Children of Memory

I heard a lot of negative reviews for this one before I read it, but I still think it was a pretty good continuation of the series even if not quite as strong as the first two. It was definitely a brain-stretcher, and having Miranda as a POV character was quite the Brave New World, but I wouldn't expect a book that's essentially about how we define sentience and the value of “life” to be anything less than a challenge.

Given Tchaikovsky's penchant for references, could the alternate title to this book be “The Meaning of Liff?”