Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky

10 reviews

michaelmarshall's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, and Xenophobia

etosaurus's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Dysphoria, Violence, Xenophobia, Animal death, Body horror, Murder, and Gun violence

Moderate: Child abuse, Cancer, Animal cruelty, Confinement, and Grief

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders and Colonisation

norspider's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

The mystery at the heart of this book kept me reading. I was so curious to learn what was happening with Mariana, Liff, and the rest of Landfall. Hundreds of years after the terraforming of Imir, how have they only built a single town? Why do events seem to repeat themselves? Why is our narrator so unreliable, telling us directly contradicting stories? 

Children of Memory continues the ever-expanding universe of this trilogy. Portiids, Humans, octopi, and the being(s) of Nod are joined by more creatures in their exploration of the cosmos. What they find will be a grand discovery for all, but a living nightmare for some. 

Parts of this book feel redundant, with ideas and discoveries being repeated multiple times. Given the grand idea of the story, I can't be sure if this was poor editing or a specific choice. But either way it made reading it take longer than needed. 

I understand why some may dislike Children of Memory, but I loved it. So many questions, so much to ponder. Always circling back to a welcome theme for Tchaikovsky: what does it mean to be alive? 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Child death, and Death

qwends's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Violence, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Murder

Minor: Child abuse

evelphysicist's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Overall a good final instalment to the trilogy but doesn’t really hit the mark like the previous 2 did for me. But I loved the other 2 so this is still good! The newly introduced species are fresh and interesting, but neither are really ever a focus. 

There are points the book becomes bogged down in philosophical rambling. The points are good, but the same ones are made so many times without a new conclusion. I would say this more than anything is what pulled the book down for me. That and

the neurodiversity metaphor becomes  too on the nose for me. I say this as some with adhd who initially found the neurodiversity depictions  quite a cute caricature, but the more explicit he made the point the more clumsy it became in my opinion.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Ableism, Body horror, Gun violence, Incest, and Physical abuse

Minor: Pregnancy, Confinement, Alcoholism, Child abuse, and Death of parent

valjeanval's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

4.0

While not my favorite of the series, I think it was still a pretty good entry into the series. Brain-bending and thoughtful exploration on the meaning of sentience and how we value “life.”

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Murder, Child death, Kidnapping, and Grief

Minor: Death of parent

fahyhallowell's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

adventurous intelligent virus gets trapped in ancient virtual reality engine

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Child death

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Violence, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, and Child abuse

Minor: Death of parent and Genocide

mar's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional reflective 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

something incredibly endearing about one of the greatest science fiction novels ive ever read also being a bit of a love letter to fantasy. ough

o|-< (self portrait of me taking a break from this book to lie on the floor and have an existential crisis contemplating the nature of life and sentience and consciousness)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Body horror, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Child death, Death of parent, Gun violence, and Violence

includes a moderately graphic depiction of a lynching

iono's review against another edition

adventurous challenging hopeful mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Loved the first two books in the series, but this third book felt like pointless nonsense that doesn't need to exist. This series should have ended as a duology.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia

Moderate: Violence, Child death, and Death of parent

antifuchs's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Child death, and Xenophobia