It has been waiting through the ages. Now it's time... Thousands of years ago, Earth's terraforming program took to the stars. On the world they called Nod, scientists discovered alien life - but it was their mission to overwrite it with the memory of Earth. Then humanity's great empire fell, and the program's decisions were lost to time. Aeons later, humanity and its new spider allies detected fragmentary radio signals between the stars. They dispatched an exploration vessel, hoping to find cousins from old Earth. But those ancient terraformers woke something on Nod better left undisturbed. And it's been waiting for them. Children of Ruin follows the author's Children of Time, winner of the Arthur C. Clarke award. It is set in the same universe, with a new cast of characters.

エイドリアン・チャイコフスキーは、本作で「異質な知性との共生」という極北に挑んでいます。今作ではタコの特異な進化と、多中心的な思考回路を見事に言語化しました。生理学的根拠に基づき描かれる異形の文明は、読者の認識を揺さぶる圧倒的なリアリティを放っています。 異なる生命がいかにして対立を越え、理解の糸口を掴むのか。そこには、未知への恐怖を好奇心へと変える、知的興奮に満ちた連帯のドラマがあります。他者を理解しようとする意志の尊さを謳う筆致は、ＳＦが持つ真の豊かさを再発見させてくれるはずです。