Children of Memory cover art

Children of Memory

Action-packed alien adventure from the winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award

Preview

Get 30 days of Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30-day free trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for £0.00
More purchase options
Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

About this listen

They dreamed of a new home. They woke to a nightmare.


From the award-winning master of sci-fi Adrian Tchaikovsky, Children of Memory is the unmissable follow-up space opera to the highly acclaimed Children of Time and Children of Ruin. Continue the journey with Children of Strife.

On Imir, Captain Holt founded a new colony on an empty world. In the process, he created hope and a new future for humanity. But, generations later, his descendants are struggling to survive.

As harvests worsen and equipment fails, strangers appear in a town where everyone knows their neighbour. Now the inexplicable lurks in the woods and the community fears that it's being observed – that they’re not alone.

They’d be right, as explorers from the stars have arrived in secret to help this lost outpost. Confident of their superior technology, and overseen by the all-knowing construct of Doctor Avrana Kern, they begin to study their long-lost cousins from Earth.

Yet the planet hides deeper mysteries. It seems the visitors aren’t the only watchers. And when the starfarers discover the scale of their mistake, it will be far too late to escape.

Children of Memory by Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author Adrian Tchaikovsky is a far-reaching space opera spanning generations, species and galaxies.

Praise for the series:

‘Entertaining, smart, surprising and unexpectedly human’ – Patrick Ness, author of A Monster Calls

‘Brilliant science fiction and far-out world-building’ – James McAvoy

‘A fabulous sense of scale that only someone as talented as Adrian Tchaikovsky can pull off’ – Peter F. Hamilton, author of Exodus: The Archimedes Engine

Adventure Fiction First Contact Hard Science Fiction Science Fiction Space Exploration Space Opera Technology Thriller

Critic reviews

One of the most interesting and accomplished writers in speculative fiction (Christopher Paolini, author of To Sleep in a Sea of Stars)
Brilliant science fiction and far-out world-building (James McAvoy on Children of Time)
Breathtaking scope and vision. Adrian Tchaikovsky is one of our finest writers (Gareth L. Powell, author of Embers of War, on Children of Ruin)
All underpinned by great ideas. And it is crisply modern - but with the sensibility of classic science fiction. Asimov or Clarke might have written this (Stephen Baxter, author of Time and Proxima, on Children of Ruin)
Children of Time is a joy from start to finish. Entertaining, smart, surprising and unexpectedly human. (Patrick Ness, author of A Monster Calls and the Chaos Walking series, on Children of Time)
All stars
Most relevant
Children of time is perhaps one of my all time favourite books, i also really enioyed children of ruin. However this book was different, i found it 'ok' at best.

The book gets very confusing and feels like it builds up just to tell you it has alsmost wasted your time. The ending is good, but i feel it should have been read in the opposite direction almost. It also doesn't really go into any of the other creatures, the book is 75% human centred

loved the 2 non human new additions to this book though, by far my favourite part and the narrations of these 2 was very good.

Confusing and not as unique as the previous 2

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

I like the other 2 books in the series but nothing grabbed me in this one. Great narrator kept me just about interested but yeah this one wasn't for me.

I was bored

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

not quite as engaging as the first 2. less world building and more a "and then he woke up from a dream" your of story. I'm a massive fan of Adrian and this series in particular.

Difficult third book

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

I won't ramble on too long, and no spoilers to be found, but the 'children of' books are quickly becoming my favourite series of sci FI books in a long time (dare I utter the name Ian M Banks?). An original take in a genre full of derivatives, I genuinely had no idea where this book was going right to the end. A fantastic concept, and a fictional discussion of a subject which fascinates me. Fingers crossed the next one isn't too long in the writing! Side note, the narration on audible is fantastic. Paired with the Kindle version I could listen/read seamlessly.

A great entry to a fantastic series

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

Non-derivative but completely canon sequel in a great hard science fiction trilogy. Could be read in isolation but better enjoyed in sequence.

Best of the three (so far)

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

See more reviews