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A review by owlette
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
5.0
"Wow" was all I could say when I finished listening to the audiobook at 3am. There are so many elements that I love about this book.
A spider civilization: I realized that this is the kind of science fiction I love--when non-human organisms take over the world. Even though there are humans in this book (unfortunately), it's the spiders that really captured my heart and mind. These spiders are inquisitive, resourceful, and efficacious. Unlike the solitary spiders that we know on Earth, the Portids (the ficititious species name of these spiders in the book) form a complex society over the course of a millennium. They coopt ant colonies to perform automated labor (I wouldn't call them slaves because even in the fictional universe, the ants did not develop to have autonomous consciousness separate from the colony); they gain scientific knowledge about their own biology and that of others; they develop tools and technology while they go through an intraspecies religious war. They even go into space! I know this all sounds crazy, but you've gotta believe me when I say that I cried in chapter 6.6 when Kern said to the spider, "I salute you."
Clever narration: Unlike the chapters on humans are about a handful of specific individuals, the chapters on spiders cover multiple generations. The author could have bombarded the reader with different names every time the chapter moved on to the next generation, but the author cleverly avoids this by giving the same four names to the main characters of each generation: Portia, Fabian, Bianca, and Viola. By using the same names, the authors cue the readers on the spiders' gender, their societal role and position, and personalities. Even though we know that the Portia in the current chapter is a different spider from the Portia in the previous chapter (immortality is not one of their evolutionary development), the reader is able to bond with each Portia.
Interspecies cooperation: Something that I love seeing depicted in science fiction is interspecies cooperation. Science fiction series often feature a motley crew of humans and non-humans (e.g. Mass Effect, Star Trek, Star Wars), but I find the non-human species too human-like for there to be any real obstacle in interspecies communication. For example, the aliens might have a vocal cord so that they can communicate verbally; they can walk on two feet because they're bipedal. In Children of Time, however, interspecies cooperation has a rocky start. It essentially took thousands of years for Dr. Kearn to get over her human superiority and try to learn the ways of the Portids, which involved, for instance, abandoning the assumption that the Portids can experience the world visually and aurally like humans. But they do overcome the obstacle, and the last remaining humans aboard Gilgamesh are only saved because the Portids reach out to them in peace. I've already begun reading the sequel, [b:Children of Ruin|40376072|Children of Ruin (Children of Time, #2)|Adrian Tchaikovsky|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1548701599l/40376072._SX50_.jpg|62663185], and am excited to see more of this interspecies cooperation between the Portids and the humans--its challenges and achievements and the relationships formed along the way.
A spider civilization: I realized that this is the kind of science fiction I love--when non-human organisms take over the world. Even though there are humans in this book (unfortunately), it's the spiders that really captured my heart and mind. These spiders are inquisitive, resourceful, and efficacious. Unlike the solitary spiders that we know on Earth, the Portids (the ficititious species name of these spiders in the book) form a complex society over the course of a millennium. They coopt ant colonies to perform automated labor (I wouldn't call them slaves because even in the fictional universe, the ants did not develop to have autonomous consciousness separate from the colony); they gain scientific knowledge about their own biology and that of others; they develop tools and technology while they go through an intraspecies religious war. They even go into space! I know this all sounds crazy, but you've gotta believe me when I say that I cried in chapter 6.6 when Kern said to the spider, "I salute you."
Clever narration: Unlike the chapters on humans are about a handful of specific individuals, the chapters on spiders cover multiple generations. The author could have bombarded the reader with different names every time the chapter moved on to the next generation, but the author cleverly avoids this by giving the same four names to the main characters of each generation: Portia, Fabian, Bianca, and Viola. By using the same names, the authors cue the readers on the spiders' gender, their societal role and position, and personalities. Even though we know that the Portia in the current chapter is a different spider from the Portia in the previous chapter (immortality is not one of their evolutionary development), the reader is able to bond with each Portia.
Interspecies cooperation: Something that I love seeing depicted in science fiction is interspecies cooperation. Science fiction series often feature a motley crew of humans and non-humans (e.g. Mass Effect, Star Trek, Star Wars), but I find the non-human species too human-like for there to be any real obstacle in interspecies communication. For example, the aliens might have a vocal cord so that they can communicate verbally; they can walk on two feet because they're bipedal. In Children of Time, however, interspecies cooperation has a rocky start. It essentially took thousands of years for Dr. Kearn to get over her human superiority and try to learn the ways of the Portids, which involved, for instance, abandoning the assumption that the Portids can experience the world visually and aurally like humans. But they do overcome the obstacle, and the last remaining humans aboard Gilgamesh are only saved because the Portids reach out to them in peace. I've already begun reading the sequel, [b:Children of Ruin|40376072|Children of Ruin (Children of Time, #2)|Adrian Tchaikovsky|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1548701599l/40376072._SX50_.jpg|62663185], and am excited to see more of this interspecies cooperation between the Portids and the humans--its challenges and achievements and the relationships formed along the way.