Children of Time
Ratings769
Average rating4.3
More a concept book than a character book. I enjoyed the concepts and the writing, but I found it hard to connect with the book because what few characters there were were also quite dull and lifeless—basically names.
This book has been sitting on my shelf for ages and I am so glad that I bumped it up in the reading order. I don't think I've ever read such a compelling introduction to a book; the first third of this book is solid gold. I love the premise: the dying embers of a forgotten earth making their way to a long promised Eden in their jury-rigged colony ship, earth's last hope, the Gilgamesh-only to find their Eden swarming with intelligent spiders and an insane AI construct babbling about its precious monkeys.
I find it hard to review books that I really enjoyed because I'm tempted summarize the whole thing. I will try to limit myself in saying that this is a fantastic space opera-hot house/dying earth-apocalypse story. It's a story that concerns itself with humanity as a construct, our hubris, and our place in the cosmos; more than anything this is a story of survival. Premise aside the real draw here is the writing, the prose is immaculate, and there is a quiet tension that builds to a terrifying crescendo as the story accelerates through the centuries. There is a very dry and sardonic humor which pervades the entire story that is most noticeable whenever Doctor Kerns is on the scene; the mad AI screams and the constant monkey-this-and-monkey-that were as hilarious as they were spine chilling (this was extremely well done in the audiobook).
I had a few gripes as the story transitioned out of its first act; personally I didn't agree with the direction the plot takes and some of the decisions made by the characters didn't align with what I would have chosen to do- but I don't think that's a knock against the quality of the book or the writing. What did bother me was that it seemed like these alternative courses of action were something a proofer asked after, and instead of accommodating them in the dialogue, we got a line or two of throw-away exposition to explain that choice away. The only major complaint I had was that the pacing isn't perfect and the middle section does drag as the crew of the Gilgamesh has their story backfilled. That means the crew sections of the story are dragging down the evolutionary world building but I think it's more than a fair trade.
TL;DR: Probably the best first act of anything I've read lately. A little slow in the middle but generally a fantastic read. Arachnophobes should probably pass on this series.
The middle had a few boring parts imo but I loved the beginning and the end. There also are a few plot twists that I really enjoyed.
3.5 stars. Maybe I'm just over science fiction. This book has a lot of interesting ideas even though it definitely rips off A Deepness in the Sky, another Sci Fi book that has exciting ideas but prose and characters that bored me to death. Every sci fi book I've read lately has been a slog to get through so I think I might take a break.
If the ark ship never existed this book would have been far better. Sure, some other conflict would have had to be contrived but the humans were so boorish, predictable, and obnoxious that I could barely finish the book
The overall ideas and characterization of the spiders over the generations were great and super interesting but the humans? Ugh. They were the worst.
Holsten Mason is a mostly agentless, spineless sap who can't even be bothered to speak up when he believes the spiders are sentient at the end thereby setting up an entirely manufactured dramatic showdown. It was painful reading nearly every section from his perspective.
The ending isn't remotely plausible. The humans are both too quick to start fighting and too quick to stop. If the humans are going to be so shallow as to completely ignore the evidence before them of an intelligence from the planet, there's no way the virus causes them to give up their fight so quickly.
Quite the deus ex virus as well. We've seen the spiders themselves nearly wipe out major competitors for purely religious reasons but we're supposed to believe this viral kumbaya moment will have all the humans instantly turn docile when they believe the future of their race depends on it? No way.
The humans are caricatures and only the spiders have, any depth and nuance which is pretty ironic.
Acel moment cand niste paianjeni sunt mai umani decat oamenii in sine...
Incredible! “The smartest evolutionary world-building you'll ever read”, indeed! I was not expecting that wonderful ending. I was bracing myself for an ending I would not like, but I was wrong!
I can't wait to start the second book.
Would have DNFed if I was reading it as a book and not as an audiobook.
For me, there was too little there. It was like ‘Dragon's Egg' by Robert L. Forward but done worse and bloated for no reason. The human part of the story could have been left out completely and the book would have been better.
Wel wel wel, wie had ooit gedacht dat ik zou gaan supporteren voor spinnen?
Het is niet dat ik een echte spinnenfobie heb. Zolang die beestjes netjes buiten blijven, kan ik hun esthetiek en artistieke bouwwerkjes zeker wel bewonderen. Komen ze in huis, sja, dan hangt het een beetje af van waar en hoe ik ze tegen kom.
“What have you done with my monkeys?”
Children of Time is een episch werk dat letterlijk millennia overspant.
De mensheid heeft zichzelf vrijwel vernield en de aarde is onbewoonbaar geworden. De laatste mensen van het universum vluchten naar een groene planeet, eentje waar hun verre voorouders aan terravorming deden, in de hoop deze planeet te kunnen gaan koloniseren. Het experiment van hun voorouders nam echter een onverwachte wending wanneer blijkt dat niet de apen uit het experiment evolueerden, maar wel de spinnen.
Dit was een absoluut plezier om te lezen.
Het vroeg wel een beetje gewoon worden aan de schrijfstijl, die tegelijkertijd bijzonder meeslepend en complex is. Het was al heel lang geleden dat ik tijdens het lezen zo veel woorden door een woordenboek moest jagen, maar dit hield me absoluut niet tegen om verder te lezen.
Het verhaal wordt ook vooruit gedreven door dubbel perspectief tussen de mensen en de spinnen, waardoor ik hoofdstuk na hoofdstuk bleef doorlezen, omdat ik steeds wou weten hoe het verder ging.
De manier waarop de schrijver de personages van de spinnen tot leven bracht was uitermate overtuigend en fascinerend. Hun evoluerende maatschappij en hun vorm van technologische ontwikkelingen was echt slim bedacht en gewoon zo cool!
Het contrast met de teloorgang en ineenstorting van de menselijke beschaving is zo schrijnend dat het bijna pijn doet.
“Life is not perfect, individuals will always be flawed, but empathy – the sheer inability to see those around them as anything other than people too – conquers all, in the end.”
In zijn kern is dit boek een verhaal over empathie. Over hoe we dingen kunnen begrijpen die zo anders zijn, zo anders denken dan onszelf. In dat opzicht kon de auteur wat mij betreft niks beters hebben gekozen dan spinnen, om de mensheid te wijzen op hun vooringenomenheid en lineaire denkwijzen.
Zoals ik al zei, dit boek deed mij supporteren voor spinnen!
Dit boek combineert perfect grote thema's met een levendig en, bij gebrek aan een beter woord, menselijk verhaal. Fascinerend, boeiend, cool en een dikke vette aanrader!
This is a story of mankind's far future, the events spread out over centuries as what appear to be the last survivors of the human race try to find a habitable planet on which to settle. Although there are few short diversions elsewhere, the main narrative flips between two viewpoints: one of a historian in his brief periods between extended spells of suspended animation, and the other of events on a planet partially terraformed years before and now host to a non-human (yet familiar) intelligence.
The former part is more traditionally told, a downbeat description of an increasingly dilapidated colony ship struggling to survive as repeated crises bring it closer to the brink. The latter, however, is actually the more interesting, revealing a long-term history of the development and growth of a very alien civilisation, contrasting with the slow downfall of the humans on board the ship. It's very much a setting and ideas book, with the characters not always as memorable as the details, but it's an impressive piece of science fiction, with the long time gaps handled well, and managing to make engaging protagonists out of, well... something we're not generally that favourable towards.
A well written, interesting, and amazing story
From beginning to end, this story is masterfully crafted. I've been loathe to read much of this newer era of novelists, preferring to find past gems somehow overlooked. This is truly a classic for the future.
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!
Great book even though I did not read a prequel. Some elements are unnecessarily convoluted imo even though not due to lack of story but due to cramming too much especially in the latter parts of the story.
Hook:
Wall-E meets Starship Troopers, not exactly!
Plot Summary
Humans seeking a new home to live on, run against a terraformed earth like planet being protected by Dr. Kern and her satellite, a thousands of year old relic of the mighty, multiplanetary human empire.
The spiders on the planet have evolved into much more by Dr. Kern's nano-virus experiment originally intended for monkeys.
Praise:
Very original tale out of cliché Sci-Fi tropes like destroyed planet and giant spiders. Loved the way author managed to this.
Strong character development for certain characters.
Amazing twist, makes me anticipate the next book.
Critique:
Motivation for certain characters is not justified.
Destruction of the human empire is quite not believable and could have been explored and justified a bit more.
Story emphasizes the view point of a certain character too much the pay off is not there or the character is really dull.
Recommendation:
Highly recommended!
Your Rating:
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I was hate-reading this by the end. Lots of telling but not a lot of showing, and I had almost no emotional investment in the characters. Cool idea but the execution wasn't there for me.
Tchaikovsky excels at making you feel like an actual spider or ant is thinking and writing those words. The actual plot felt a bit cliche-y
Heady, but not overwhelming so. Perfectly engaging and powerful story of uplift and change. Almost reminds me of Cherryh, now that I'm thinking of it. Easy recommendation for any fan of the genre.
Frankly, this blew me away. The story is fabulously nuanced, with your allegiances varying wildly from page to page (the final stages can give you whiplash). The thought that has obviously gone into imagining the culture and development of Kern's World is incredible. Needless to say, before this, I would have assumed you were nuts if you had suggested that a spider's sacrifice could bring tears to my eyes. This has gone straight onto my “recommend” list.