Review based on an ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley

Generations ago, travelers in an ark ship attempted to settle on a barely livable planet. Now, as they struggle in an increasingly untenable situation, a scientific expedition from the species of Children of Time and Children of Ruin wrestles with how to observe and understand without causing (or allowing) greater harm.

I spent the last couple weeks binge-reading the Children of Time series, and so far I’ve loved it. Tchaikovsky’s universe-wide setting gives him room to play with different types of story while building on the sci-fi worldbuilding of previous volumes. I read Children of Time as a thriller (with sympathetic viewpoints on both sides of the first contact conflict), and Children of Ruin as sci-fi horror. Children of Memory reads to me as a sort of dream-logic puzzle box, at turns reminding me of things as recent as Harrow The Ninth (just why is this narrator so unreliable?) and as classic as Bradbury and Star Trek (how can we do ___ without violating the Prime Directive?). It’s a very confusing read, but once I realized that it was that way on purpose I was able to let go and enjoy the ride.

Along the way, Tchaikovsky introduces a variety of ethical and philosophical questions for his characters to struggle with. Without getting too much into spoilers, characters and readers are asked to think about whether it’s possible to interact with an isolated culture without committing cultural genocide (where the people live, but their culture is destroyed as they are assimilated into the dominate culture), what it means to be sentient/sapient, and whether everything is a simulation/does that even matter.

The whole Children of Time series is wonderful, and while I’m not sure I’d recommend smashing through it in two weeks I definitely think that sci-fi fans should check it out!

Children of Memory is available for purchase and might be held by your local library. You can find it in print and support a local bookstore via IndieBound, or as an ebook at Kobo (or presumably most other ebook distributors).