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sechurae's review against another edition
4.0
Read a third, and then switched to audio. Narrator was very good.
A book that will make you feel empathy toward spiders.
A book that will make you feel empathy toward spiders.
timinbc's review against another edition
4.0
Five stars! No, three. Five. Hmm, let's settle on four.
Why five? This is a long reach conceptually, and brought off quite well, with handwaving throughout but never too much at once.
Why three? Most of the human characters were boring and/or annoying, and dragging out the aging husks of Lain and Mason got positively tedious. The security guy was a caricature of "Duh, okay, bawss, I done like youse ast me."
In between, we wonder at ships from a shattered society that can last 3000 years with some repairs.
We wonder about Kern, who seemed to have gone ga-ga but seemed awfully sharp after being uploaded. We wonder how Lain and Mason never got sidetracked and left afreeze.
And I really ground to a halt on the final setup: -- and never a thought about whether there might be another approach.
But in the end, an uplifted spider civilization is too interesting to let go, especially when we end up cheering for them in the end (which partially excuses making the humans kind of bleh, lest we end up liking them).
I was worried as things kept ramping up with only a few pages left, but in the end, well, I've read LOTS of grand adventures with worse endings. And congrats to the publishers for realizing this HAD to be a single book.
Why five? This is a long reach conceptually, and brought off quite well, with handwaving throughout but never too much at once.
Why three? Most of the human characters were boring and/or annoying, and dragging out the aging husks of Lain and Mason got positively tedious. The security guy was a caricature of "Duh, okay, bawss, I done like youse ast me."
In between, we wonder at ships from a shattered society that can last 3000 years with some repairs.
We wonder about Kern, who seemed to have gone ga-ga but seemed awfully sharp after being uploaded. We wonder how Lain and Mason never got sidetracked and left afreeze.
And I really ground to a halt on the final setup:
Spoiler
"our ship's falling apart, but we'll be fine if we can just (a) destroy the satellite, which is also just fine after 3000 years; (b) destroy this pesky band of spacegoing spiders; (c ) blast the planet's entire ecosystem AND have it be just fine for us after we're done; (d) rebuild an entire civilization"But in the end, an uplifted spider civilization is too interesting to let go, especially when we end up cheering for them in the end (which partially excuses making the humans kind of bleh, lest we end up liking them).
I was worried as things kept ramping up with only a few pages left, but in the end, well, I've read LOTS of grand adventures with worse endings. And congrats to the publishers for realizing this HAD to be a single book.
oddcat's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
tdavidovsky's review against another edition
5.0
Children of Time is about an experiment conducted on a distant planet to give monkeys human intelligence. When the experiment goes wrong, the result is an epic version of Frankenstein's monster: Spiders and other unlikely animals gain intelligence and construct advanced civilizations. Like all good sci-fi, the concept is well-executed, raising questions about the nature of humanity, empathy, and war, and my mind was constantly blown when exploring the biological, social, and technological evolution of the spiders. Adrian Tchaikovsky does an excellent job of not anthropomorphizing spiders too much, while still making them compelling characters. In fact, in terms of both human and nonhuman characters, we never once get stuck with the usual wooden two-dimensional protagonists popular in a lot of sci-fi, though don't expect this to be a character-driven book. The prose is also refreshingly good for sci-fi—even flowery and witty (at least during those times when not bogged down by the usual overly technical jargon that's become a staple of the genre). I highly recommend this to anyone interested in hard sci-fi.
kofolapumpkin's review against another edition
2.0
This was okay. I like the spider POV in the beginning but about halfway through it became quite boring to me for some reason. It just seemed like the same thing over and over again.
The personalities of the humans in this story were really bland, really superficial and an absolute bore to read about. I could not care less tbh. Actually now that I'm writing this, I might change my rating from 3 to 2 stars because this book was honestly a chore to finish.
The personalities of the humans in this story were really bland, really superficial and an absolute bore to read about. I could not care less tbh. Actually now that I'm writing this, I might change my rating from 3 to 2 stars because this book was honestly a chore to finish.
resilient_aka's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
ehsan1358's review against another edition
4.0
داستان خیلی خوبی بود. یک چند تایی ایراد فنی داشت اما اونقدر بزرگ نبود. داستان خیلی روی خط جلو رفت و هرچند ناگهانی، اما به موقع تموم شد.
kelseyroach's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25