Shelfology Book Pairing

by Adrian Tchaikovsky

The modern classic of space opera that began with Children of Time continues in this extraordinary novel of humanity's battle for survival on a terraformed planet. Earth failed. In a desperate bid to escape, the spaceship Enkidu and its captain, Heorest Holt, carried its precious human cargo to a potential new paradise. Generations later, this fragile colony has managed to survive, eking out a hardy existence. Yet life is tough, and much technological knowledge has been lost. Then strangers appear. They possess unparalleled knowledge and thrilling technology – and they've arrived from another world to help humanity’s colonies. But not all is as it seems, and the price of the strangers' help may be the colony itself. Children of Memory by Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author Adrian Tchaikovsky is a far-reaching space opera spanning generations, species and galaxies.

by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Long ago, towards the end of humanity’s first expansion into space, the vast majority of worlds were terraformed under the auspices of irascible genius Avrana Kern. But Kern had rivals, and a team of self-proclaimed innovators took one world from her remit and devoted themselves to reshaping it into a paradise in their own image, using new and unpredictable methods. Later, after the fall of their society and long generations in the wilderness, the new and desperate return of humanity into space is focused on ark ships heading to all the worlds they believe – or hope – their ancestors made into welcoming homes for human life. Whilst most head for the planets that Kern’s people worked on, ancient records show another pristine world, and an invitation from the ancients to inhabit it. Later still, a ship with a crew of maverick humans, spiders and a spectacularly punchy mantis shrimp captain named Cato rediscover the world, and the ark. On their ship, the human Alis wakes up from a nightmare of conflicted realities to discover that she, Cato and the ship’s version of Kern are the only ones left on board. Everyone else went to explore the ark and the planet, and now all contact has been lost. Traumatised Alis and Belligerant Cato must follow in the footsteps of their crewmates to discover the full magnitude of what was done to this world by its terraformers, and to rescue the one surviving member of their crew from the surface – before she becomes a greater threat than anything the world itself can produce.