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A review by abditoryalive
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
adventurous
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
“And more- if Scoles does set up there and sends a message saying Come on down the spiders are lovely, then what if a load of people want to join him?”
It had been too much. He, who had translated the madness of a millennia old guardian Angel. He who had been abducted. He who had seen an alien world crawling with earthly horrors. He had feared. He had loved. He had met a man who wanted to be God. He had seen death.
The answer to the age old question - whom inherits the earth?
🌏 What an unequivocal masterpiece. The most original concept sci-fi I’ve read to date - without coming off completely bizarre. Than again maybe it does, since it features Space Age=Stone Age bio punk spiders. While the book was an intimidating length (thankyou ebook for keeping that mostly hidden from me), I was completely absorbed and leads to an unanticipated ending (contrastingly, see counterpoint below 🕸️).
🛰️ Tchaikovsky had weaved a richly kaleidoscopic and vividly developed alien/spider society with a host of reoccurring and uniquely endearing spider characters - Portia, Bianca and Fabian. Their human counterpart characters while not as compelling remain interesting as they grapple with the psychological experience when coming to terms with the reality of their prospects, future, purpose and extinction.
🌏 I throughly enjoyed the diverse female cast this narrative employs. Female characters in sci-fi often conform to traditional gender roles (in my experience), a soothing sounding AI
🛰️ Children of Time is rich with both moral and philosophical dilemmas. One of the reasons I love reading sci fi is to ponder these, much like a thought experiment. What does it mean to be intelligent, playing in the background of humanity’s technological, doomed and destructive approach to progress.
🕸️ As above, while I was completely engrossed on the ending it is somewhat ambiguous, but perhaps merely being left open for the next instalment!
🕸️ Some of the world building and science, complete with scientific names for insects can be a bit dense. I could only follow with some of them having recently played a survival insect game, Grounded and recognised the name for a bombardier beetle. 🪲🕷️🐞🐜
🕸️ Alongside, the generation time skips can sometimes make it difficult to keep hold of all the convoluted web of plot lines. I had to remind myself which generation of spider friends we were in, and who was frozen and awake in the human instances. For awhile there I also forgot what Vitas role was in key staff, and was assuming medical staff (thank you Star Trek), and thankfully assumed right as I was reminded towards the ends of the book.
🕸️ Can be VERY slow in stages, but will suddenly throw an engaging plot device. BAM!
🕸️ Such a petty grievance, but the title of this gem gives away nothing! Surely there could be a better, flashier title to draw in the sheer scope of this novel.