Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Children of Time

By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
Narrated by: Mel Hudson
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £18.99

Buy Now for £18.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

Adrian Tchaikovksy's critically acclaimed stand-alone novel Children of Time is the epic story of humanity's battle for survival on a terraformed planet.

Who will inherit this new Earth?

The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age - a world terraformed and prepared for human life.

But all is not right in this new Eden. In the long years since the planet was abandoned, the work of its architects has borne disastrous fruit. The planet is not waiting for them pristine and unoccupied. New masters have turned it from a refuge into mankind's worst nightmare.

Now two civilizations are on a collision course, both testing the boundaries of what they will do to survive. As the fate of humanity hangs in the balance, who are the true heirs of this new Earth?

©2016 Adrian Tchaikovsky (P)2017 Audible Ltd
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Hyperion cover art
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) cover art
Project Hail Mary cover art
Dune cover art
Artemis cover art
The Martian cover art
Outland cover art
Jurassic Park cover art
The Singularity Trap cover art
New Spring cover art
Roboteer cover art
Berserkers cover art
Ilium cover art
Tracking the Trailblazer cover art
House of Suns cover art
Existence cover art

Critic reviews

" Children of Time is a joy from start to finish. Entertaining, smart, surprising and unexpectedly human." (Patrick Ness)

What listeners say about Children of Time

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    5,476
  • 4 Stars
    1,907
  • 3 Stars
    559
  • 2 Stars
    160
  • 1 Stars
    84
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4,993
  • 4 Stars
    1,790
  • 3 Stars
    493
  • 2 Stars
    125
  • 1 Stars
    84
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    5,096
  • 4 Stars
    1,625
  • 3 Stars
    488
  • 2 Stars
    174
  • 1 Stars
    94

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

great novel fascinating idea

i found the pace was good enough to keep me entertained and the idea a good one. there was a twist at the end when game theory was turned on its head. i recommend as something not too heavy but good company as you drive around.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

It takes a master narrator...

It takes a master narrator for me to empathize with a spider or a whole civilisation of them for that matter.

A unique but believable universe filled with the all too familiar human arrogance and folly. The chapters focused on the arachnids perspective are almost alien but written in such a way that leaves us rooting for them by the end of the book.

I think I'm going to spend more time listening g to this gentleman's work.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent

Thought provoking, well read and original science fiction. Look forward to more of the same

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Love this author

Literally stayed up all night to listen to this, I listened for over 6 hours straight. It's so good.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fascinating story

Great book for sci-fi fans. Perhaps not perfect for an arachnophobic! However it was a great take on space travel. Leaving our dead world to try and start over again how would we fare? Listen to it and decide.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Incredible.

Took a little while to get used to the narrator, but after a few hours I was familiar with the voices of the various character.

Absolutely brilliant book. I can’t wait to get invested in the next in this series!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

An exceptional piece of story telling.

Mel Hudson really does a good job with the voices and the seamless flow of the story naturally leads the listener on. A majestic tale.. Well done to the author!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

epic sci-fi saga

lots of fascinating what ifs in this sweeping saga of humanity and llife from Earth.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

An allegory for our time.

A well structured narrative that could easily have got lost across the epic time scale of the story. Genuine characters and a conclusion that is satisfying without being Hollywood sugary. A real opportunity for a second volume but something's are best left alone.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A grand story showing who we really are

The common thread of how self destructive the human species eventually became is clearly demonstrated in this epic novel. But I was only really interested in how the alternative culture of the spiders developed. Their resourcefulness and ingenuity and strangely their humanity was truly inspiring. I loved the way they exceeded the wisdom of their flawed messenger God to achieve greatness. A lovely hopeful tale

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!