Children of Ruin
ISBN: 9781509865857
Description
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.
Reviewed on 7th September 2024
This sequel to Children of Time has been sat on my shelf for over three years, and it’s been five years since I read the first book. Yet I found it easily to slip back into and read - easier than the first from what I can interpret from my notes.
This time out, we meet a different group of human terraformers, who are deep in space, each with their own side interests, when they make a startling discovery. In parallel we are in the future, continuing the journey of book one’s characters as they learn about what has happened elsewhere.
I was surprised by how readable I found it. I don’t know if this is a shift of tone from the first book, or if I just don’t remember. But it’s relatively light, there’s a lot of little moments of humour dropped into the narrative, and moving between time periods and points of view is made very easy for the reader.
I certainly found it compelling enough that I will look out for a copy of book three, although the length might mean I put off reading it for another five years.