Not as good as the first 2. Had some parts that would have been excellent short stories. ( )

SPOILERS

This is a good book, original and engaging, as his others have been, but unlike the others, bloody hell is it grim. I would recommend it, but not if you're in any kind of dark place. It left me emotionally drained and grieving, for the twist. ( )

Again with interesting concepts about new races, intelligence, consciousness, and reality. But large portion of the book felt like a confused repetition with dreamlike sequences, so quite uninteresting at times. Kept reading hoping for a big payoff, but barely worth it in the end. ( )

This is an odd duck (odd crow?) of a Tchaikovsky novel, at least for me. I spent much of the read feeling I was disappointed only to realize I was more frustrated. While some of that is on me, it is certainly valid that this book differs from the first two "Children" volumes and that difference took a while for me to accommodate.

The first two volumes are predominantly narratives of the ridiculously-creative order in which Tchaikovsky ruminates on identity, sentience, evolution, and whether there truly are absolute values to reason and being. "Children of Memory" comes dressed in the robes of the first two but with the natures reversed: a non-linear narrative here is couched within several introgressive debates about what makes up an identity, a real life, or (without ever actually using the word) a soul. The book strains perhaps too hard and gets somewhat wordy time and again but ends up rewarding by the end. While I found much of the first half or so pretty lazy in treading well-beaten SF paths, the shadow of Philip K Dick rose in the latter half and the whole feeling of the story went from original-series "Star Trek" territory into something darker and richer. I particularly enjoyed the conferences among the Mirandas and Kerns and Corvids in the last Act: grad-seminar stuff, right there.

On the other hand, though, I still despise Kern and all the roles she/it/they play in these books: too much of a 'deus ex machina' for me. And the excessive time dilations throughout make the book hard to feel comfortable with; such lengths of time far overrun mortality and these characters fall short of divinity. ( )

Another fun adventure from Tchaikovsky, at least for the majority. But alas the twist ending is bad, and undermines all that comes before. Very much 'of the moment' in terms of concerns -- Chinese room, LLMs, simulation hypothesis ... even the phrase 'punching down' makes an appearance. Still entertaining, inventive, but overall, probably a sign that AT should write less...