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mclean_watson's review against another edition
5.0
I mean, just wow. This book is such an amazing experience, you come in and think you know where it’s heading. But the second half truly deviates from anything I’ve ever read. And I’ll admit, I’m more sad then I thought I’d be to have to say goodbye to the characters of this book. The original Fabian and Lain were by far my favourite characters.
comradechair's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
This was a nice refreshingly easy to read book about big ideas. It's primarily about evolution, sentience and time (the collapse of one empire, the march of time for the last humans, and a new race being birthed).
I thought the chapters about the Spiders would have been too silly for me, but you really did get invested in their constantly evolving culture and science. Never thought I'd find myself rooting for a bunch of spiders so much! Really well done on that front.
As someone who studied classics I really liked one of the main human character - Marston, the last classicist in the universe! He is almost comically useless, and keeps getting dragged into things he has no control over. I'd probably be about as useful as he was!
This novel keeps you guessing with lots of twists and turns. The characters are not the deepest, but they are not the driving force of the story really and serve it well. The only reason I'm not giving it 5 stars is that the ending fell a bit flat for me personally
I thought the chapters about the Spiders would have been too silly for me, but you really did get invested in their constantly evolving culture and science. Never thought I'd find myself rooting for a bunch of spiders so much! Really well done on that front.
As someone who studied classics I really liked one of the main human character - Marston, the last classicist in the universe! He is almost comically useless, and keeps getting dragged into things he has no control over. I'd probably be about as useful as he was!
This novel keeps you guessing with lots of twists and turns. The characters are not the deepest, but they are not the driving force of the story really and serve it well. The only reason I'm not giving it 5 stars is that the ending fell a bit flat for me personally
leokennis's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
manateeprince's review against another edition
challenging
dark
inspiring
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
scarletsnake's review against another edition
5.0
I picked this up because I was tired of seeing this author's books everywhere and having no idea if they were any good. I am happy to report how much I enjoyed it.
If I had a nickel for every different time I have come across an ant-based supercomputer, I would have two nickels, which is not a lot, but weird that it happened twice.
I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected it to. I kept thinking I knew where the story was going to go. I figured we would have the spiders and humans interacting on the planet much sooner than they did, and much of the conflict would revolve around that. But no they only briefly meet once before the climax. Mostly, the book revolves around them each solving their own problems and trying to prepare for each other. I greatly enjoyed the themes of how we fail to teach the future and fail to learn from the past. Only through listening and cooperation can you actually understand and help those you want to educate. I started really hating Kern but when she finally understood her mistakes and listened to her "monkeys," I almost cried. I am not sure the humans ever actually learned their lesson; Holsten just says that they have failed to learn it.
The human empire presented at the start of the novel seems just dreadful. They appear to have survived and thrived against climate change and other current potential civilization killers, but they learned the lesson that, yes, they should be playing God. So I was happy to see them go and was on board with the spiders from the outset. The humans we are actually presented with as characters first appear to be innocent survivors many generations after the fall of the Human Empire. It was fun to see that humanity has still not gotten its act together and again did not learn the lessons of the past human empire that killed itself off. I am glad that our central human character, Holsten, never really does anything. I was starting to worry that towards the end, he was going to save the day or that the humans would suddenly grow up and learn all their lessons. Thankfully that did not pass. Holsten still does not have the confidence or motivation to do much, but think in his head that there is a problem and stays quiet. This would be more frustrating if it were not for Lain being twice as capable as the next best human. I was so frustrated at first when she defended Guyen, but it was so great to see her get radicalized against him while everyone else just took the path of least resistance towards ruin.
While humanity is a train wreck, I found the spiders were to be lovely. I found the development of their society to be interesting and endearing. I was so proud of them when they passed their last few hurdles. I wish it was given more confirmation later on that they deeply worked through the unequal rights of female and male spiders and not just solved it as much as we have today. But I cannot think of any way that the humans seem to demonstrate that problem in the story, so maybe that was one thing they were able to fix in themselves. The spider tech was really compelling to learn about. I am glad he did not dig too deep into any of it. Despite the fact that more or less half the cast are giant spiders using organic tech, I found the author goes out of his way to avoid it being gross. I was glad to see the spiders reach a peaceful solution, but I was never sure they would not. I was pretty sure throughout that this would end with the two sides working together and that I did not want to see unneeded sequels about how they keep doing that, but I think the ending compelled me to keep going. Not right away, but I will read the next one eventually.
...
Spoiler
If I had a nickel for every different time I have come across an ant-based supercomputer, I would have two nickels, which is not a lot, but weird that it happened twice.
I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected it to. I kept thinking I knew where the story was going to go. I figured we would have the spiders and humans interacting on the planet much sooner than they did, and much of the conflict would revolve around that. But no they only briefly meet once before the climax. Mostly, the book revolves around them each solving their own problems and trying to prepare for each other. I greatly enjoyed the themes of how we fail to teach the future and fail to learn from the past. Only through listening and cooperation can you actually understand and help those you want to educate. I started really hating Kern but when she finally understood her mistakes and listened to her "monkeys," I almost cried. I am not sure the humans ever actually learned their lesson; Holsten just says that they have failed to learn it.
The human empire presented at the start of the novel seems just dreadful. They appear to have survived and thrived against climate change and other current potential civilization killers, but they learned the lesson that, yes, they should be playing God. So I was happy to see them go and was on board with the spiders from the outset. The humans we are actually presented with as characters first appear to be innocent survivors many generations after the fall of the Human Empire. It was fun to see that humanity has still not gotten its act together and again did not learn the lessons of the past human empire that killed itself off. I am glad that our central human character, Holsten, never really does anything. I was starting to worry that towards the end, he was going to save the day or that the humans would suddenly grow up and learn all their lessons. Thankfully that did not pass. Holsten still does not have the confidence or motivation to do much, but think in his head that there is a problem and stays quiet. This would be more frustrating if it were not for Lain being twice as capable as the next best human. I was so frustrated at first when she defended Guyen, but it was so great to see her get radicalized against him while everyone else just took the path of least resistance towards ruin.
While humanity is a train wreck, I found the spiders were to be lovely. I found the development of their society to be interesting and endearing. I was so proud of them when they passed their last few hurdles. I wish it was given more confirmation later on that they deeply worked through the unequal rights of female and male spiders and not just solved it as much as we have today. But I cannot think of any way that the humans seem to demonstrate that problem in the story, so maybe that was one thing they were able to fix in themselves. The spider tech was really compelling to learn about. I am glad he did not dig too deep into any of it. Despite the fact that more or less half the cast are giant spiders using organic tech, I found the author goes out of his way to avoid it being gross. I was glad to see the spiders reach a peaceful solution, but I was never sure they would not. I was pretty sure throughout that this would end with the two sides working together and that I did not want to see unneeded sequels about how they keep doing that, but I think the ending compelled me to keep going. Not right away, but I will read the next one eventually.
...
oreillkate's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
dustworth's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
faulty_id's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
5.0
sade's review against another edition
5.0
"Mankind brooks no competitors, She has explained to them - not even its own reflections"..
One of my main fear with reading Science Fiction is that i'll be unable to understand anything going on because of the tendency to have scientific jargons in it. However,
This book.
This book is hands down one of the best books i've read this year. Like mind = blown. Tchaikovsky weaves a brilliant tale of what it means to be human, what it means to be sentient. Children of Time is like holding up a mirror to yourself and asking is this what it means to be human?
"The whole point of civilisation is that we exceed the limits of nature"
The hallmark of this book is that it it's not just mindless action but instead examines and tackles various themes from artificial intelligence, colonisation, god complex and all in an intelligent fashion.
"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.