Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Children of Time is a sweeping sci-fi epic about the rise of a new civilization. As humanity flees a dying Earth, they discover a planet where uplifted spiders—descendants of a failed terraforming experiment—have evolved intelligence and complex societies. The novel alternates between the spiders’ development and a desperate human crew searching for a new home. It explores themes of evolution, empathy, and what it means to be human. With bold ideas and a richly imagined alien perspective, Children of Time is a thought-provoking, genre-bending masterpiece that challenges assumptions about intelligence, progress, and survival.
About Children of Time Series
This evolutionary sci-fi series begins with Children of Time, in which a terraforming experiment results in intelligent spiders instead of humans inheriting a planet. As a desperate human crew arrives, two species must navigate survival, coexistence, and communication. The sequel, Children of Ruin, expands the story to include uplifted octopuses. Blending biology, technology, and philosophy, Tchaikovsky explores what it means to be sentient—and what civilizations must do to share a future. It’s a deeply imaginative, thought-provoking saga of alien evolution and coexistence.
About Adrian Tchaikovsky
A British author known for his diverse and imaginative science fiction and fantasy novels, often featuring intricate world-building, unique alien species, and thought-provoking explorations of evolution and consciousness. His Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning novel, Children of Time, is a prime example of his ability to create compelling narratives with truly alien perspectives. Tchaikovsky's prolific and inventive storytelling has made him a significant figure in contemporary speculative fiction.
Other Books by Adrian Tchaikovsky
House of Open Wounds
Series: The Tyrant Philosophers (#2)
Behind the Palleseen crusade to eradicate magic, a field hospital confronts war's brutal reality. Yasnic, a former priest reprieved from execution, serves in an unorthodox medical unit led by the formidable 'Butcher'. Amidst gore and suffering caused by monsters, magic, and enemy soldiers, this motley crew of conscripts and healers works to save the seemingly unsavable. Their precarious existence is threatened by their illicit practices involving unapproved magic, necromancy, and Yasnic's forbidden Gods, risking disbandment, arrest, or worse at the hands of the zealous Palleseen.
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