Children of Time

This book is about a scientist inventing a virus to help monkeys slowly develop into humans but oh noooo, mistakes happen and spiders instead get the virus which makes them develop into a sentient spider race on a distant planet. Meanwhile, the last survivors of an Earth apocalypse are travelling the galaxy, looking for a new planet to live on. What could go wrong?!

This was part of a buddy read, which I'm very thankful I did because while I really enjoyed this, it was best when I could see what other people were thinking regarding all the concepts going on. I listened to this on audiobook and while the narrator was great, it was probably a mistake for me, because I had to keep going back and relistening to make sure I got what was happening. Spider civilization is complex, everyone.

The book does dual chapters where you follow the spider civilization through multiple generations of progress, while also following the human characters. Some interesting stuff definitely happens with the humans, but I kept wanting to get back to the spiders. They were so interesting! Who knew I could be so intrigued by a male spider civil rights movement?

I really recommend this book, but it falls into the same issues I have with most sci-fi- it prioritizes plot and concepts over characters. And there is nothing wrong with that- the concepts here are GREAT, and I was always intellectually stimulated. But I was never invested in any of it until near the very end. And I would think that is part of the draw for sci-fi fans. But it will always result in a story that keeps me at arm's length. I also think the ending needed another 1-3 chapters to really breathe and explore what I felt like it needed to. I will definitely be reading the second book though, and more of Tchaikovsky!