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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Old Fezziwig" data-source="post: 9575158" data-attributes="member: 59">I actually just finished Children of Memory by Tchaikovsky, and it was my least favorite of the three novels in the series. I agree with [USER=70]@Nellisir[/USER] that his character work can sometimes let him down, and I felt that pretty acutely in this book.Where I thought it was possible to read Children of Time and Children of Ruin primarily for the conceptual stuff, and Tchaikovsky does just enough character work to keep the books engaging, this one deëmphasized the conceptual stuff to such a degree that the character work had to carry a lot more. And it ended up that I didn't find Liff, Miranda, or Kern particularly compelling either in motivation or characterization such that they could carry the novel in place of the conceptual stuff, even if their selection was entirely appropriate thematically and narratively. Gothi and Gethli were fun but also a little thinly drawn, such that I wondered if he really had a solid understanding of the ideas he was trying to explore regarding sentience. Ultimately, I can imagine and respect that Tchaikovsky might not have wanted to do another first contact story, but I would've been grateful to spend more time with the Corvids on Rourke.</blockquote>