Children of Time

Science fiction

Print length: 629 pagesOrbit, 2025

Description

On a terraformed exoplanet, genetically altered Portia labiata spiders begin building a civilization under the guidance of an artificial intelligence modeled on a human terraformer. Their rapidly changing societies develop ways to communicate, cooperate, compete, and understand their world. Far away, the last survivors of an environmentally ruined Earth travel in cryonic suspension aboard an interstellar ark, searching for a habitable refuge. They set course for the spiders’ planet without knowing another intelligent species already claims it. As the spiders advance and the human community fractures into conflict and barbarism, their converging histories turn evolution into a struggle over who can inherit a new world. Children of Time combines planetary science fiction with a long-range study of intelligence, society, and survival.

Reading profile

About this profile

Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).

Writing: How much attention the sentences and language require.
Ideas: How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
Structure: How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
Background knowledge: Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
Emotional intensity: Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.

Writing style

Descriptive · Direct · Technical

Pace

Variable

Tone

Atmospheric · Cerebral · Hopeful · Tense

Structure

Braided · Multiple timelines

Focus

Ideas · Plot · World

Emotional intensity

4 / 5

Reading complexity

1–5 · higher means more demanding

Writing: 3 / 5
Ideas: 4 / 5
Structure: 4 / 5
Background knowledge: 2 / 5

Themes

CommunityKnowledge and truthNature and environmentPowerSurvivalTechnology and society

About Adrian Tchaikovsky

Adrian Tchaikovsky is a British writer of science fiction and fantasy whose work combines expansive world-building with a close interest in how different kinds of minds perceive reality. The natural world strongly shapes his fiction, especially the Children of Time novels, where spiders, octopuses, parasites, artificial intelligences, and human societies become subjects of sustained imaginative inquiry. Rather than treating non-human characters as curiosities, he follows their forms of communication, cooperation, memory, and conflict from within. His books often place these perspectives against vast historical scales, ecological pressures, and the unintended consequences of technological intervention. Across the space opera of Shards of Earth, the intricate fantasy politics of Empire in Black and Gold, and the competing cultural explanations of Elder Race, he pairs conceptual ambition with direct storytelling and a strong sense of action. Role-playing games remain part of his creative process, helping him develop scenarios and physical sequences. What distinguishes the work is its ability to make alienness intelligible without making it merely human.

Series

Children of Time Novels · Book 1

Children of Ruin

Book details

For the print edition listed above.

Publisher: Orbit
Language: English
ISBN: 9780316575690

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