Book Review: Children of Time

All of Adrian Tchaikovsky’s books have wildly imaginative plots and universes, and I’ve yet to be disappointed with a book of his. I trust him completely as an author and I’ll always pick up a book of his without even reading the synopsis. That being said…

The synopsis for this book is that people from Earth sent a spaceship full of animal/plant life to a far off world in hopes of terraforming it to become a livable planet for a human population. In order for the world to become as hospitable as possible, they included primates infected with a nanovirus that would uplift them (make them evolve at a much faster pace than typical.) That was the plan, anyway. However, something went wrong, the primates died, and spiders ended up being the target of the nanovirus.

The story splits between a group of humans traveling to the planet long after the mission had begun, and the history of the spiders as they evolved through generation after generation on the new planet, ending with them being sentient spiders as tall as a large dog. The two sides make first contact and drama ensues between them, with a 3rd party thrown in the mix to complicate things a bit further.

Despite a large portion of the spiders' story taking thousands of years and goes through several generations of spiders, the author manages to keep a solid, relatable connection between them all with one simple trick: renaming the protagonist spiders the same names. I’m this case, the main spider protagonist we follow each chapter is named Portia. And yes, I did call dog-sized intelligent space spiders relatable. You feel for them. You root for them. You empathize with them. The author did a great job making you care for them. And to make matters easier, the basis for their uplifted evolution started with jumping spiders, the cutest of spider-kind.

Children of Time could have solely been about the spiders’ journey from humble beginnings to dominant life forms on their planet and I still would have loved it. Yet the drama is increased as Earth’s possibly last survivors make contact with the spiders and the character work on the humans also has you hoping a peaceful solution can be found between the two.

Children of Time is a great book and while it does have two more sequels following it, the first book is a stand alone novel that you could end with and not worry about cliffhangers, though it’s sequel Children of Ruin is also worth a read. The third book came out at the end of January, and I’ll be picking that up as well.

If you have arachnophobia and just can’t handle the thought of reading about spiders, check out Shards of Earth, Doors of Eden, or Elder Race, the latter two more fantasy than sci-fi.