# Review: Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky



## Vertigo (May 23, 2018)

Humanity has reached levels of technology that are verging on godlike and now, having found no other life in the galaxy, they are using those abilities to really play god; attempting to raise Terran monkeys to full sentience on a terraformed planet far from Sol. Meanwhile back at the solar system humanity’s continuous bickerings really do look like they might put an end to the human race this time. Leaving only a few humans on Earth reduced to savages clawing their way back to technology and escaping the poisoned Earth that they have inherited. They head for the only other terraformed planet they know of. Only the great experiment there went a little wrong and instead of sentient monkeys we have sentient spiders. Not recommended for suffers of arachnophobia!

Tchaikovsky has created a brilliant piece of hard science fiction that explores all that’s best and worst in humanity contrasting it with the evolving arachnid civilisation; the story alternating between the human refugees’ point of view and that of the spiders. The refugees’ single ark ship is old and failing and the only habitable planet around is already occupied. All the science and lack of it is completely plausible and all the actions and motivations of both the humans and spiders is equally plausible. I had to do little or no suspension of disbelief whilst reading Children of Time which is exactly how I like my science fiction and it’s particularly surprising coming from an author all of whose prior output has been fantasy.

The writing is fluid, the characters, both human and alien, interesting and well filled out and, whilst the final denouement was moderately inevitable, the route to it was filled with twists and turns that definitely weren’t predictable. I am only a little surprised (and disappointed) that despite leaving everything open for a sequel there appears to be no intent to produce one. He has, however, written some further SF since Children of Time so I will certainly be taking a look at that.

4/5 stars


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## Brian G Turner (May 23, 2018)

This kept coming up for 99p on Amazon, but I've repeatedly passed on the fear that I wouldn't like it.

Your review has persuaded me that next time it's on offer I'll make sure to try it.


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## Jo Zebedee (May 23, 2018)

I enjoyed it. The spiders rocked.


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## Vertigo (May 23, 2018)

Yes I thought they were particularly well imagined; he is after all a biologist!


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## Danny McG (May 23, 2018)

I didn't enjoy it all that much, I only finished reading it cos I was like three quarters through it when I got jaded with it. It didn't pull me into the story


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## Vertigo (May 23, 2018)

dannymcg said:


> I didn't enjoy it all that much, I only finished reading it cos I was like three quarters through it when I got jaded with it. It didn't pull me into the story


Oh well back to the good old horses for courses I guess!


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## unbusy thing (May 23, 2018)

And webs in space! And webby space elevators!!  Thoroughly enjoyed this. Funnily enough have started, but not been pulled in by, his Shadows of the Apt series.


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## Vertigo (May 23, 2018)

unbusy thing said:


> And webs in space! And webby space elevators!!  Thoroughly enjoyed this. Funnily enough have started, but not been pulled in by, his Shadows of the Apt series.


Ah well I've long fallen out of reading fantasy so I'm only really interested in the couple of SF books he's written since this.


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## williamjm (May 23, 2018)

Vertigo said:


> I am only a little surprised (and disappointed) that despite leaving everything open for a sequel there appears to be no intent to produce one.



Tchaikovsky recently said he's delivered a sequel _Children of Ruin_ to his publishers and it should probably be out next year sometime - see Books to the future! : Shadows of the Apt

I'm not quite sure what I expect from the sequel, I wonder if the story will be returning to Earth?


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## Parson (May 24, 2018)

Tchaikovsky's "Children of Time" is quite brilliant in my estimation. Both the human and arachnid protagonists were completely believable in their abilities and in their flaws. I concur with @Vertigo that is really fine Hard S.F. Shouldn't be missed by anyone who is a fan.


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## Vertigo (May 24, 2018)

williamjm said:


> Tchaikovsky recently said he's delivered a sequel _Children of Ruin_ to his publishers and it should probably be out next year sometime - see Books to the future! : Shadows of the Apt
> 
> I'm not quite sure what I expect from the sequel, I wonder if the story will be returning to Earth?





Spoiler



Well he left them with the joint human/arachnid ship off chasing that mysterious signal. Another terraforming project? Or maybe the other ark ship. Wasn't there another one sent out from Earth but they'd never heard anything more from it and assumed it had failed?


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## unbusy thing (May 24, 2018)

Vertigo said:


> I've long fallen out of reading fantasy


Yeah I don't read much fantasy these days either. In fact, I don't read nearly as much as I used to full stop.


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## Vertigo (May 24, 2018)

Whoops thanks for putting in the spoiler tags. I wasn't thinking!


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## johndsal (Jun 13, 2018)

Actually bought a copy from a charity shop for £1. Not a bad read


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## picklematrix (Jul 8, 2018)

One of my personal favourite SF books. It was a perfect standalone story, though i cant wait to see what he does with a sequel.


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## Bugg (Jul 10, 2018)

Great review, Vertigo!  I absolutely loved this book - it was one of my favourite reads of last year (jumping on that 99p Kindle deal).

I reviewed it myself here, if you're interested: Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky | The Fantasy Hive


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## Vertigo (Jul 10, 2018)

Bugg said:


> Great review, Vertigo!  I absolutely loved this book - it was one of my favourite reads of last year (jumping on that 99p Kindle deal).
> 
> I reviewed it myself here, if you're interested: Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky | The Fantasy Hive


Thanks @Bugg and I bow to the superiority of your review!


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## Bugg (Jul 10, 2018)

Vertigo said:


> Thanks @Bugg and I bow to the superiority of your review!



Nah, it's nearly as long as the book


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## Rodders (Jul 10, 2018)

Thanks Vertigo, nice review. I will download this on Payday. 

I have read much praise about Adrian's work.


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## Parson (Jul 10, 2018)

Bugg said:


> I reviewed it myself here, if you're interested: Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky | The Fantasy Hive



@Bugg .... That is a wonderful review. It says much of what I feel about the book as well. 


.... I am also a bit of arachnophob. And I surely know why. When I was 8? 9? in a very small country school one of the kids had a birthday, and his treat was to treat the whole school to a movie. -- A kind of "Swiss Family Robinson" kind of thing, and to this day I can remember the scene where the brother in the story is tearing a butterfly out of spider's web and this huge trantutla size spider comes and bites him on the neck and he almost dies.  It still gives me goosebumps.


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## Bugg (Jul 10, 2018)

Parson said:


> @Bugg .... That is a wonderful review. It says much of what I feel about the book as well.



Thank you! 

I think, if I were to tie my arachnophobia down to a movie rather than my mum screaming the house down, it would be The Incredible Shrinking Man.  That terrified me as a kid, and the novel terrified me equally when I read it a few years ago.


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## althea (Jun 28, 2019)

Thanks for your review,Vertigo. Thank goodness I didn't buy this. I suffer from arachnophobia (big time) so this book is a no no for me.
I agree with your views about AT's writing. His imagination is amazing and I think he rivals Shakespeare for his characterisation.


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## StilLearning (Feb 11, 2020)

For those who've read CoT this may have an eerie resonance: Spiders think with their webs, challenging our ideas of intelligence 

Sorry it needs a subscription to access fully, if I can find a fully free version I'll post it.


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