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Children of Strife

Synopsis

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

Details

26 March 2026
1208 pages
Adrian Tchaikovsky, Mel Hudson
9781035057825
Imprint: Tor

Reviews

Tchaikovsky is writing modern classics and you should start reading them as soon as possibleTade 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 flairJames Oswald, author of The Rest is Death
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 fictionChristopher Paolini, author of To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, on Shards of Earth
[Adrian Tchaikovsky] writes incredibly enjoyable sci-fi, full of life and ideasPatrick Ness, author of The Knife of Never Letting Go