2019-11-19 - Review: Children of Ruin
 -------------------------------------
 
     Title:      Children of Ruin 
     Author:     Adrian Tchaikovsky 
     Genre:      SF / Space Opera
 
 This  book is  the sequel  to 2016's  "Children of  Time" a  book I
 enthusiastically squee'd  about when I  read and reviewed it  on my
 old website.
 
 https://ascraeus.org/children-of-time-review/
 
 As  I said  then  "This  is really  good  british science  fiction,
 thought-provoking and  entertaining in  equal measure."  The sequel
 just doesn't disappoint, hitting all the things which I so loved in
 "Time".
 
 I had very  real concerns that the sequel would  lack the impact of
 the first  book, the ending of  the first was a  complete reversal,
 something I  can't imagine  anyone saw coming,  and a  sequel would
 have to  deal with  those events in  a meaningful  way. Tchaikovsky
 handles  this transition  brilliantly, neither  getting too  bogged
 down in the existential crises nor ignoring them completely as some
 lesser writers might.  Instead those issues permeate  this book, as
 the  Portiid  and  Human  explorers  are  faced  with  new  unknown
 challenges.
 
 Like  the  last  book,  this  one uses  multiple  points  of  view.
 Where  the narrative  of "Time"  was split  between Kern's  World -
 a  terraforming  experiment  gone  wildly, incredibly  amok  -  and
 the  _Gilgamesh_ -  an  ark ship  wending between  the  stars on  a
 centuries-long voyage  - "Ruin"  compacts the  story into  a single
 star system, and is all the better for it.
 
 That's not  to say  that "Ruin"  is any  less complex.  That single
 system is presented at  differing timeframes, from the commencement
 of  a  terraforming experiment  to  the  final, vicious  climax  of
 a  conflict  between  the   lifeforms  discovered  and  created  by
 that  experiment.  Where  we  previously  were  confronted  by  the
 alien  intelligence  of uplifted  spiders,  here  we have  uplifted
 cephalapods,  a species  which  has a  distributed nervous  system,
 where consciousnes only partly resides in the brain.
 
 The thing, the  most incredible thing of all, is  that this is only
 the beginning of the complexity, the alienness, the voyage into the
 unknown. Nothing I've said above spoils anything past the first few
 chapters.

 If I was to summarise this entire thing, then it would be thusly:
 
 IN  the far  future, superintelligent  octopuses, superintelligent
 spiders  (who use  ant colonies  as a  computer system)  and their
 Human allies  all come  together in an  incredible adventure  in a
 richly tapestried, incredibly realised world.

 I  really  can't  recommend  this   book  strongly  enough,  it  is
 *glorious*. I briefly met Adrian at the WorldCon in Dublin, and now
 I wish I had read this beforehand. I am in awe of this man, and his
 abilities.
 
     Base Score:     8/10
 
                      Some  body  horror  stuff  in  there  left  me
                      a  little queasy,  and  amped  up the  anxiety
                      levels.
 
     Adjustment:     +2 for just sheer unalloyed joy
 
     Rating:         5/5 - Strong Recommendation