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A review by charliereadsalot
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
4.0
4 STARS
CW: spiders (!!) & other insects, death, terrorism, mention of war, murder
This was unlike anything I've read before and though I was hesitant about it at first, I quickly began to enjoy the world building and story, as well as all the implications the technology in this book had.
First things first, about half of this book is about evolved sentient spiders but if you make it through the first fifty pages of this book, I believe you will be fine (most spider-y descriptions happen there). I at least found that as the character of Portia, Bianca, Fabian and the other spiders is explored more and more, the less I was bothered by them being spiders. But be aware.
I had expected the way this book ended to happen sometime in the middle so I was a little disappointed that I had to wait so long for the events. It is logical though, it really is more of a final showdown than a midway plot point.
It was super interesting to witness the expedited evolution of the spiders on Kern's World. Similarly, the developments on the Gilgamesh were equally fascinating. There were so many twists and turns and the thought of Holsten going through all of what he lived through was mind-boggling.
I've barely scratched the surface of what is being written in Sci-Fi and this reinvigorated my desire to seek out more creative and unusual stories in the genre. I immediately ordered the next book in this series to continue because the ending was just a mean one.
If you're intrigued, fascinated by evolution and a thought experiment (that's what this book felt like, it was really wonderful) and are unbothered by spiders, definitely give this book a try! (Bear in mind that I'm not a big fan of any creature with more than four legs and generally cannot stomach looking at only pictures of any sort of insect or spider but I was fine over the course of this book.)
CW: spiders (!!) & other insects, death, terrorism, mention of war, murder
This was unlike anything I've read before and though I was hesitant about it at first, I quickly began to enjoy the world building and story, as well as all the implications the technology in this book had.
First things first, about half of this book is about evolved sentient spiders but if you make it through the first fifty pages of this book, I believe you will be fine (most spider-y descriptions happen there). I at least found that as the character of Portia, Bianca, Fabian and the other spiders is explored more and more, the less I was bothered by them being spiders. But be aware.
I had expected the way this book ended to happen sometime in the middle so I was a little disappointed that I had to wait so long for the events. It is logical though, it really is more of a final showdown than a midway plot point.
It was super interesting to witness the expedited evolution of the spiders on Kern's World. Similarly, the developments on the Gilgamesh were equally fascinating. There were so many twists and turns and the thought of Holsten going through all of what he lived through was mind-boggling.
I've barely scratched the surface of what is being written in Sci-Fi and this reinvigorated my desire to seek out more creative and unusual stories in the genre. I immediately ordered the next book in this series to continue because the ending was just a mean one.
If you're intrigued, fascinated by evolution and a thought experiment (that's what this book felt like, it was really wonderful) and are unbothered by spiders, definitely give this book a try! (Bear in mind that I'm not a big fan of any creature with more than four legs and generally cannot stomach looking at only pictures of any sort of insect or spider but I was fine over the course of this book.)
Content Warnings
Moderate: War, Death, and Murder