Reviews

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

thecthaeh's review against another edition

informative reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

bella_ocava's review against another edition

4.0

never thought there’d be a context in which i’d be rooting for spiders but here it is

super unique and well-written!

BUT

the human plotline kinda ruined the vibes for me, definitely dragged on for too long and i didn’t find myself particularly attached to any of them

all in all 4.37 stars

danielles_reads's review against another edition

DNF @ 52%

I was really intrigued by the beginning of this book. The world building was interesting, and there was quite a bit of action and excitement in the first third of the book. But then it started to slow down and feel like a slog. The world building that was so interesting in the beginning became less of a focus. The

spider

society evolution seemed to be following a similar trajectory as human evolution, (which is just boring to me), and a lot of the human society history went unexplained. There didn’t seem to be any overarching plot line that had me curious what would happen next, and I didn’t care about any of the many flat characters.

This seems to be an idea-driven philosophy-focused story, which I can enjoy, but usually through audio. But unfortunately this is an Audible exclusive and I don’t want to spend a credit on this just to potentially still dislike it regardless of the format. I think the ideas just feel so simplistic compared to other philosophical novels I’ve loved, like The Dispossessed.

basvdboogaard's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

ingrids1's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

ghosty773's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

whykimwhenyoucanseokjin's review against another edition

4.0

I'll have to be honest, I heard the word spiders and I really didn't have much expectations for this book , mostly because I'm a judgemental a-hole who doesn't like reading about characters that aren't human, and the fact that I hate insects with passion so I would've probably jumped off the ship the first time I saw that the green world was crawling with them.

Anyways this book was a pleasant surprise, at first I wasn't interested in the spiders storyline and sometimes almost skipped it , however I realized that it was an important part of the book so I couldn't, and that was the right choice because I ended up finding myself falling in love with those disturbing hairy legged creatures with every generation that passes. I loved the social commentary throughout the book and how the spider society evolved and changed, especially the thing about the males trying to fight for their rights to live (feminism? Malinism ?)

goodbooksgreatgoats's review against another edition

5.0

This book is phenomenal. So complex, horrifying, and beautiful.

jankeselak's review against another edition

5.0

So good! Not a huge nonfiction or sci-fi fanboy here, but boy, this was a good one. Once I picked it up, I couldn't let go. It is written so well, drags you in instantly and keeps you curious about what comes next basically until the very end.

Some of the concepts are absolutely mindblowing - this book dabbles in AI, evolution, world building, philosophy and quiet a bit of morality and ethics, balancing each element very nicely.

Read this if you get a chance. I can't wait to go through the rest of series asap.

geekmom's review against another edition

challenging informative inspiring mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated

4.25

I thought this was brilliant, creative, and thought-provoking. At the same time, I had a hard time feeling invested in the story; I felt distanced from the characters. I also had some massive quibbles with the "science" part of this book.

There are a few assumptions/tropes that spoil an *awful lot* of sci-fi for me because they are based on some assumptions that are just not supported by science or by philosophy of science:
Genes do not contain "information"... DNA is not "information" or "instructions", at least not in the way that this book suggests.
Knowledge is not "information". 
Minds are not computers - they do not "process information", they are not containers of information. 

I could say much more about this... but it would be better for anyone actually interested to just read Bennett & Hacker's "Philosophical Foundations of Neuroscience", because they do a much better job of deconstructing the cognitivist theories that are woven throughout this book. https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/92b7e74f-111f-494c-99f7-680e9b8369d1

In the end I still had to give this book a high rating, because in spite of my quibbles I think Tchaikovsky does an exceptional job here, constructing a cleverly written story that tackles some big ideas about the nature of humanity, about how societies change, about how we treat other species, and about what direction our own species is heading.