Reviews

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

20sidedbi's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Holy. Crap. This book was amazing and unlike anything I've ever read before.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Grief, Animal death, and Kidnapping

Spiders

mfox0402's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

keen23's review against another edition

4.0

This book is in high demand at my library, even though it's not a particularly new release. So I was nice and read it over the weekend. It's on the long side, and the plot is interesting. There's not a ton of science, but a lot of world building.

gagedameron2206's review against another edition

5.0

This book was great. It was hard to find the flow, but it fit! The end was so confusing for me, but that's not that bad

laurora's review against another edition

5.0

Phenomenal book. Varied and excellent prose used to tell an amazing blend of emotional and scientific story

thetrashchan's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

rainyfellaa's review against another edition

4.0

I enjoyed this book the way that everything started developing and all the progress seen on the spiders was something really cool though I have to say that the humans weren't as interesting as the spiders on the spider side you saw rebellions, revolutions the rising of a new society the sexism and a lot of amazing stuff while the humans were doing nothing as cool everytime I was brought to the human side I was reading as fast as I could to keep expanding on the spiders but however I think this book is truly good and I bet that on the next one with the events last seen will be really awesome

footnote304's review

informative reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

hugyourface's review against another edition

adventurous challenging informative mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This one grows on me. First read was a 3.5. Second read was a 4.5. I’ll take the balance of the two. 

Pro: Just cracking writing. Pacing, characterizations, mechanics, prose — great execution. Characters that I cared about even when I didn’t like them. Made me think. Changed my attitudes, as others have said. Clever commentary on real-life gender roles. 

Con: With the technical challenges AT has set for himself with this one, there’s a little less room to fill in characterizations. You’re going to have to dig up some empathy on your own here. 

woolerys's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Writing - 3/5 

Plot - 5/5 

Characters - 3/5 

World-building - 5/5 

Personal tastes - 3/5 

TOTAL: 3.8 

 

“Anthropological sci-fi with spiders” would not normally get me to read a book, but I was assured that the spiders were cool and not creepy, an assessment which, having now finished the book, I mostly agree with. 

 

Plot-wise, what a ride. The spiders and their ant technology were amazing pretty much all the way through (though there was a point where I was like... and are these social ills really an inevitable part of social evolution? I don't think so! but then it got better again). One human had a pretty interesting arc; the others were kinda meh. Without getting spoilery, my biggest "clearly written by a white dude" problem was how conflict-driven it was, and how the conflict was always presented as basically inevitable. It actually rendered the ending feeling kind of trite and rushed when it should have been the opposite. I also wanted a deeper emotional range—certainly the plot provided for it—and it usually felt too shallow. This was my chief complaint about the spiders, actually. Anyway, cool concept, epic journey, and if you are not bothered by white man sci-fi vibes then definitely check it out.