We are pleased to welcome Adrian Tchaikovsky back to Deansgate, celebrating the new instalment in his acclaimed Children of Time series: Children of Strife.

In this eagerly awaited follow-up, we follow a ship crewed by maverick humans, spiders and a spectacularly punchy mantis shrimp captain as they rediscover a lost world, terraformed in earth’s forgotten past, and an interstellar ark.

Adrian Tchaikovsky is joined by Laura Elliot to discuss this new voyage into one of his most beloved worlds and answer audience questions, followed by a signing. Doors at 6pm.

About Children of Strife

They thought they’d found refuge.
But this paradise became their prison.

Centuries ago, a maverick terraforming team played God with a distant planet. Out of their vanity and spite, something terrible and unexpected arose.

Generations later, tormented scientist Alis is among the crew of the research vessel that rediscovers this lost outpost. But Alis wakes from nightmares of her own making to an all-too-real catastrophe on board. The rest of the crew has vanished – leaving only Cato, the belligerent mantis-shrimp captain, and Kern, the ship’s AI.

Searching for their lost fellows, Alis and Cato must venture into the darkness of the planet below. What did those ancient terraformers unleash? And will their last surviving crewmate become a greater threat than the world itself?

About the author

ADRIAN TCHAIKOVSKY was born in Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire, has practised law and now writes full time. He’s also studied stage-fighting, perpetrated amateur dramatics and has a keen interest in entomology and table-top games.

Adrian is the author of the critically acclaimed Shadows of the Apt series, the Echoes of the Fall series and other novels, novellas and short stories. Children of Time won the prestigious Arthur C. Clarke Award, and Children of Ruin and Shards of Earth both won the British Science Fiction Award for Best Novel. The Tiger and the Wolf won the British Fantasy Award for Best Fantasy Novel, while And Put Away Childish Things won the BSFA Award for Best Shorter Fiction.

LAURA ELLIOT is a journalist and writer on disability and health issues. She has written articles on disability and politics for The Guardian, The Metro, iNews, and ByLine Times. Her stories have appeared in Strix Magazine, STORGY and Cloister Fox, and more. Laura has ME and this has informed her writing and her career. Awakened is her debut novel, longlisted for the BSFA Best Novel.