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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
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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At first I didn't really get it, and it felt like there was a lot of things going on that I couldn't keep hold of. But they all coalesce into the most amazing story. Well worth the read

Keep Going With It

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Another tapestry of societies, exploration and life as we don’t know it. Familiar characters and new intertwined with a myriad of generations.
Hopeful for a children of …. Next

Keep them coming

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Ridiculous review title aside, this is another character driven, personal story that is equally tight and grand. Progressing an expanding universe and showing the cracks in an aspirational future. It definitely requires the previous novels worth of context, but all of them are worth your time. You will not be able to read the books without Mel Hudsons performance as Kern in your mind, her narration and performance is flawless.

When a shrimp fights gods!

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I really enjoyed the first three books and was delighted when a 4th was announced. For me it would help if you had read the previous 3 books, which I thing are epic. This book took some following, if I had a paper copy I would have been going forward and back and re reading chapters BUT, it all came together, into another master piece. I loved the constant feeling of impending doom for much of the book, Mel Hudson is such a good voice actor and when she is Avrana Kern it is haunting. Adrian has made a 4th book which I have enjoyed as much as previous 3 books, which we are all aware is not an easy thing to do, in my humble opinion. Five stars for me.

Outstanding

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