Reviews with content warning for Body horror - Children of Ruin

Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky

15 reviews

bricepresident's review

adventurous reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

Heads up, this review is a little harsh. I want to preface it with I enjoyed 80% of the book, but still fully believe that Tchaikovsky may be one of the best hard sci-fi writer of the decade. This book is denser, and doesn’t give you the full journey that we got with the portiids to understand their psychology and history, but it does want to go on an adventure. If you came to enjoy the flow of children of time’s back and forth between the development of the portiids and the events on the Gilgamesh, prepare for a strong turn on the flow from character/species split foci to generally plot focus. Unlike the first book, Children of Ruin initially focuses the perspective on the Human and Portiid experiences of first contact, rather than sharing a focus with the species they make contact with. This left me, much like our Human and Portiid cast of characters in this book, trying to figure out the perspectives, psychologies, and histories of the species they encounter, and making jumps to track and guess their evolutionary/sentiential journey between skips in time. Many questions that you may have about the species may be answered, but not until long later in the book will it be revealed what has happened. Children of Ruin is thrilling and even suspenseful in parts, but prepare for a long haul if you are in it to try to find insights into how to reconsider an anthropocentric view of life, understanding, and communication. You will have many questions about our new friends, but the answers are lacking and require even more of a suspension of disbelief.

Content Warnings

varbles's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

gnomeguy1138's review

Go to review page

adventurous tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Content Warnings

angryace's review

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

shermansays's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Content Warnings

marsh_mall0w's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Content Warnings

valjeanval's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is definitely one of my new favorite series. I wasn’t sure wher Tchaikovsky could go after CoT, but I felt this one really lived up to the vastness and complexity of that story. Also, I love octopuses. Really the most frustrating element is trying to explain the concept to someone and convince them it’s actually a very serious, intelligent series. Spiders and Cephalopods in space sounds way too goofy.

Content Warnings

iono's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

Content Warnings

zachtrotz's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

mar's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

i genuinely and wholeheartedly believe that this series is some of THE most solid and innovative hard science fiction in like, the last decade or two. holy shit.

also, unrelatedly, this book pulls off the "line that sounds perfectly ordinary and innocent out of context but is absolutely bone-chilling in context" thing SO well. "we're going on an adventure!" is going to haunt me forever

Content Warnings

More...