Children of Time: Winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Science Fiction Novel

Adrian Tchaikovsky

Jun 2015 · Pan Macmillan

About this ebook

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky is an epic story of humanity's battle for survival on a hostile, terraformed planet.

'Entertaining, smart, surprising and unexpectedly human' - Patrick Ness, author of A Monster Calls

The last remnants of the human race have 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, its new occupiers 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 will emerge as the rightful heirs of this new Earth?

Dive into Tchaikovsky's chillingly brilliant universe with Children of Time, the Winner of the 30th anniversary Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Novel.

Continue the journey with Children of Ruin and Children of Memory.

Ratings and reviews

Best sci-fi book I've read in a long time. Very unique and even makes me feel differently about spiders. Some great concepts that are well thought out and used effectively throughout the story. Human characters are a little generic but the hyper intelligent spiders are so interesting, from their culture, tech and how they live and interact is so interesting.

Speculative fiction and world building at its finest, never once forgetting that a novel should always tell a story foremost, no matter the ideas and concepts. It got my brain buzzing, brought me to laughter, and close to tears.

With all the inane, uninspired and for formulaic drivel out there in the genre, this was a book to restore my enthusiasm for sci-fi. The 'aliens' aren't humans with another ridge over the brow, they are truly alien, and yet surprisingly the reader finds himself empathetic to their cause. There was a single moment of implausibility, when a very rational protagonist is a little too trigger happy, with way too much at stake. But the book is so good otherwise, it's forgivable.

About the author

Adrian Tchaikovsky was born in Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire before heading off to Reading to study psychology and zoology. For reasons unclear even to himself he subsequently ended up in law and has worked as a legal executive in both Reading and Leeds, where he now lives. Married, he is a keen live role-player and occasional amateur actor, has trained in stage-fighting, and keeps no exotic or dangerous pets of any kind, possibly excepting his son.

He is the author of the critically acclaimed Shadows of the Apt series, Echoes of the Fall series, and Children of Time, the winner of the 30th Anniversary Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.