader knows from having read the rest of the series, Children Of Memory initially recalls Banks' Inversions, and just as that disappointed me a little in its withholding of the Culture books' normal appeal, so here. Yes, there's still some of the trademark speculation on different types of consciousness, focused at first on some crows who may be sentient or just extremely good mimics – but even that feels a little off, because never mind uplifted corvids, Earth ones are already smarter than most of the people currently choosing our next Prime Minister. Accordingly, there's a bit of fiddling which, unlike the uplifts of the previous novels, doesn't feel like it's playing entirely fair. But then, we're not ever so far into the novel before it becomes clear that something odd is going on, even by the standards of an epic which covers millennia and untold distances and includes among its cast a totally alien life form desperately pretending to be a person, not to mention the spiders and the octopus. Being as vague as I can here, because I don't want to give things away if I can help it: the loop plot seems to have become very popular lately, even before lockdown, and there are ways to make the experience of reading about it less trying than living it, but if you combine that with a constricted, colourless world that seems like it's never going to get any better, then yeah, it does start to feel a little too familiar to be fun reading about. When the twist is revealed, it turns out to be half of what I'd surmised from the initial announcement of the book, and though it does have some interesting elements in the treatment, they still feel very close to stuff I've seen in other recent SF which didn't need to spend quite so much time in the dust beset by plagues of beetles to get there. It's not jumping the shark, if only because I don't think any of the series' ecologies have sharks, but this does feel like compared to those first two masterpieces in the series, the 2020sness goes beyond the theme.

(Netgalley ARC)

I have absolutely no idea where to start withy this review. I am just so blown away by this book, and all the directions it took me in, leaving me emotionally raw by the end of it.

To read this book, you really need to have read Children of Time and Children of Ruin, or most of this really will make little sense. And if you have not read them, then why not? They are two of the greatest sci-fi books I have read, and this one just tops the bill in my - humble - estimation.

The characters you meet in this book have a true way of pulling at you from the word go, once you learn what has happened in the years since the last book. But what happens on this new planet, with the addition of the Corvids (who I personally loved!) I don't want to say anymore as I don't want to give any spoilers, but it is a like an emotionally game of bumper cars except my car has no battery and I am getting bumped from every side.

A must read in the series, and now I seriously have no idea where the direction the next book will go, but woh boy, am I looking forward to it.

If you are expecting a direct continuation of the previous 2 books connecting this universe then you will be disappointed, whilst there are obviously characters that do connect the dots this book is more fantasy than ecological science fiction which the previous books have, to be honest anything Adrian writes I love so I you won’t be surprised that I also love this one and have already pre ordered the audiobook, dive in and enjoy the madness

Tchaikovsky never fails to amaze and surprise.

I adored 'Children of Time' and 'Children of Ruin'. And yet, 'Children of Memory' is very different. It doesn't follow the formula of [species] + Uplift virus + chronology of the resulting society's twists and turns. I was a tiny bit sad about this - but this would probably have been a case of too much of a good thing.

Instead, this third book in the series takes a step towards something like fantasy, echoing Tchaikovsky's novella 'The Elder Race' and perhaps even a trace of 'The Tiger and the Wolf'. It is utterly intriguing, and the deep mystery at the story's heart sneaks up on you. It's also a philosophy lecture masquerading as a very good book - though I won't say more on that, for fear of spoilers.

The book is long, but easy to consume. It's written with the author's usual witty style, and I grinned or even giggled in places, thanks to the brilliant cast of characters from Avrana Kern to the new Gothli and Gethli. But it's almost the most emotional book of Tchaikovsky's that I've read, with a bittersweet ending of sadness and joy.

For some reason, I had thought this would be the finally book, but it feels like there's so much more to be explored still - and I have faith that there'll be a fourth.

(With thanks to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for this ebook in exchange for an honest review)