The estimable Duncan's mad plots, dark intrigues, vivid cast and lashings of magic leave many engrossing mysteries to be elucidated in volume two.
Kirkus Reviews

Dave Duncan produces excellent work in book after book, yet never gains the attention he deserves. This is a fun book but with more substance than most light fantasy. Duncan is a great world-builder. His fantasy worlds are not mere medieval societies with magic added but make organic sense. Duncan's other strength as a writer is strong characterization. Each of the main characters comes across as his or her own person. Children of Chaos is another solid entry by a writer who deserves a wider audience.
SFReview

This odd group of siblings, who don't even know each other anymore, and have absolutely no political ambitions. . . behave nothing at all like the standard protagonists of epic fantasy but a great deal like real people thrust into Interesting Times. The more powerful and menacing characters also ring true, with their various delusion, obsessions, gradually unveiled secrets, and (for the brighter ones) moments of angst. Thus what might seem -- if you only glanced at the cover blurb -- like outlandish world-building mingled with standard tropes turned into something quite different. Duncan, that wily devil, has done it again!
Locus

Children of Chaos is very readable, as Duncan keeps things at a quick pace through the intrigues and revelations while not taking things too seriously. .. This first part works well as a stand-alone story while leaving much open for the concluding Mother of Lies. ... Enjoy this first part of the Dodec duology, and look forward to next spring, when Mother of Lies will be published. For imaginative escapism with enough substance to satisfy that damned rational part of your brain, I recommend Children of Chaos.
SFFWorld.com

Webs of conspiracy and the complex relations of siblings re-meeting after 15 years add density to an entertaining big story that may reach a satisfying, probably bloody, conclusion in the promised sequel.
Booklist

Dave Duncan has long been one of the great unsung figures of Canadian fantasy and science fiction, graced with a fertile imagination, a prolific output, and keen writerly skills. With this new novel, Duncan again forges a bold new world, populated with varied and complex characters, distinctive cultures, and a complex system of mythology and science.
Quill and Quire

Duncan knows how to ratchet up the tension in a fast moving narrative. Like the best of his earlier novels, Children of Chaos offers the kind of swashbuckling fantasy fans won't want to miss.
Doug Barbour in the Edmonton Journal

The single greatest pleasure afforded by Duncan's writing is its incredible polish and narrative mastery. His books are supremely easy to read because they're so well written. Children of Chaos contains wit, suspense, pathos, romance and some of the best world/culture building I've seen in a very long time. I enjoyed every page, every paragraph, and I heartily recommend it to any fantasy fan who's looking for something slightly out of the ordinary.
Ticonderoga Online

...at its heart, this is a very real story, a family drama.
Winnipeg Free Press.