First U.S. trade paperback edition, 640 pages
English language
Published Dec. 10, 2018 by Orbit.
The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age--a world terraformed and prepared for human life. But all is not right in this new Eden. In the long years since the planet was abandoned, the work of its architects has borne disastrous fruit. The planet is not waiting for them, pristine and unoccupied. New masters have turned it from a refuge into mankind's worst nightmare. Now two civilizations are on a collision course, both testing the boundaries of what they will do to survive. As the fate of humanity hangs in the balance, who are the true heirs of this new Earth?
One of the most fascinating and thought provoking science fiction books I've ever read.
I think it was mostly the writing style that bothered me. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly but it felt like a lot of the author stepping back from the story and saying “and this happened because reason but of course Character A doesn’t know this” instead of explaining things through the narrative/characters.
It felt like some things just happened without any explanation or reason simply to advance the plot (or make up for the lack of plot).
I understand that sci-fi requires a certain suspension of disbelief but some things were just too silly. Like ant computers—come on!?
I love jumping spiders, so this book is like a dream come true for me. The book deals with various transhumanist ideas, particularly increasing the intelligence of non-human animals, uploading a human mind into an AI, and reaching for immortality via technology. It handles these ideas in a very even-handed way, and is not pushing any kind of ideological agenda. It's a very enjoyable read that works well as a fun adventure but also gives you a lot to chew on. Highly recommended.
This was a great book and I see why it has won awards and is generally regarded in a positive light. While the characters are basic, they are nonetheless interesting and the plot is straightforward enough to keep the focus on the setting. The setting is excellent and the way the two societies, one human, one spider, is explored is clever. I enjoyed both viewpoints and wish we had gotten more time after they merged together, but maybe that is a story for the second novel? I look forward to reading the other novels in this series and finding out.
For a full review, check out my blog: strakul.blogspot.com/2024/06/book-review-children-of-time-by-adrian.html
Excellent and satisfying sci fi. "What is intelligence", deep time, and big spiders. Solarpunk, really.
The nanovirus is a bit much hmm.
Really enjoyable reading, although I felt like the depth and quality of explanations deteriorated a little towards the end.
It's been way too long since I have had a novel grab me from the very first chapter. The plot spins out from a premise that never seems completely outlandish, where humans in suspension pods try to reestablish on a distant terraformed earth. The plot is somewhat like Battlestar Galactica, except there's only one Cylon and Earth is full of deadly arthropods.
The book is brilliantly structured, alternating between a human and a non-human protagonist. Spoiler: man was the true monster all along.
Spiders undergo enhanced evolution, building an extraordinary new civilisation. Meanwhile the last of humanity searches for a new home, bringing its destructive tendencies with it. Impressive & audacious vision, but lacks engaging characters.
Reading time 6 days, 100 pages/day
Great book, a take on a thought experiment for intelligent life that doesn't take anthropological shortcuts and a humanity that isn't able to learn from mistakes
Great book, a take on a thought experiment for intelligent life that doesn't take anthropological shortcuts and a humanity that isn't able to learn from mistakes
TThis book is good for so many reasons, it manages to deliver very interesting ideas but always feels grounded in the characters. It has the most interesting imagining of non-human intelligence I've seen.
What a wild ride! People… Spiders… Ants… Beetles… Crazy computers…
All combined to make a wild story. Various philosophies on humanity are pointed out subtly, and really, spiders win in that sense…
Excellent evolutionary tale
Excellent evolutionary tale
Content warning Discussion of the ending
For most of this book I didn't expect to continue with the rest of the series. I very much enjoyed the spider scenes and seeing their culture, values, and technology evolve over time, but I didn't much care for any of the human scenes until right at the end.
One aspect that I particularly liked is that, ironically, the spiders are effectively Humanist at the end while the humans take on the place of the un-evolved animals who think of the spiders in a predator/prey relationship. The spiders then turn the tables and uplift the humans in the same way (and using the same mechanism) that the humans originally uplifted their civilization (except by bootstrapping empathy instead of sentience). It brought the whole thing to a nice conclusion in a circular way and made me decide to try the second book as well.
