Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.29 AVERAGE
4.29 AVERAGE
If I’m honest I just couldn’t get into it. For me, I couldn’t picture anything, didn’t latch on to any one character…
I’d recently read Wool by Hugh Howe and enjoyed it so much I think I wanted it to grab me in the same way but it didn’t.
I’d recently read Wool by Hugh Howe and enjoyed it so much I think I wanted it to grab me in the same way but it didn’t.
Despite my arachnophobia, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Any author who can manage to make me sympathise with a race of giant, sentient spiders must be doing something pretty special!
- Spoiler Free Review -
I only discovered Adrian Tchaikovsky fairly recently, and have so far loved everything of his that I've read. Children of Time is perhaps his most famous work, has won some very prestigious awards, and so my expectations were high going in. While it wasn't quite what I was expecting, I'm pleased to say I was not at all disappointed!
So what's the book about?
The human race has terraformed a distant planet, which it plans to use as a testing ground for an engineered nanovirus designed to speed up the evolutionary process. The idea is to release the nanovirus, add a load of monkeys, wait and see how long before the monkeys gain intelligence.
Unfortunately, in the interim, the human race manages to all but destroy itself. When the last survivors from earth flee the dying planet and approach the terraformed one, hoping to make a new home, they discover... not monkeys... the virus has found another creature to uplift - spiders.
Really, at it's core, this is a book about evolution and human nature. We alternate between the spider society, watching them ascend from primitive creatures to something much more advanced, and the human ark ship, watching humanity descend from an advanced society to something more primitive as they struggle to survive.
What makes this book good?
Something I always think Tchaikovsky does well: the way he explores themes. Without ever feeling like he's preaching or grinding an axe at the reader, he is able to tackle a large number of deep and complex ideas. Children of Time is no exception!
Tchaikovsky explores human nature: the good, the bad and the ugly. He explores individualism vs. collectivism. He touches on religion, science and tradition. He considers how we view intelligence, sentience and how we decide who is most worthy of life. He also explores evolution, both in the literal 'survival of the fittest' sense, but also of society: the way community and culture changes and develops.
I could go on, there's a lot that Tchaikovsky manages to pack into this book! And yet it never feels overly heavy or intimidating to read. There's a little bit of scientific jargon, but nothing that should be a barrier to a layman.
I should also mention Tchaikovsky's prose: it's spectacular! It's not particularly dense or flowery, but he has a remarkable ability to conjure scenes and images so vividly that it's easy to just get lost in his writing.
How about the characters?
For a book with such a wide scope, across space and time, the book actually has a pretty small cast. The characters themselves are a bit of a mix - relatable and, at times, sympathetic, but also deeply flawed. There are no heroes, but there are a lot of people (and spiders) trying to make the best of the hand they have been dealt. In a strange way (and here's a sentence I never thought I'd write) the spider characters are often more sympathetic and easier to root for than the human ones.
Any negatives?
I mean, fellow arachnophobes should go into this knowing that 'giant spiders in space' is not a metaphor. These are not spider-like aliens, they are actual giant spiders. Honestly, even if you are squeamish about spiders I'd still recommend giving it a go and maybe just skimming over a couple of the descriptive passages - it's too good a book not to!
I don't really have a whole lot negative to say about this book, I think it's one that most people could get something out of. Maybe, if you need obvious 'goodies' and 'baddies' to cheer for, you might struggle a little - there's a lot of moral grey areas explored here and (arguably) no obvious heroes and villains.
Overall, I thought this was a fantastic read and I'm very keen to pick up the rest of the trilogy. I'd recommend this to just about anyone and I also think it's a fascinating book to discuss with others - would make a great book club book!
- Spoiler Free Review -
I only discovered Adrian Tchaikovsky fairly recently, and have so far loved everything of his that I've read. Children of Time is perhaps his most famous work, has won some very prestigious awards, and so my expectations were high going in. While it wasn't quite what I was expecting, I'm pleased to say I was not at all disappointed!
So what's the book about?
The human race has terraformed a distant planet, which it plans to use as a testing ground for an engineered nanovirus designed to speed up the evolutionary process. The idea is to release the nanovirus, add a load of monkeys, wait and see how long before the monkeys gain intelligence.
Unfortunately, in the interim, the human race manages to all but destroy itself. When the last survivors from earth flee the dying planet and approach the terraformed one, hoping to make a new home, they discover... not monkeys... the virus has found another creature to uplift - spiders.
Really, at it's core, this is a book about evolution and human nature. We alternate between the spider society, watching them ascend from primitive creatures to something much more advanced, and the human ark ship, watching humanity descend from an advanced society to something more primitive as they struggle to survive.
What makes this book good?
Something I always think Tchaikovsky does well: the way he explores themes. Without ever feeling like he's preaching or grinding an axe at the reader, he is able to tackle a large number of deep and complex ideas. Children of Time is no exception!
Tchaikovsky explores human nature: the good, the bad and the ugly. He explores individualism vs. collectivism. He touches on religion, science and tradition. He considers how we view intelligence, sentience and how we decide who is most worthy of life. He also explores evolution, both in the literal 'survival of the fittest' sense, but also of society: the way community and culture changes and develops.
I could go on, there's a lot that Tchaikovsky manages to pack into this book! And yet it never feels overly heavy or intimidating to read. There's a little bit of scientific jargon, but nothing that should be a barrier to a layman.
I should also mention Tchaikovsky's prose: it's spectacular! It's not particularly dense or flowery, but he has a remarkable ability to conjure scenes and images so vividly that it's easy to just get lost in his writing.
How about the characters?
For a book with such a wide scope, across space and time, the book actually has a pretty small cast. The characters themselves are a bit of a mix - relatable and, at times, sympathetic, but also deeply flawed. There are no heroes, but there are a lot of people (and spiders) trying to make the best of the hand they have been dealt. In a strange way (and here's a sentence I never thought I'd write) the spider characters are often more sympathetic and easier to root for than the human ones.
Any negatives?
I mean, fellow arachnophobes should go into this knowing that 'giant spiders in space' is not a metaphor. These are not spider-like aliens, they are actual giant spiders. Honestly, even if you are squeamish about spiders I'd still recommend giving it a go and maybe just skimming over a couple of the descriptive passages - it's too good a book not to!
I don't really have a whole lot negative to say about this book, I think it's one that most people could get something out of. Maybe, if you need obvious 'goodies' and 'baddies' to cheer for, you might struggle a little - there's a lot of moral grey areas explored here and (arguably) no obvious heroes and villains.
Overall, I thought this was a fantastic read and I'm very keen to pick up the rest of the trilogy. I'd recommend this to just about anyone and I also think it's a fascinating book to discuss with others - would make a great book club book!
I'm not the biggest fan of the creepy crawlies this book revolves around. Therefore reading through the book, letting the creatures live inside my imagination for such a long time was quite a... unique experience. Thankfully the specific type of spider that plays the main role here is the jumping spider, which is kinda cute. For spider standards at least.
What is not as cute is us humans, who are kind of gross really. I've seen quite a lot of humans in my life and they're pretty weird. They start conflicts over minor things and sometimes let them escalate into violence. Now spider society isn't perfect either as you'll see in this book, I'm just saying I doubt spiders would develop nuclear weapons. At least as far as I know, I don't like researching spiders. BUT, I'm very happy to find out that the cute little spider dances the male spiders do in this book are real! Maybe spiders aren't so bad after all c:
So here you have a book about these creepy crawlies and gross monkeys, alternating between their perspectives with each chapter. Seeing spider society grow more and more complex with each chapter was quite fascinating, seeing how different their technology is from ours. The imagination required by the author to craft a completely different evolutionary line than ours is the web that holds the book together. I've come to realize books with a unique science fiction concept are some of my favorite type of books, and this one delivers what I like quite well! Despite you know, the elephant in the room that is the spiders.
What is not as cute is us humans, who are kind of gross really. I've seen quite a lot of humans in my life and they're pretty weird. They start conflicts over minor things and sometimes let them escalate into violence. Now spider society isn't perfect either as you'll see in this book, I'm just saying I doubt spiders would develop nuclear weapons. At least as far as I know, I don't like researching spiders. BUT, I'm very happy to find out that the cute little spider dances the male spiders do in this book are real! Maybe spiders aren't so bad after all c:
So here you have a book about these creepy crawlies and gross monkeys, alternating between their perspectives with each chapter. Seeing spider society grow more and more complex with each chapter was quite fascinating, seeing how different their technology is from ours. The imagination required by the author to craft a completely different evolutionary line than ours is the web that holds the book together. I've come to realize books with a unique science fiction concept are some of my favorite type of books, and this one delivers what I like quite well! Despite you know, the elephant in the room that is the spiders.
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Absolutely recommend this book. Loved this book. This book may have altered my brain chemistry permanently.
Feel weird about giving it anything less than 5 stars given this. However. I vastly preferred the subplot with the spiders to the one with the humans. Both were great! In isolation I would probably even give the humans subplot 5 stars. But the fact remains that I spent half the book going "No, no, go back to the other thing!" and I do not think I can give that experience 5 stars no matter how good the story that caused it was.
That said, I have a phobia of spiders and this book made me fall in love with the spiders -- who were very obviously spiders! This was not the thing that often happens where I could just pretend they were humans and have the story make sense -- despite that. Read it.
Feel weird about giving it anything less than 5 stars given this. However. I vastly preferred the subplot with the spiders to the one with the humans. Both were great! In isolation I would probably even give the humans subplot 5 stars. But the fact remains that I spent half the book going "No, no, go back to the other thing!" and I do not think I can give that experience 5 stars no matter how good the story that caused it was.
That said, I have a phobia of spiders and this book made me fall in love with the spiders -- who were very obviously spiders! This was not the thing that often happens where I could just pretend they were humans and have the story make sense -- despite that. Read it.