Children of Ruin, Adrian Tchaikovsky – Why does this slog get so much praise?

Children of Time (Book 1) was great, fresh, and interesting, and things kept moving at a certain pace. Book 2, which I picked up about eight months after reading Book 1, I had to force myself to finish. Even then, I thought I was done and just gave up on the epilogue.

Halfway through the book, I essentially picked up the audiobook and just slept my way through it. Pretty much missed the ending, and I’m not sure I care.

Spoiler territory:

>!Disra Senkovi started out being wonderfully developed, promising…but no real payoff to his character. He kind of just dies and his creation lives on. Nothing really happens after kills Baltiel.!<

>!Baltiel and the crew were never really developed, and the little development there was there was purely to turn them into zombies.!<

>!We spent nearly 40-50 pages of Helena and the octopus trying to communicate, unsuccessfully. Yes, we get it…they speak in shapes and colors on their skin, and it’s feelings, etc…literally nothing happens.!<

I don’t really have other, more real gripes, because I’m not sure much happened.

Ultimately, the book could’ve been maybe 150 pages shorter and had more an impact. Most of it was so incredibly drawn out to me.

I literally did fall asleep, and don’t care to relisten, or continue with Book 3 at this point. However, here’s what I kind of imagine happened toward the end, perhaps someone can fill in the gaps for me in case I do decide to subject myself to Book 3 down the line.

>!The Octopus shoot the lightfoot, it’s pretty much derelict at this point with the virus entity. The virus entity enters Meshner, through whom Kern is able to communicate and negotiate with the virus. the virus realizes there’s a different way to go on and leaves these humans alone. Meshner’s conscious takes Kern’s role as the ship’s AI, and Kern implants herself into the virus. The virus will go back down on the surface of the planet and try to tell the rest of the hivemind what it learned.!<

I don’t know – all of that could be wrong. I woke up during the Epilogue and just quit.

Sorry for the ranty post, but I’d really love to hear the saving graces and why this series is pretty well praised. I think the first book is fantastic, but this was more of the same in all the wrong ways, and slow, drawn out in others.

by AskMeAboutTelecom