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Children of Strife

Children of Time, Book 4

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Children of Strife

By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
Narrated by: Mel Hudson
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About this listen

The acclaimed voice of the Children of Time Universe, Mel Hudson, returns for this highly-anticipated fourth instalment.

They thought they’d found refuge.
But this paradise became their prison.


Centuries ago, a maverick terraforming team played God with a distant planet. Out of their vanity and spite, something terrible and unexpected arose.

Generations later, tormented scientist Alis is among the crew of the research vessel that rediscovers this lost outpost. But Alis wakes from nightmares of her own making to an all-too-real catastrophe on board. The rest of the crew has vanished – leaving only Cato, the belligerent mantis-shrimp captain, and Kern, the ship’s AI.

Searching for their lost fellows, Alis and Cato must venture into the darkness of the planet below. What did those ancient terraformers unleash? And will their last surviving crewmate become a greater threat than the world itself?

Why listeners love Adrian Tchaikovsky, bestselling author of acclaimed audiobook hits Alien Clay and Service Model:

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

‘One of the most interesting and accomplished writers in speculative fiction’
- Christopher Paolini

‘Magnificent’
- Ian McDonald


Children of Time won the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Science Fiction Novel w/c 24 August 2016

First Contact Hard Science Fiction Science Fiction Space Exploration Space Opera Fiction Solar System

Critic reviews

Tchaikovsky is the break-out star of contemporary British SF
Tchaikovsky is writing modern classics and you should start reading them as soon as possible (Tade Thompson, author of Rosewater)
The central concept unravels itself in a manner that is both deeply satisfying and not at all predictable. He truly is one of our finest writers of SF right now. The whole was an excellent story told with Adrian's trademark skill and flair (James Oswald, author of The Rest is Death)
[Adrian Tchaikovsky] writes incredibly enjoyable sci-fi, full of life and ideas (Patrick Ness, author of The Knife of Never Letting Go)
Adrian Tchaikovsky: king of the spiders, master world-builder and asker of intriguing questions. His books are packed with thought-provoking ideas (as well as lots of spiders; did I mention the spiders?). One of the most interesting and accomplished writers in speculative fiction (Christopher Paolini, author of To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, on Shards of Earth)
A thoughtful, sweeping space adventure (SFX Magazine on Shards of Earth)
Alien Clay is convincing, compelling on human and cosmic levels, and unputdownable. With work like this, Adrian Tchaikovsky is fast becoming the voice of his generation in British SF (Stephen Baxter, author of the Xeelee Sequence, on Alien clay)
All stars
Most relevant
While Children of Memory had been my least favourite book so far from this series, the tie ins with this book give me a whole new appreciation for it.

Great story, amazingly concluded!

LOVED IT!

My favourite so far in the series!

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With the authors natural gift for storytelling his intelligence and bountiful imagination he is bound to produce literature worth reading or listening to. Having said that I'd still like to say that this is not his greatest work. But Adrian is just so goddamn prolific that to expect that is entirely unfair. If there were some literary measure comprising quality per thousand words then Adrian would be putting out some of the most volume of net quality of any author. Unfortunately however for Adrian the density of quality only occasionally merits awards and the like making him a bit underrated.

Wicked Smart as His Previous Work

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Of the many I've read, this is my favourite sci-fi series. Always entertaining, thoughtful, and wildly imaginative.

Incredible

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maybe the best entry in the series! love the book and the series. one of of the few good sci-fi stories were each book end in a utopia were all is well.

Another great entry in the hopefull sci-fi series

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I really tried, the whole thing, no luck though. struggling with the story as it makes very little sense. some bits at the end start to gel but that is the very end. Can't figure out the characters properly. it simply didn't work!

Mel's narration is great though!

not great

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