Plot
The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home. Following their ancestors’ star maps, they discovered the greatest treasure of a past age—a world terraformed and prepared for human life. But all is not right in this new Eden. The planet is not waiting for them, pristine and unoccupied. New masters have turned it from a refuge into mankind’s worst nightmare. Now two civilizations are on a collision course and must fight to survive. As the fate of humanity hangs in the balance, who are the true heirs of this new Earth?
I may need to add Adrian Tchaikovsky to My favourite authors after reading Children of Time. Although at times I felt a little frustrated with the pace of the story (mostly everything to do with the humans) I appreciate the ideas. The story of a planet’s terraforming and the species that live and evolve upon it is told in parallel with the Ark ship of humans trying to settle there following the failure of Earth and the human race. I quickly sympathised with the new planet’s natural owners and spent every moment with the humans wanting to get back to the other storyline.