Children of Time-Review

Intro

Evolution is the reason why we (humanity) exist at all. Chickens are the evolved result of dinosaurs, for example. We were once apes picking parasites out of each other's fur until we decided to walk upright. Now imagine our evolution but with spiders; that is Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky, a tale about spiders who are humans.

Writing

Following the climate collapse of our planet earth and the rise of an extremist religious sect unable to stop anything, thank god this is fiction, am I right? Dr. Avrana Kern attempts to restart humanity through a collection of apes and a nano-virus that speeds up evolution. This goes completely wrong with the apes dead, Avrana uploading herself to a satellite, and the virus falling to the terraformed world.

Here starts a fascinating exploration of how civilizations evolve, grow, and die. The spiders blessed with rapid evolutionary advancement go from hunter-gathers to having religions and complex social structures. The imagery of seeing ants with flamethrowers sticks in my mind. I adore the worldbuilding and how Portia and Fabien navigate (or go up against) their social structures, unique to their spider selves. Humans are fascinated by how we try desperately to keep going, even when the end of a civilization is in sight, and we cannot evolve fast enough. There is a humanity to witnessing Holsten's struggle to live. To find fun in the hopeless. The same goes for the spiders; Portia is a cunning warrior and skilled politician. Still, she's complicit in a system that involves sacrificing males to the goddess or using males as sex slaves. She's a good spider person who benefits and protects an evil plan. Something that I think is remarkably human.

There is a curious relationship between god and the spiders; they worship the messenger (who turns out to be Dr. Avrana Kern) they worship to try to contact their god. The fascinating implication is that our evolved concussions demand an explanation: religion is the evolutionary answer to our existential angst and lack of inherent meaning. As an agnostic, I find that very interesting.

Conclusion

I enjoyed my time with Children of Time; it was awe-inspiring to see Portia and her fellow spiders become more and more complex creatures/ characters as time went on. I loved the exciting ways humans adapt to their environments and the constant struggle to live on. There is humanity within Children of Time that I love to encounter in my fiction. Highly recommend.

Acknowledgments

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