Children of Time

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!?