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willdr 's review for:
Children of Time
by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Humanity is ascendant. Spread throughout the galaxy, and apart from a few mumblings of religious conservatives, peace has been achieved. Dr. Kern stands at the pinnacle of scientific might - successfully terraforming a planet, she is set to release a clutch of monkeys and a nanovirus designed to Uplift their intelligence in hundreds of years, rather than a millennia. However, those religious mumblings were overlooked. Luddites seize control of Kern's satellite, and she barely manages to escape intact. The capsule containing the primates and virus hits atmosphere, hard. It burns up.
Or does it? Tchaikovsky paints a beautiful picture of accelerated evolution. Kern's virus finds new hosts in the insect life of the planet below, in particular a type of spider, and we follow a series of Portias and Biancas in each generation, who begin their own evolutionary path. Meanwhile, the last dying gasp of humanity is traveling to Kern's world, unaware of the work that's begun on the planet's surface. Honestly just a beautiful piece of science fiction that asks questions about sentience, sapience, and humanity's place in our galaxy.
Or does it? Tchaikovsky paints a beautiful picture of accelerated evolution. Kern's virus finds new hosts in the insect life of the planet below, in particular a type of spider, and we follow a series of Portias and Biancas in each generation, who begin their own evolutionary path. Meanwhile, the last dying gasp of humanity is traveling to Kern's world, unaware of the work that's begun on the planet's surface. Honestly just a beautiful piece of science fiction that asks questions about sentience, sapience, and humanity's place in our galaxy.