Children of Time: The Spider Book I Loved
The Novel About Spiders That Became One of My Favorites
Children of Time has a premise that sounds improbable: it follows the evolution of a spider civilization across thousands of years as they inherit a terraformed planet meant for humans. Adrian Tchaikovsky makes it work through a combination of rigorous biology and genuine storytelling craft. By the third spider chapter I was more invested in the fate of the spider civilization than in the human storyline running alongside it, which I believe was entirely the point.
The spider chapters overtook the human chapters completely within 100 pages.
610Pages
"The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you.
"Adrian Tchaikovsky
Reading Children of Time
Enjoyment
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Section
Why Skeptics Become Believers in This Novel
The spider biology is accurate enough to feel real and invented enough to feel alien
Portia as a character achieves heroism without anthropomorphizing dishonestly
The human ship sections provide useful pacing contrast to the spider civilizations
The scale of the novel earns its length and the ending pays off the patience