Title:	Children of Strife
Author:	Adrian Tchaikovsky
Category:	Fantasy / Science Fiction
Rating:
Date Reviewed:	August 21, 2026

hildren of Strife is the fourth book in Tchaikovsky's Children of Time series. Someone that has not read the three previous volumes will probably be quite confused by what is going on in this book. Children of Strife is a complicated book. The narrative advances on three timelines, each with its own cast of characters. Each timeline is stuffed with wild, unique ideas that Tchaikovsky somehow makes plausible, given the advanced technology of the far future. The result is an imaginative tale that is an interesting read; I often would read the next chapter, even though it was time to turn out the light and get some sleep.

In the parts of the story that concern "the First Age", five human terraformers from Earth orbit a potential planet that they hope to transform into an Earth-equivalent environment. But terraforming is not straightforward, and progress is hindered by the fact the five terraformers considered themselves geniuses when in fact these brilliant individuals are all sociopaths. They constantly undermine each other, sabotage changes implemented by the others, and lack any kind of unifying vision or plan. Ultimately, they unleash a terraforming agent upon the virgin planet that always seems to generate a world populated by swarms of giant insects.

In "the Second Age", Earth is completely collapsing due to war and environmental destruction. The remnants of civilization are desperately trying to load as many citizens as possible onto ark ships and fire them off into the void; desperately hoping that there might be terraformed worlds from the First Age that might receive them. Earth's doom is assured, it merely a question of how long before the collapse is complete into a smoldering ruin of toxicity and radiation. The Marduk is one of the last of these ships to launch into the void, with a cargo of thousands of hibernating people hoping to wake up in the distant future at a habitable star.

In the sections that describe "the Third Age", Tchaikovsky introduces Cato, an aggressive, huge mantis-shrimp who captains an exploratory star ship, The Dissenter. Cato's crew currently consists of just Alis and a branch copy of the Kern AI. The other half of The Dissenter crew is exploring an ark ship found in orbit around a terraformed world. Astonishingly, the ark ship is encased in flora. The plant growth is so dense it even juts out into the vacuum of space - and yet survives. Incredibly, a gigantic plant 'beanstalk' tethers the ruined ark ship to the planetary surface. The exploring crew consist of sapient spiders and Mira - a multi-person construct controlled by a sentient microbial hive mind.

Children of Strife is a difficult book to summarize in a brief review. There is a ton of backstory about Kern, the Panspecific galactic civilization, the ark ships, the sentient spiders, the strange simulation machine on Imir, that the reader must be familiar with. The wealth of ideas on display here reminds me of the works of Jeff Vandermeer or China Miéville - imaginations run riot, depicting universes wonderous and strange. Children of Strife is a big book, nearly 500 pages, but it rewards the reader with a unique vision of a bizarre future of Humanity's (Human with a capital 'H') role in the galaxy. I recommend the entire series, and if Tchaikovsky writes a fifth book, I will definitely read it.