~ Spoilers for Children of Time ~

Children of Ruin is the sequel of Children of Time, a sci-fi novel written by Adrian Tchaikovsky first published in May 2019. The story takes place years after the end of the first book. Since that, a new civilization has been forged between humans, spiders, and the sentient AI, Kern, that is far more superior than anything each species could build on their own. When a new sign of life was detected from faraway stars, they send a spaceship filled with scientists to explore the possibility of another advanced civilization. Unbeknown to them, their destination is actually a remnant of an old human civilization's experiment ground filled with creatures beyond their comprehension.

If you enjoy the first book, Children of Ruin would be one satisfying read for you. It uses the same formula from the previous book and takes it even further this time. The book picks just a couple of themes to focus on, such as language, collective/enhanced consciousness, and one other thing that I don't want to spoil. About how different kind of civilization can rise from different species and the exciting possible ways to bridge the gap between these two civilization's methods of communication. About the mystery and the yet untapped possibility of one's consciousness. There's also one twist that I'm still confused about till this day (the spoiler I mentioned before), which is cool but kinda forced out of nowhere.

The book also doesn't forget about the human's aspects of the story. The writer takes you to dive deeper into the characters, old and new, to experience how it feels like to be a human (or partly human) in such an advanced and complicatedly diverse universe. 

Overall, I really like this book and can't wait to read the next one.