If you’re in the mood for an epic science fiction novel with an evolutionary theme, look no further than Children of Time. Spanning thousands of years, this thoughtfully crafted story has certainly been influenced by Arthur C Clarke (and won the award named after him).
What helped to keep me engaged throughout this lengthy book was the continuity of characters. An evolving colony of sentient space-spiders (yes, you heard right) keeps the same names throughout the generations, while the last humans are in stasis on a huge spaceship, which allows them to survive for a long time while periodically being woken up to repair the ship and deal with problems. The main characters include peace-loving Holsten Mason, a classicist specialising in languages of the Old Empire (which I’m guessing is us); Isa Lain, the courageous and foul-mouthed chief engineer who is Holsten’s best friend on the ship; Avrana Kern, an ancient scientist who watches over the spiders’ world from a satellite; Portia, one of the pioneering spiders; and Fabian, another genius spider who champions the rights of males in their matriarchal world.
It’s an absorbing and fascinating novel. I liked everything about it. Essentially it does what all good sci-fi does – holds a mirror up to ourselves, questioning what it means to be human and emphasising the need to learn from mistakes. Sure, I could’ve done without the spiders, but I found that as their society became more advanced, I was more interested in them. I also enjoyed the tension which built up throughout the novel, as there would surely be a confrontation between the two seemingly incompatible species.
First published in 2015. There may be a film on the way but I don’t know if I could watch it, because… spiders.
There is a sequel, Children of Ruin.
I have this book on my amazon wishlist for a while but I have not managed the leap of faith yet. So I an super happy to read your review and learn that it is worth it. I’ll make sure to read this during the summer!
PS: Also 👀 movie 👀
Oh yes I definitely recommend! It’s a long book but worth the read. I’m intrigued to see how the movie will turn out. Thanks for your comment!
I wanna read this! Sounds so good! And yes no movie for me too because.. spiders! 😅 Great review, NS ❤️
Thanks Jee 🙂 ♥
I don’t often read sci-fi now but in any case this was the best one I’d read for a long time. It’s around 600 pages so definitely not my usual length read!
Even though I’m not a spider fan, I did appreciate the way the author totally got into the mindset of them.
I’m glad you liked it, I’ve not read this one but it’s Mark’s favourite. x
He has great taste in books then 😉
I’ll be reading the sequel in the next couple of weeks!
I’m not a fan of this genre, but my partner is and has recently ordered it. We were looking for reviews and found yours, so thank you, it’s helpful and assured him he’s made the right decision. He’s a really fussy reader and only reads (and re-reads) Tolkien and Sanderson so it took a lot of ummimg and head scratching to click that buy now button!
You’re welcome – I don’t read a lot of science fiction now, to be honest, but this is one recently written example that I’d recommend! It’s quite a long novel but well-crafted and full of great ideas. I hope your partner enjoys the book!