I was, and still am, extremely ambivalent about this piece of literature. I'll list its minuses first.
'Children of Time' is a book written like an anecdote out of Max Fisher's Capitalist Realism. Tchaikovsky view of humans is that we're living on - to borrow Murray Bookchin's terminology - a 'stingy' planet (or rather, a stingy universe!), that we're all naturely extremely destructive, sheeple fighting each other mindlessly, and that humanity will only be saved by benevolent genius nerds (aka tech daddies). It's really sci-fi that's reflective of current mainstream ideology. It doesn't help us imagine any new future. But - that is not to say this book has no merits. It's a very well-written book. It's fun to read. It has tons of suspence, and it's hard to lay down. I enjoyed it, but I didn't enjoy enjoying it. In conclusion: decent book, fun, but also depressing and annoying.