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?

Listening Length

16 hours and 31 minutes
Author

Adrian Tchaikovsky
Narrator

Mel Hudson
Audible release date

May 2 2017
Language

English
Publisher

Audible Studios
ASIN

B075ZR3GDH
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	16 hours and 31 minutes
Author	Adrian Tchaikovsky
Narrator	Mel Hudson
Audible.ca Release Date	May 02 2017
Publisher	Audible Studios
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B075ZR3GDH
Best Sellers Rank	#406 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #2 in Space Exploration Science Fiction #4 in First Contact Science Fiction (Audible Books & Originals) #5 in Space Opera Science Fiction (Audible Books & Originals)

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5

12,420 global ratings

5 star		65%
4 star		26%
3 star		6%
2 star		2%
1 star		2%

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Top reviews from Canada

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Brittany Miller

This book made me empathize with spiders?

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on January 27, 2023

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I am terrified of spiders. I freeze and yell for my husband to come and get rid of them whenever they dare to enter my line of vision and if one touches me I will make a sound only audible to dogs and military grade hardware.

Tchaikovsky has done the impossible and made me empathize with spiders. It's beautifully written and well paced considering that the plot takes thousands of years to unfold. If you love science fiction that actually makes you think then you will love this series.

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gak

silly, but well written and entertaining

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on December 15, 2022

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Certainly, this is the silliest sci-fi novel I've ever read. If you're intrigued by the plot outline, be prepared to be a little disappointed. The book simply wasn't what I expected. It plays out like an over-the-top Marvel comics script.

To his credit, the author initially tackles deep future sci-fi, a genre that typically deteriorates into fantasy. But after the first few pages, the engrossing depiction of deep future goes away, and we end up with stuff that could be pretty much any time, suspended animation notwithstanding.

The characters are predictable, with little development. The tech, after the striking opening, becomes more of the same stuff we've heard many times before.

[SLIGHT SPOILER] The depiction of the spiders' world demonstrates some research on the author's part, but despite his best efforts to reinforce how alien they are to us, it would be easy to substitute pretty much any species, including humans, into their roles. [END]

It's well-written, though, and I admit, entertaining for about 3/4 of the book. The book is too long, and the ending is just stupid.

I'm not going to read the two follow-up books.

If you're interest in deep future and humans-seeking-new-home, and haven't yet read Kim Stanley Robinson's "Aurora", don't get this book, get "Aurora". No silly spiders, just solid, well-written, genuinely provocative sci-fi.

One person found this helpful

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Jason

A marvelous work of science fiction with a truly stunning and uplifting ending

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on June 5, 2019

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This is one of those rare scifi books that manages to tackle the "alien" and more or less succeeds. That is indeed a rare achievement, reminiscent of Ursula Le Guin or Asimov in one notable example from his work. It is the hardest thing to do in scifi and kudos to Tchaikovsky for this.

What I especially enjoyed about COT is how it made me care about the spider civilization - even though the individuals changed from century to century as the story progressed. Tchaikovsky's use of archetypal characters (sharing the same names) spanning the millennia of spider civilization was a clever, innovative approach that helped me care about the characters in an overall sense, even if they were technically not the same "individuals" in each episode.

That said the greatest achievement of COT, in my view, is its ending, which is nothing short of a tour de force. I was positively stunned, and nearly moved to tears by it. The spiders declare in the conclusion "we'll show them" and what you realize in retrospect is that the comment is as much for the reader as for the humans in the story. What follows is an extraordinary payoff in storytelling. Others might have predicted it (in retrospect, the clues were there throughout the spider narrative for those paying attention) but I certainly did not.

For a book that sees the end of Earth and the near extinction of the human species, this is an ending that uplifts. I'd call its message Trekkian in its optimism, but not saccharine or naive in the slightest. Truly excellent. I cannot recommend this book enough.

10 people found this helpful

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Dylan

Great

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on January 13, 2022

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This is a great book. It has several themes about god religion worship and humanity as a whole without being preachy. Surprised a lot by the ending. I really like how it shows the spiders evolving and keeps the same name for all their lineage. It’ll or sure a good read science fiction. I have part 2 children of ruin and can’t wait to read it.

One person found this helpful

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Pascal

Interesting read

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on March 2, 2019

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This book was quite an entertaining and interesting read. Seeing a species other than humans go through a rapid evolution and reach new heights of intelligence was very interesting. Coupled with the parts of the humans' lives and, while it did not go the way I expected, it was a fun ride.

SPOILERS:
The only reason I slap a star out of this book is because of how the spiders end up with such a rapid evolution. The most basic of scientists would have ensured that the nano-virus in question cannot interact with any living being that they themselves implanted on the planet outside of the one it was designed for. I found this to be quite a big flaw, but omitting this part, everything else is lovely.

One person found this helpful

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Christine Penner

Well developed plot entwining three separate civilizations.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on September 23, 2018

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I enjoyed this book. Nothing was predictable and it seemed believable. I loved reading as a spider colony on a planet evolved after being infected with a nanovirus that would help them mutate quickly in intellect. It was interesting to watch an evolving spider society develop its own politics and religion. While a planet of spiders is evolving, the human/ android ,Avrana Kern , waits in sleep suspension over thousands of years until her ' monkeys’ have developed their intelligence to become her equal . Misunderstandings of communication ensue until Avrana at last understands her biggest misconception . Meanwhile a separate spaceshift is traveling to find a new home as earth is no longer habitable.

3 people found this helpful

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B. Orlic

Captivating Read

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on December 13, 2021

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I could not put this book down. Simply amazing, Intriguing concepts and well thought out story. Must read more from this author.

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Rick

Incredible imagination

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on December 24, 2021

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A world and culture are described in compelling stories- really makes one think about our current state on this planet.

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Top reviews from other countries

matt oliver

Don't bother with this one.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 16, 2018

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I bought this book (and several others) in a bit of a rush as holiday reads, and I've learnt several things from doing just that.
1- Just because Amazon has been recommending this book to me for several months does not make it a good book.
2- Having an award mentioning Arthur C Clarke does not make it a good book.
3- Viewer ratings mean nothing, including mine.
This book is boring, repetitive and ultimately unimaginative. I've managed to persist to the end but even so I can't bring myself to give it more than one star. In the future I'll stick to my normal methods of choosing books and write this one off.

101 people found this helpful

the dilettante

Really enjoyed this. With detailed and fascinating world-building and a ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 31, 2017

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Really enjoyed this. With detailed and fascinating world-building and a fantastically well-drawn 'alien' perspective (and an AI viewpoint thrown in for good measure), it's long, takes its own time to get to a satisfying and surprising conclusion and I found it utterly satisfying. The freshest piece of hard sci-fi I've read in years. It's got spaceships, terraforming, conflict, suspended animation, lots of time passing and characters that you build a relationship with, despite their many unsympathetic actions. It's driven by the parallel urges to survival of at least 2 (possibly 3) different cultures/species. You may find your own allegiance shifts as you read on, as first one, then another inspires your sympathy and support. As a result, it retains your interest. One reason I kept reading was to find out who I would end up rooting for - it was impossible to know. Adrian Tchaikovsky writes good prose, with a nice line in wry observations and pithy summings-up of the worst aspects of human behaviour. Now I've read this and Spiderlight (also highly recommended), I shall explore his other work.

91 people found this helpful

Kev Partner

A masterclass of modern science fiction.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 18, 2017

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Quite simply a stunning piece of work. I'm a fussy reader and have struggled to find anything to compare with the best of Asimov, Clarke, Bear and Bradbury (etc), but this book was the first I've read in a long time that I couldn't wait to get back to between reading sessions.
Who'd have thought it possible to conceive of a civilisation of spiders that feels entirely realistic in its construction and how it evolves over time? By sensitive, imaginative writing and the clever trick of reusing names, the author allows the reader to identify with arachnid characters across the centuries. In the counterpoint story, we follow a human "classicist" who is periodically awakened from suspended animation and who acts as our witness to the unravelling of society on the ark ship.
Absolutely superb from first to last with (to me) a surprising ending that was pretty satisfying. Well played indeed, Adrian.

66 people found this helpful

FallenGrace

Love the idea but it's a very slow read and I found the characters really underdeveloped.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 15, 2018

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This was recommended to me by a friend who also loves science fiction and after seeing all the positive reviews and awards I took a punt on it and at first I was hooked. Children of Time is set in the far future where humanity has colonies across many moons and planets and is spreading out. As part of an experiment one particular world is having monkeys put onto the planet along with an engineered virus to speed up their evolution. There are many arguments about this particular line of experimentation as well as the direction of the human race leading to a civil war that disrupts the experiment. The monkeys never make it to the planet, the virus however does and instead effects the other species on the planet to various effects, especially the spiders.

The idea frankly is fantastic and the developing spider culture is pretty interesting. The problem is that the book is so incredibly slow yet manages to barely develop any of it's characters which is a remarkable feat to me. It spends it's time jumping between a family line of spiders all with the same name through time and a group of human refugees looking for a new home but I found it difficult to summon any interest in them. The humans never get any real development beyond superficial descriptions and interests and while the spider narrative is really interesting it never sticks with any of them long enough to form any attachments to any of them. I want a cast I can either root for or maybe even hate but Children of Time manages to make me just not care.

I got 33% of the way through and realised two things, nothing had really happened in 200 pages and that I was intentionally finding excuses not to read it. All in all I can see why people would enjoy it, the idea is excellent but it's just too slow and the characters are far too under developed for my taste. Perhaps it gets much better and I have given up prematurely but I didn't want to force myself through when I have so many other books to read.

+ Fantastic premise.
+ Spider culture is interesting.

- Characters are forgettable or don't have enough focus.
- Takes too long to actually get anywhere.

39 people found this helpful

Book Lover

It’s a story of challenge and technology and people and civilisations, and it’s definitely worth reading.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 26, 2018

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Definitely sci-fi, but good sci-fi. And this is coming from someone who definitely dislikes the This-Is-How-It-Works-In-Ten-Pages-Of-Detail that seems to plague so many of the classics. I did find it slightly heavy going (and tended to read in chapter-sized chunks) but the payoff is absolutely worth it.

It’s a story of genetics and modification and evolution, but it’s also characters. It’s humanity’s last rag-bag of peoples who have clawed their way up through the ruins of our civilisation, and done the best they can with the remnants of technology to leave a dying Earth. But when the ship Gilgamesh, carrying its cargo of humanity, reaches their best hope, they find it’s occupied – and the sentinel does not want them to land.

And down on the terraformed planet, the experiment to produce a new space-faring race is progressing – species rise and clash, adapting and moulding to their environment, facing challenges that are both similar and unexpected to humanity’s journey. But over two thousand years, what rises to meets its test isn’t what the sentinel expected.

The two strands wind nicely; the evolution of life on the planet jumps forward, generation by generation, but I loved that the names stay the same to keep a sense of continuity. And up on the Gilgamesh, it’s the same names, coming in and out of deep-sleep over the course of time. The character’s stories are as fascinating and enthralling as the technology is, and I absolutely love the part-alien, part-familiar mindset of the planetside civilisation.

And that mindset, for me, is what makes this book absolutely worthwhile – the final twist is brilliant. It’s a story of challenge and technology and people and civilisations, and it’s definitely worth reading.

30 people found this helpful

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Children of Time Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

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