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fionna_osullivan 's review for:
Children of Time
by Adrian Tchaikovsky
I tried to read this book once before, but as someone who is not a fan of spiders or insects, it became a bit too much.
I would never have started again, or finished, if it hadn't been picked as our bookclub read, and I am thankful that it was, and I did, and I did.
This book spans eons, which even though I knew ahead of time I found hard to grasp. It is harsh, as well, and although there are moments of respite for the characters they are few and far between.
But wow, is it worth reading it! The spiders are by far the most convincingly alien species I have read in recent SF, closely followed by the rogue AIs that also feature here, and I appreciated the way that their sections were written in a kind of 'nature documentary' voice - it saved them from becoming too anthropomorphic, so that as readers we were always aware of how inhuman the characters were that we rooted for.
The irony that these convincing aliens are all originally from Earth is not lost on me, of course, but I am blown away by the scholarship that [a:Adrian Tchaikovsky|1445909|Adrian Tchaikovsky|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1282303363p2/1445909.jpg] used to shape this book.
I would never have started again, or finished, if it hadn't been picked as our bookclub read, and I am thankful that it was, and I did, and I did.
This book spans eons, which even though I knew ahead of time I found hard to grasp. It is harsh, as well, and although there are moments of respite for the characters they are few and far between.
But wow, is it worth reading it! The spiders are by far the most convincingly alien species I have read in recent SF, closely followed by the rogue AIs that also feature here, and I appreciated the way that their sections were written in a kind of 'nature documentary' voice - it saved them from becoming too anthropomorphic, so that as readers we were always aware of how inhuman the characters were that we rooted for.
The irony that these convincing aliens are all originally from Earth is not lost on me, of course, but I am blown away by the scholarship that [a:Adrian Tchaikovsky|1445909|Adrian Tchaikovsky|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1282303363p2/1445909.jpg] used to shape this book.