Children of Time: The Best and Most Terrifying Sci-Fi Novel I've Read

[@klaymoon1]

Children of Time is one of my favorite sci-fi novels ever. So original. So imaginative.

[@dragonsandwarts5644]

Me too, have you read children of ruin yet? I have it ready to start next .

[@klaymoon1]

@@dragonsandwarts5644 I love it, but I love everything written by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

[@bedazzledbuddhist]

Ok you convinced me. As an evolutionary biologist I feel like it’s a requirement too

[@libraryofaviking]

This is definitely a must read for you then!

[@GarboGamingVideos]

Did you end up grabbing it and what did you think?

[@cjgray8825]

What did you end up thinking about it?

[@WaterspoutsOfTheDeep]

What do you think about the recent news from the ENCODE project that proved humans have on average 100 mutations per generation thus are not evolving but heading towards extinction and never evolved? That was quite some news in the science community that never got the attention it should have given it's over 100 fold more mutations per generation for humans than would be allowed for evolution to be an explanation.

[@korbendallas5318]

So, did you read it? I've had some problems with the book's science, what did you think?

[@dragoninthewest1]

Check out videos of jumping spiders. They're actually adorable. You can finally see Fabian doing his dance

[@Aaron-kj8dv]

You just sold me on this book, thanks man. Looks fascinating

[@libraryofaviking]

I hope you will enjoy it!

[@SpencerRussellSmithAuthor]

I don't usually like spiders, but Tchaikovsky did a great job of making me far more terrified of the ants than the spiders. He also just does such a great job on the philosophical end of things. This was such an awesome book! (and I'm so jealous of those TBB editions)

[@JARHuygebaert]

What really made this book creepy was the music you used in this video

[@ithrahmunchswallow468]

😂 truth 😛

[@bandito151]

this is one of your best videos,rly enjoyed your voice tone and editing.

[@libraryofaviking]

Thank you! That is kind of you!

[@j.j.5731]

You should check out The Mote In God's Eye - Niven&Pournelle It's a great first contact story. There is some dated dialogue but it is easy to get past that.

[@patrickbarker3661]

I just started Children of Time. Project Hail Mary also happens to be my favorite sci-fi book (so far). Thanks for the synopsis you provided. I have high hopes.

[@willconwell]

Check out red rising

[@jenniferclark677]

Love this book so much! Glad to see you did too! Also, I love your edition with the sprayed edges!

[@tarrat3717]

Great Book! I read the book 3 years ago and still think about it.

[@fcsolis]

Awesome video. Yah, I started this book years ago, I remember the terrifying, intelligent spiders. I should finish reading Children of Time. Those hardcovers are beautiful. Thank you.

[@lucian1607]

Thank you for your review of this book series. I just purchased the first book in the trilogy. 😁👍🏽

[@Talking_Story]

I will have to move this trilogy way up on my TBR

[@michaelbodell7740]

I loved this book. I think the whole series is enjoyable and worth reading, but I think book 1 is the best. Possibly also because it is the most surprising to see the upleveling evolution process work so well so the 2nd and 3rd books which explore it more aren't the "first" we are seeing of it.

[@ithrahmunchswallow468]

As a spider lover, I was rooting for tge arachnids 🙌🏼 Great video.

[@esmayrosalyne]

This has been on my TBR for a shamefully long time, so thanks for kicking it back up my priority list with this inredible review!! I am so morbidly curious about reading from a spider's POV, haha.

[@georgijaxx1557]

Its so fascinating to see how the spider society,technology and politics develop throughout their evolutionary process, so compelling and well executed...simply amazing

[@georgijaxx1557]

Plus the author Nails the ending!

[@Mizt9462]

I so love this trilogy, my second best scifi series of alltime. Remembrance of Earth’s Past is the best.

[@knoef82]

I am one book into it. It is really good but the ending is a bit of underwhelming.

[@muttineni03]

You put your thoughts out very clearly and explained premise in very easy to understand manner, ill give this another try, im currently reading Spin, its a great middle ground between scifi concept and character development, maybe more character development i guess, you should give it a try, i love PHM btw.

[@rickwrites2612]

The one problem (which might just be the semantics used to communicate the concept) is that people seem to not understand evolution enough to communicate the books concept clearly. Evolution is NOT synonymous with advancement, or increasing complexity or specialization, or intelligence. It just is not. Evolution is synonymous with changes in gene frequencies over time in a breeding population, *regardless of what kind or direction*. This is why there is no such thing as "devolution" (you would instead refer to a specific trait, organism, or culture "degenerating" due to that trait being disadvantageous in the current/near past environment). To speed up evolution simply means to increase the rate at which mutations occur and/or the rate of a breeding populations life cycles (i.e., natural selection). Evolution is not teleological. There is no ultimate endgame or direction towards intelligence. No matter how much you speed up evolution, most species will never evolve asvanced/complex intelligence, because you only evolve a trait if its mutation advantages the organisns with it (and/or the lack of it causes such disadvantage to those without it) that the one outbreeds the other. So the drug Kern dispenses on the planet, intended for her "barrel of monkeys " is not simply one that "speeds up evolution", rather it is one that specifically increases the mutations and spread of the trait specifically called " human like intelligence". If there is no spiking the species with thst particular trsit and/or no environmental pressure privleging intelligence (which is rare; brains require a ton of energy so its usually more efficient to for a species to evolve an alternative niche), then intelligence wouldn't arise.

[@korbendallas5318]

Thank you for pointing that out. For me it's part of the major problem I have with the book's science: Why is the virus very capable of pushing at least three species towards intelligence, but lacks basic capabilties in other regards?

[@safinan8008]

Thanks for the review video 🎥

[@777orochimaru7]

Reading this book atm and totally crapped my pands in capter 4 when a spider fell from the ceiling and landed on my book. Was completly freaked out

[@justinschrank4806]

Project Hail Mary is my favorite sci fi book of all time. I've read children of time as well, but found it less focused

[@ithrahmunchswallow468]

I caught hints of another favorite from years ago which was fun and has compelled me to re-read The Jesus Incident. I especially love the environmental impact on the three factions and their evolution.

[@1914jblue]

The spider special opps at the end was crazy. 😂

[@Kenji-Tsuyoi]

After giving this author multiple chances with three of their books, I regret to say that I won't be delving into their works again. "Dogs of War" started off decently, providing an enjoyable read for what it offered. However, "Bear Head" was a major disappointment, resembling more of a Twitter rant about Trump rather than a coherent narrative, with a bland and uninspired villain it could have been so much better . "Shards of Earth" didn't fare any better, feeling like a mishmash of YA sci-fi and fantasy elements. Now onto "Children of Time," touted as the author's best work by many. Unfortunately, it didn't grab me from the start and, upon finishing it, solidified my opinion that Adrian Tchaikovsky's writing isn't for me. His writing style tends to lean towards YA, with science veering more towards fantasy, and characters behaving in immature and unrealistic ways for the YA audience . I might overlook this if the story or characters were compelling, but unfortunately, that's not the case here. Every character in "Children of Time" comes off as unlikeable and annoying, acting in ways that feel inconsistent with their portrayals. For instance, Dr. Avrana Kern, supposedly a genius, behaves in a childish and immature manner towards the AI, which is not what one would expect from someone of her intellect. The only redeeming quality of this book is its intriguing premise, but it fails to capitalize on it and fails to engage the reader. I fail to see how this author can be compared to modern greats like Anthony Ryan, Peter F. Hamilton, Peter Watts, Cixin Liu, James S.A. Corey, John Scalzi, or Iain M. Banks. Consequently, I won't be picking up any more of Tchaikovsky's works.

[@nazimelmardi]

Well then, that’s what hard sci-fi about. Most probably you should try Three-Body Problem. This video shows what are the concepts you liked here? Check what Liu does with humanity there. We can’t say this always as some of the best books will avoid you. Exactly with the potential of making you think. A lot of theme and idea driven books are focused on those. The characters are the symbols and here too. As you just said: they show casing what would happen with the people if they think… That’s the purpose of the characters. So are in other classic ones.

[@StevenHilton-w7s]

I credit this book with helping me confront my fear of spiders.

[@sevenheadedweasel]

If children of time was terrifying I think we read different books. The book is beautiful.

[@r_loretta2588]

Children of Time was the first book I read this year and it wasn't for me. I did appreciate it for what it was and it was definitely unique. I did enjoy the concept of the spiders and how they evolved. However, why I personally didn't like is is because I didn't really feel connected to any of the characters. For me to enjoy a book I need to care about the characters on some level. I couldn't really connect with the spiders because they were too alien. And we didn't get enough from the human side of things to really connect with them.

[@danielmillar7628]

I really didn’t find the spider chapter horrific, I felt part of their work and understood them

[@joshportal2808]

I recommend any book by Yahtzee Croshaw, especially “Jam” and “Will Save the Galaxy For Food.”

[@crazyforbooksandcoffee]

This has just bumped up my TBR 😊❤

[@korbendallas5318]

What is "TBR"?

[@crazyforbooksandcoffee]

To be read 😊

[@korbendallas5318]

@@crazyforbooksandcoffee Figures, thanks! Back in the day we had a TRQ...

[@courtneytesvich1333]

I really enjoyed that the book explores some pretty deep philosophical themes. Specifically, what is God. But also, and perhaps most poignantly for myself as I am reading this book while I am attending an AI conference, the relationship between machines and humans and when does it go too far. I do believe that Tchaikovsky doesn't interesting job of balancing the perspective of the humans and the spiders. The spiders are evolving their tech quickly while the humans are living in a devolving spaceship. Both Kern and Guyen provide a thoughtful counterpoint to the benefits of advancing technology and mankind's ability to exploit technology to further their god complexes.

[@Mollydollyyyy]

I just want to say how upset I am by the thumbnail. Im 300 pages in and just wanted to see how many reviews there were, and now Im anticipating some weird spider human hybrids when i never would have seen that coming :/ im so bummed

[@matijajuric5479]

Felt the same way about TBP😢

[@Mollydollyyyy]

​@matijajuric5479 I finished the book yesterday and I'm still mad that I was half expecting grotesque hybridized human spiders for the second half 😂

[@matijajuric5479]

@@Mollydollyyyy sometimes i hate my imagination not giving me a break.. uncontrollable.. spoilers are spoilers and what has been seen can never be unseen and then creative mind kicks in😃

[@rvt_h3d]

wow the hardcover is going for $350

[@limalepakko6074]

The thumbnail makes this seem like some sort of horror book lol

[@Zivilin]

I've had this on my tbr for a while just never seem to get around to it.

[@focusrelax8838]

What do you think of IsaacAsimov the foundation series books 1-7?

[@wwondertwin]

I didn't find it terrifying at all. More exhilarating and just... beautiful. The ending is so hopeful, too.

[@sarahwhite7470]

I enjoy and aligned with majority of your reviews this is one we definitely differ on and can’t recommend this book

[@danielzielinski3821]

That is a beautiful book. Where did you get it?

[@libraryofaviking]

The Broken Binding!

[@MSE9107]

Is this the guy who made that multiple accent video a while back ?

[@michaelchurch1324]

Children of Time is great, though I don't consider it SF horror. If you want an SF-Horror recommendation, though, I suggest you read Blindsight by Peter Watts, which is also a fantastic and thought provoking alien contact novel.

[@nostradamus561]

where did you get that hardcover edition? i can’t find it on amazon

[@libraryofaviking]

It's The Broken Binding edition! Only 1000 copies made!

[@nostradamus561]

@@libraryofaviking ah that’s sad, a really beautiful book

[@Shellesspace]

It’s my favourite book! Unfortunately I didn’t love the sequels 😭

[@korbendallas5318]

Obligatory nitpick: It's *not* evolution, except in the widest sense of the word. Biological evolution is inherently unguided, the uplifting of the spiders is very much not.

[@wwondertwin]

That's not true. Evolution is the process itself and it can be guided or random, and in fact there are many naturally occurring guiding mechanisms hardwired into many species. It's the selection processes that define the route evolution takes. You can have selection through environmental factors, through predation and even sexual selection is a thing. All of those guide evolution. So-called artificial selection is not inherently any different from the naturally occurring selection methods, except that we've defined it as artificial because we are the cause. But we are equally the products of natural selection ourselves, including our ability to induce "artificial selection". We're not outside the box even if we have slightly better understanding of the rules than other species.

[@korbendallas5318]

@@wwondertwin I think we have different definitions of a couple of words. For example, I wouldn't call "naturally occuring guidance" guidance at all. The guidance in the book is not at all natural, and that's what makes the difference. I use the term evolution to describe the process that lead to the diversity of life here on Earth. No guidance to find, nor is one necessary. Fundamentally, a lot of evolutionary math can only be applied to "stochastic" evolution, ie. the one without guidance. That is a big difference. I'm riding the point so hard because the term is often defined non-standard or extremely fuzzy, and often to deceive. You can thank your personal savior if you've never wasted time on Kent Hovint.

[@obvv7714]

This seems like a personal pet peeve with the usage of the word. It’s not an irrational one, but it still doesn’t make the process “not evolution”.

[@korbendallas5318]

@@obvv7714 As I've said, in the widest sense of the word.

[@myself2noone]

This is completely wrong. Evolution is the process by which a species becomes more suited to it's envirment. It has absolutely nothing to do with being "unguided." In fact, many evolutionary prosses are very much guided. Dog breeds all evolved by a process that was very guided by humans. Aphids evolved in a way that ants demanded. Our own mitochondria evolved to be useful to our own cells by the cell's own design. Not to mention, this completely ignores the biggest way evolution is a guided process. Sexual slection. Males choose what traits they desire in females. Females, in turn, choose the traits they desire in males. Evolution is very much being guided all the time by the disires of the opposite sex. The examples are too numerous to count, but the peacooks tail is a good and probably oldest one. This gaudy display didn't evolve through an unguided process. It was very guided by the peahen's desire for a male that could display his good genes by waisting effort on such loud plumage. This example comes from The Decent of Man by Charles Darwin, so this isn't a new idea.

[@JohnG225]

Children of Time is an amazing book. Restored my faith in modern science fiction. The sequel Children of Ruin is sadly not as good as the original.

[@arkblazer1]

Terrifying? but the littge gals and guys are so cute and likable. I have no mouth and i must scream. Now that is terrifying!

[@zappababe8577]

I agree with you!

[@Hoxson1]

Loved this book and also the 2nd one, Children of Ruin. But the last one, Children of Memory, to me, was not nearly as good.

[@korbendallas5318]

It's almost as if I've read a different book. TLDR: Stretched out plot, no strong protagonists and questionable science make this one a disappointment. (Some mild poilers ahead) You could write a blurb about this book that would also match Vernor Vinge's excellent _A Deepness in the Sky:_ Multiple factions of humans meet over a planet on which spidery pre-spaceflight sentients move towards their future. Sadly, that's about all _Children of Time_ has in common with _Deepness._ Let's shower some praise on _Deepness_ to see where _CoT_ is lacking: First, Trixia Bonsol: One character from _Deepness_ is the key to the best description of aliens I've seen in SF. Vinge uses a clever trick to make the aliens easily relatable without artificially antropomorphizing them, to the point where one of the aliens is my favorite character in the book. In CoT, descriptions of the spiders are sufficiently arachnoid, but their life, and more importantly their characters remain distant. At one point, science is heavily bent to serve the plot: The virus that is used to uplift the spiders was easily able to create the empathy necessary to create a society, but only between females. Males are not even second-classs cititzens, but often tasty snacks. Why is the powerful virus helpless all of a sudden, except to create artificial drama? (Note: Canibalism is not just "icky", it has some real negative impact on survival.) Overall though, the description of the spider's society is among the best parts of the novel. Tchaikovsky manages to think of entirely new ways to solve problems, it's not just a human society with eight legs. Second, Thomas Nau: _Deepness_ has one of the best antogonists in all of SF. Very clever and very evil not just in his actions, but also the description of his character. _CoT_ not only lacks a strong antagonist, but also a protagonist. The human point-of-view character is nothing more than a that, a pure spectator without any influence on the action. (I don't think he ever has to make a decision.) The only person who would make an interesting protagonist only appears as a side character. The spiders don't even have a possible protagonists, since their story is told in episodes that are generations removed from each other. In addition to their lack of relatability, characters also act very stupid when it serves the plot, especially (and unfortunately) during the climatic encounter at the end. Two possible antagonists in _CoT_ appear: One is removed off-screen, the other just fizzles out. I'm aware that pro/antogonists are fictional constructs, and not necessarily realistic, but they work. Third, Focus: _Deepness_ almost completely uses technologies from classical SF: Bussard drives, laser guns and so on. One of the few exceptions is Focus, an extremely powerful tool mastered by the antagonists, and not only a Big Gun, but through its nature an important element of the plot. _CoT_ has serious problems with technology. I already mentioned the uplift virus, which has capabilities which blatantly serve the plot. Even worse, and one core plot point: Why is the virus sophisticated enough to be able to breed intelligence and empathy into spiders, but is not even able to differentiate between arthopods and vertebrates? The designers wanted to uplift one particular species, not a lot of random ones. The ant's capabilities are simply magic, they are not only able to isolate genes (without any knowledge of DNA), but they also serve as electronics. Their description in the first half of the book is much better, and their dependency on pheromons is well described. After a certain point however, they are just a swarm of deus ex machina. Kern is another example of bad use of technology. It's a hybrid of a human and a computer, but how it was created and what its nature is in the end is badly described. There are also some errors in basics physics. To name two examples: 1) You cannot detect whether an alien radio source directly in front of you is transmitting specifically in your direction. 2) An orbiting thing does not de-orbit after it's destroyed by lasers. These are not major problems by themselves, but indicators for a weak foundation in science, and contributing to the lack of suspension of disbelief. Finally, two nitpicks about vocabulary: 1) It's not "evolution" except in the broadest sense of the word. Biological evolution is inherently unguided, which is not at all the case in the book. 2) "Nanovirus" is not a thing, every virus is "nano". For example, SARS-CoV-2 is between 50 and 140 nanometer long. The prose is mediocre (ie. standard for SF :-), with some awkwardness when intimacy or cursing are mentioned. Not spectactular, but good enough to be no distraction. Overall, the book is disappointing, though I admit it might be less so when you have no knowledge of biology. The most important fault however is the complete lack of anyone to love or hate. Things happen to people, but there is no reason to care. Avoid.

[@korbendallas5318]

I wrote most of this review before hearing what others say and before learning anything about the authors. 1. Zoologist, really? Could someone please explain what I am missing? 2. I'm aware that most people like the book, I just don't know why. 3. All this made me read _Deepness in the Sky_ again. What a fantastic book! Read it as soon as you have an opportunity.

[@myself2noone]

Evolution is guided all the time. Every kind of artificial selection from creating new dog breeds to sexual selection is guided evolution. When a girl rejects you for being too pedantic she's guiding evolution. When another girl rejects you for being wrong about this, she's also guiding evolution.

[@duran9664]

😳😳😳Do u suggest that we kill every spider we see from now on😳😳😳 Just in case😳😳😳

[@zappababe8577]

No! They get find of flies for us! Leave poor Boris alone.

[@rippleplayz1002]

Can 13 year olds read children of time Just asking

[@MaverickYow]

This book sucked was clearly for teens .

[@knoef82]

Good book. But could have had a better ending.

[@xuanbachle863]

great

[@RobertPaulsim]

So, what is easier to do: [1] bring 10K monkeys in space and bio-engineer them or [2] bring 10K already evolved people. Sorry, after that I couldn't read the thing, this minor stupid detail ruined for me.

[@eddieking6723]

I though the point was there were several planets that were being g terraformed and each would be slightly different as they were not Earth. So the monkeys would be able to evolve and adapt based on their unique environment and each could and would be different from each other as they would evolve to best suit their environment.

[@jaceacekalgoorlie]

Which group will worship you as a god.

[@Henry-jp3mc]

Really didn't expect this when I read it. Very smart evolution

[@crissydv1]

I didn’t like this one! But I can see the appeal

[@-VOR]

O:35 😂 clearly you can't grasp the point of science fiction then huh?

[@duran9664]

❌No❌ Earth has never been our home. Earth has always been our prison🤏

[@LaVolpePerduta]

Great review. Please don’t use generative AI (which it looks like you did) media on your videos. Full deal breaker - especially taking into account that your channel hinges on reviewing creative works of writing, and if your own channel is used to train models for automatic book reviews, you’ll be replaced with a brutally inferior version of yourself

[@OmnivorousReader]

... speeding up evolutionary progress... that sounds a tad bit anthropocentric...?

[@ScottnCarol4JC]

The spiders are the reason I won’t read it.

[@JohnSmith-fq3rg]

Same

[@Fatasswilly4]

Don't let that keep you from this gem! I made my wife read it who is deathly afraid of spiders, and she absolutely loved it. What you should know is you see the spider's storyline from their point of view, which really humanizes them at times. They have relationships and struggles that you sympathize with. Plus they are a type of jumping spider, which if there was ever to be a spider that could be considered cute - it would be them.

[@OWlsfordshire]

YOU claim to be a quantun physacist but don't have the patience to read about scientific concepts?

[@blackgirlsrock264]

Sounds stupid…😴

[@davidsmithy123]

a bit too wacky for my taste but super original 2.8 / 5