Children of Time

De: Adrian Tchaikovsky

Narrado por: Mel Hudson

Adrian Tchaikovksy's critically acclaimed stand-alone novel Children of Time is the epic story of humanity's battle for survival on a terraformed planet.

Who will inherit this new Earth?

The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age - a world terraformed and prepared for human life.

But all is not right in this new Eden. In the long years since the planet was abandoned, the work of its architects has borne disastrous fruit. The planet is not waiting for them pristine and unoccupied. New masters have turned it from a refuge into mankind's worst nightmare.

Now two civilizations are on a collision course, both testing the boundaries of what they will do to survive. As the fate of humanity hangs in the balance, who are the true heirs of this new Earth?

©2016 Adrian Tchaikovsky (P)2017 Audible Ltd

THE HUMANS ARE COMING

THE PROCESS BY WHICH NEW UNDERSTANDING WAS NOT LAID DOWN WAS NOT UNDERSTOOD
This is an excellent book, but is not for everyone. I would call this semi-hard science fiction. A lot of it involves biology and many are not fans. Imagine playing Sid Meir's Civilization with insects. There are shades of many well know writers in this eons long epic. I thought of David Brin's UPLIFT trilogy, Harry Harrison's WEST OF EDEN trilogy, Kim Stanley Robinson's RED MARS, BLUE MARS, GREEN MARS, Stephen Baxter's ARK and EVOLUTION, Isaac Asimov's FOUNDATION, with hints of Alastair Reynolds, Greg Bear, Gregory Benford and Neal Stephenson, with a character created similar to the Bob's in Dennis E. Taylor's BOBIVERSE. Don't get too excited, there are no talking beer cans, no levity, just old fashioned science. I enjoy both types and I enjoy anything to do with biology.

GIRLS WILL BE GIRLS
I especially like the way Adrian handled the uplift of spiders. He made them more intelligent, but he did not turn them into humans. They maintained their spiderness throughout the book. A world of civilized spiders that were dominated by females, had to be especially challenging.

Howard Zinn
Some reviewers have a problem in the negative view of the human race. I don't want to spoil the ending, but I agreed with it. If you have read Howard Zinn's History book, than you know where I am coming from.

THAT'S THE PROBLEM WITH IGNORANCE, YOU CAN NEVER KNOW TO WHAT EXTENT YOU ARE IGNORANT ABOUT
As a whole, I loved this book, but I had a few tiny grievances. Races are not mentioned, matter of fact few people are described physically at all, which is good. I hate when I am reading a book, picturing a character in my mind and than the author says they have blond hair are some other physical attribute which makes me alter the character well set in my mind. What the author did do through the naming of characters and the English used (and the narrator agrees) was make them all British. The last 500,000 humans are all British. The uplifted spiders are British. The deranged scientist is British. I don't believe England even has a space program and besides, as things stand today, the future space adventurers will be Chinese or even Japanese. I also did find the book to be a slight too long. Towards the end my mind did do some wondering. I loved the ending, but leading to that I slept listened for a while.

Narrator
I have to mention Mel Hudson. Her work is fantastic. I was very impressed and will be seeking her out in the future.

Best book I have read in a long time!

A brilliant story, extremely well written. An instant classic that reads as the grandchild of National Geographic and Ray Bradbury. So profound yet so entertaining!! Amazing!!

A triumph

I feel like any review of this book would give too much away. I came away with a sense of humility and a new perspective on things. And I'm hoping there's a sequel at some point.

Excellent stand alone Sci-Fi

Excellent themes & concepts. The realization of the alien civilization is fascinating & truly second to none. The passage of time is expertly conveyed.

I wasn't very invested in the humans. The quasi-romantic connection between the two leads was not compelling. Add some kind of feeling or just leave it out. But that's my only real criticism.

Liked the spider narrative, science was lacking

The storyline is generally split in to two narratives, the spiders and the humans. The spiders follow a generally positive trend, of overcoming obstacles and improving as a species. Unfortunately the humans are portrayed as destructive and incompetent at anything but destruction.

It would be a better book if 90% of the human storyline had been cut and just focused on the spiders. I almost quit listening with 2 hours left as I found the human decisions so idiotic that I was pulled out of the story and could barely follow what was going on.

I'll also mention that the science used in the story was often hard to swallow. It was best when treated like magic with no explanation.

A thoroughly original masterpiece

This is the first Adrian Tchaikovsky novel I've listened to. However I can tell he is a master at his craft. It is an amazing book and I highly recommend it. Mel Hudson also does a wonderful job of bringing the characters to life. Overall I'm extremely pleased.

Brilliant. A tour de force.

One of the most creative, and technically detailed, works of science fiction and, I would say, science philosophy ever.

The characters are well drawn, both human and non-human, and the scientific speculation is an intellectual turn-on.

I particularly liked the way the author solved the Prisoners Dilemma.

Highly recommended.

this is what science fiction was mad for

absolutely, incredibly, and so heart breakingly real. to have experienced such an amazing story that only made fall in love with it more and more was a transcendent experience. like I said, it was heart breaking how the human condition was portraid so perfectly through something so alien no less.
needless to say I couldn't put the book down

perspective

the book swaps perspective and does it in a great way. wonderful read. the ending is worth it!

absolutely brilliant

Such a different kind of read! It was refreshing to experience such a unique world! Loved every moment!