r/AdrianTchaikovsky

For the first time ever in my life, I find myself craving the in-class-discussion that comes the day after assigned reading was finished in school, because I just want people's subjective take on this.

Is the ending supposed to be scary and ominous? Is it supposed to be hopeful and beautiful? Is it supposed to be both?

I'm really torn, because I was on board with the not-a-hivemind the entire time, rooting for them. But just the last segment where they decide to invade earth like in Invasion of the Body Snatchers... it just had me shivering.

>I say these words, and a part of me is screaming at them. The me from before, who was terrified of the frothing madness of Ylse Rasmussen, whose name is being encoded even now in the walls of the ruin. I am Arton Daghdev still, and I know that what we will bring to Earth is the second greatest monstrosity ever perpetuated upon the human species. But the thought of what we might become is irresistible. Presented with the means, how could we not?

Is this book a warning message about the dangers of group think, a treatise on the power of solidarity to and trust to overthrow tyranny, or something else?

What are your thoughts on the ending?

First of all, English isn't my native language, though that's probably part of the problem.

I've always been interested in the idea of consciousnesses distributed across multiple bodies, and that's where my question comes from...

I’m just getting to the part where the Ark ship arrives at Hartland, but even so, I don’t understand how the terraformers imprinted their consciousnesses onto the planet. I understand how they’re technically there—that every interaction, the struggles between predators and prey, the flourishing of flora, etc., are their actions—but I don’t understand how they managed to do it.

Again, English isn’t my native language, and that’s probably why I didn’t fully understand. Could someone help me figure this out?

Based on this passage in the Children of Time:

>!It was a web. It was as though some unthinkable horror had begun the job of cocooning the planet before it fed on it. It was a single vast web in geostationary orbit about the planet, and Kern’s metal home was just one pinpoint within its myriad complexity.!<

It would seem that Kern’s satellite is described here as being in geostationary orbit. However, that is highly unlikely, since the Great Nest’s perspective had already established that the satellite repeatedly passes over different parts of the planet rather than remaining "fixed" above a single point. I’d say a polar, or at least highly inclined, orbit is more likely.

Hello all,l i'm wondering what peoples general view the the two books were?

and secondly if you were only going to buy one of these which would it be and why ?

Spoilers for shadows of the apt up as far as “heirs of the blade”

I’m currently reading the air war and it seems that the books won’t be answering my question any time soon so here I am turning to Reddit for answers

Basically, what is that creature spotted by the wasps in book 7 while drilling for oil in the nem? I guess it could just be an unexplained kinden or monster but I feel like I’m missing something?

Is this something that ever gets explained, if so just tell me to keep reading! Or is there some hint or explanation that I’ve missed.

It just stands out to me as quite odd, as the storyline in the nem wraps up very abruptly in book 7 without any real payoff imo, so would love to hear what others think, theories welcome!

I’m a few chapters into this novel, and while I’ve really enjoyed every entry so far, I’m getting a bit stuck with who people are and what has happened to them.

Devil Jack/Yasnic

I can’t remember what happened to God (did he go off with his new cultists with Yasnic abandoning him?

Yasnic is now apprenticing with the conjurer from one of the previous novels. Am I misremembering, or was he in love with a demon before? What happened to her? Did she return Below? Is Yasnic trying to get her back?

I love the setting and scope and cast of characters; I just can’t remember much without reading them all back to back.

Hi all! The first book I read by Adrian was Alien Clay, and I have to be honest, it didn't click with me. It felt long and slow, and I wasn't really a fan. It was interesting, but it never truly gripped me.

Still, I wanted to give him another chance, so I picked up Children of Time, and it was amazing! One of the best sci-fi books I've ever read.

Now Shroud is finally being released in my language, but I've heard it's very similar to Alien Clay. So, for those of you who've read both books: do you think I'd enjoy Shroud even though I didn't like Alien Clay? Has anyone else had the same experience?

Edit: Thanks for all the replies! Looks like I'm going to buy Shroud after all. Thanks, everyone!

Spoilers below

I really enjoyed Children of Time. I thought Children of Ruin was a bit of a re-tread but enjoyed it as well. I didn’t like Children of Memory. I am close to the end of Children of Strife and I am enjoying it as well.

One thing I have got to say though; our boy Adrian Tchaikovsky can create some truly insane scenes if you stop for a minute and really objectively think about what he is describing.

>!Towards the end of the book a giant, sentient shrimp is riding a drone outside of a spiderweb woven spaceship mid-crash protecting it. Inside is a mechanical spider with two sentient spider consciousnesses merged inside it, a nano-virus uplifted Human women carrying an alien symbiotic organelle capable of data compression many orders of magnitude greater than our wildest dreams who is recovering from a psychotic break caused by spending more than a lifetime in a simulation and a millennia-year old human consciousness running on an ant colony operating system. What is Cato the Mega Shrimp protecting them from while they crash? A pterodactyl!<

Credit where credit is due, that is true imagination at work.

I'm about half way through children of ruin.

My question is basically how long after the sabotage on Kern's mission was the shutdown virus?

In the Nod system one of two things should have happened.

1)The virus hits before evidence the sabotage on Kern's mission arrives.

In this case they should still be receiving some signals from them. But be unable to warn them in time.

2. the other way around and they should have noticed the silence from Kern's world prior to the virus hitting them.

But it seems like all signals go quiet immediately when the virus arrives which wouldn't be how the speed of light/information would propagate over long distances.

Does anybody have any better insight into these questions/observations?

This isn't going to spoil anything plot significant but it will ruin a really funny moment.

The whole time I was wondering who the "Jeff" that Jeffism is based on is. At first I thought it might just be no one in particular, because "Jeffism" is just a really funny name for a religion. As I learned more about the tenets of the religion I thought "ah, gotta be Bezos".

But then, on page 240...

>! "And it's the usual depiction: a male human in his prime, lying back, chest bared, radiating confidence and virility." !<

That's >! Jeff Goldblum from Jurassic Park !<, right? What else could it possibly be. Pretty rare for a book to make me actually laugh out loud but this got me.

Adrian Tchaikovsky is my new favorite author ever since I read CoT and I've been on a binge read of his works ever since! Looking for recommendations for which of his books to read next. So far I've read:

• Children of Time + sequels (I for one loved Children of Strife)
• Cage of Souls
• Elder Race
• Alien Clay
• Shroud
• Dogs of War + sequels

Where should I go from here? I am partial to the more "hard sci-fi" but am open to checking out his more fantasy works.

I heard good things about The Sparrow, but I can't seem to find it anywhere. (Edit: just realized that may actually be a book by an entirely different author, and I just got confused because I saw it brought up in a bunch of other posts about Adrian Tchaikovksy. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!)

I have to do a bunch of drawing and carving in the next week and I'll be out of data range so I'm looking to download some audiobooks before I leave.

The only stand alone book I've read of his is, Cage of Souls, which is great.

What are your favorite stand alone novels?

Spoilers for the series.

&gt;!Soooo were Asmander and Veynat lovers? In book 3 his wife says he can have 1 night with Veynat before the big battle, then he turns up and the two of them wander off together. It's not explicitly stated but we're they sleeping together? Had they always been sleeping together or was this the one and only time? Or am I over thinking it and the wife just wanted them to have a night of plutonic comradeship?!<