<html><body><span style="font-family:Verdana; color:#000000; font-size:10pt;"><div>the question on <i>Children of Ruin</i> reminds me to ask: was there a reason the proposer suggested a book which is not the first in a series (or worse, duology)? Can anyone who has already read both comment on how safe/sane/... it is to just read this one without reading <i>Children of Time</i>? These are both monster books; I'm torn between falling-into-the-middle-with-no-idea-wtf-is-going-on and committing a large chunk of time to playing catchup.<br></div><div><br></div><div>/CHip</div></span></body></html>