Reviews

• You'll never have a problem...

  ...getting that spider out of the bath-tub again. :-) This was by far the best book I've read this year. It's an epic sci-fi yarn which is just an excellent, long, satisfying read. If it seems a little different from the normal sci-fi at the beginning, that's because it -is-. There are two main story lines and some very unusual heroes and heroines. Stay with it; it's worth it!

• 徹夜で読みました

  スパイダーの生態から展開しエイリアン文化、言語、テクノロジーの想像は非常に細かく豊富です。人間性と知性の描写ですぐスパイダーの方に感情移入してしまいます。設定の細かさは間違いなくハードsf。その上でストーリーのテンポのコントロールは上手で、次の展開が気になって読んでたら止まりません。 日本語版が出たらもう一度読みたいです。

• Quite astounding

  Initially I thought the bit about the spiders was an annoying diversion. Then I thought it was a surprisingly parallel narrative. THEN I actually realised what was going on and absolutely loved it.

• 面白い

  読み始めると面白くて次が知りたくなる。

• 現代版竜の卵

  久しぶりにストレートに面白いSFを読んだ気がします。竜の卵と似たように、エイリアン（この小説の場合は厳密にはエイリアンではありませんが）が急速に進化する様子が描かれています。並行して人間側のストーリーも展開するのですが、こちらは重苦しい話で、竜の卵のような小説を書くことはもう出来ない時代なのだなとも思います。テクノロジーの細部が曖昧だったりという弱点はありますが、それが気にならなくなるくらい異生物の生態や奇妙なテクノロジーを書き込んであります。竜の卵に比べると、異生物の異質さがそれなりに強調されているのですが、それでも適度に感情移入できるバランスのよいストーリー展開で、広くおすすめできます。

• Top Hard-SciFi

  Tchaikovsky wie man ihn kennt: innovative Idee, spannend, ansprechend und Hard-SciFi mäßig umgesetzt! Sehr zu empfehlen! Man darf gespannt sein, wie es in der Serie weitergeht.

• Fantastic Book!

  If we encountered intelligent life on another planet, would we even be able to recognize it as such? This question is really the driving force of the book. This book explores a lot of big ideas and concepts, but that question is the one that is at the center of it all. The book follows two story threads that happen over the course of thousands of years; a dying race floating through space, trying to find a new home, and another race rising into intelligence on a planet that was not originally meant for them. It tells this millennia spanning story through a series of connected vignettes that time jump with almost every chapter. If you're looking for a very character driven story, this is not the book for you. The characters are well done, but they are not necessarily what the book is about. This book is about bigger things, things that can only be explored over the course of vast amounts of time. And it is masterfully written. The prose was a little heavy for me at first, but a few chapters in I was hooked, and already beginning to love the prose. This is definitely the kind of book that will leave you severely disappointed if you go in with the wrong expectations as to what kind of book it's going to be. If you're going into it expecting some big space opera full of interesting and very compelling characters, you will be disappointed. Judging this book according to what kind of book it's meant to be, I would say it succeeds on almost every level. SPOILERS: it got me to see a race of spiders as more than "the other" for goodness sake! And society and technological development of the spiders was extremely well executed, as well as very imaginative yet grounded in complete believability -- a hard balance to maintain. It's a bit long, but I believe that length is very necessary for properly telling the story and exploring those concepts that it puts forth. Overall, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves great sci-fi that spans huge lengths of time and is very much about exploring certain questions, not necessarily about a group of characters doing stuff.

• Splendido libro fantascentifico

  Le epopee spaziali, le opere che guardano a un futuro lontanissimo con la Terra ormai distrutta e l'umanità persa nello spazio, in lotta per la propria sopravvivenza durante archi di tempo lunghissimi, mi hanno sempre intimorito. Perché solitamente il risultato o è un capolavoro, o è un mattone indigeribile farcito di filosofia, politica, psicologia e quanto altro, noioso e infinito. Beh, questo libro ricade senza dubbio nella prima categoria. Ti cattura, ti costringe a procedere nella lettura, ti fa domandare di continuo quanto tempo passerà tra una parte e l'altra, quante generazioni saranno saltate, cosa sarà successo sul mondo di Kern e cosa sarà accaduto agli abitanti della Gilgamesh. Perché si, la Terra alla fine ha alzato bandiera bianca di fronte alla stupidità umana, e ormai è stata avvelenata oltre il punto di non ritorno. Fortunatamente però in passato l'umanità, all'apice del proprio splendore, aveva conquistato lo spazio e la genetica, iniziando missioni di terraformazione di molti lontani pianeti. Su uno di questi, la dotteressa Kern aveva preparato anche un nanovirus in grado di far evolvere rapidamente delle scimmie accellerandone il naturale sviluppo, così da poter avere in breve tempo una nuova specie di umani, che avrebbero potuto accogliere coloni terrestri. Poi le guerre, e sopratutto una sorta di guerra santa portata contro questi scienziati colpevoli di sovvertire l'ordine naturale delle cose, avevano rovinato tutto e precipitato l'umanità indietro di secoli. Fino alla sua fine. O quasi. Perché l'umanità è in qualche modo sopravvissuta, e ora i figli della vecchia umanità devono lottare per la sopravvivenza. L'unico problema è che i figli sono due. Il primo figlio è a bordo della nave stellare Gilgamesh, un'Arca contenente migliaia di umani in stasi, con un equipaggio pronto a essere risvegliato in caso di necessità, diretta verso mete lontane secoli, i sistemi dove un tempo gli antichi umani avevano preparato mondi dove spostarsi, prima che la guerra annientasse questi geniali scienziati. Qui troviamo il comandante in capo, il capo della sicurezza, gli ingegnieri esperti di sistemi informatici, l'umanista esperto di antichi linguaggi e di storia antica. Tutti a lottare per salvare la propria specie e la propria storia, alla ricerca di un pianeta abitabile dove risvegliare il proprio "cargo". Il secondo figlio invece è sul mondo della dottoressa Kern. Che non ha mai potuto portare a termine il proprio esperimento a causa di un sabotaggio, con le scimmie morte prima di arrivare al suolo, ma col nanovirus efficacemente sparso sul pianeta. Con un effetto imprevedibile, una volta entrato in circolo negli organismi che ha potuto trovare. Ragni senzienti in grado di ricordare il passato dei propri antenati e di accumulare conoscenze, formiche che operano con una grande mente collettiva. Insetti evoluti in grado di elaborare operazioni matematiche e concetti complessi, ma anche di usare la chimica e la fisica. E noi assistiamo prima alla morte della Terra, poi al viaggio della Gilgamesh e all'evoluzione della vita senziente sul mondo di Kern. Due figli della Terra, due specie totalmente differenti e incompatibili tra loro. Due forze destinate a incontrarsi, e a scontrarsi. Scritto benissimo, mantiene sempre vivo l'interesse (da una parte abbiamo lo stupore per la civiltà dei ragni e per le loro conquiste, dall'altro l'empatia per gli esuli terrestri e per le sfide che si ritrovano a fronteggiare) ed è emozionante. E in più, fino all'ultimo può finire in ogni modo. Spettacolare.

• Now come on children, it’s time to settle down with a good book

  What makes a "good book" is a very subjective thing. What makes a "great" book you could argue is even more subjective. Though others might try to distill the qualities of a great book down to highbrow facts as they try to intellectualise their emotional reaction, for me it is, "does it make me want to keep turning the pages?" Do I want to forgo sleep so I can feed the insatiable appetite of needing to know what happens next? Am I eager to sneak away on my lunch break so I can slip back into a world I so reluctantly had to abandon at the office door. This is fundamentally what tells me whether a book is good or not. But what makes me keep turning those pages... ah, now that is a very subjective matter. Children of Time is one of those books that you really don't want to give too much (if anything) away about the plot when speaking about it. Particularly if you want others to read it and get the same emotional experience as you did. I first heard about the book when doom scrolling through other peoples top 10 sci-fi books and saw this one kept popping up. So after over indulging in too many retro 90s detective books I decided a palate cleanser was in order. Without too much second guessing, I lept in and found myself entangled in a web of future imaginings and temporal sky hopping, that was nearly impossible to get out of. Now when reading other reviews you will hear people say that this book has "great evolutionary world building", is "massive in scope and ideas", and that it poses some deep human philosophical questions of the ages. And in fairness to those reviewers I agree, it does all that, it does all that and more! But for me it was the incredible story told through the many eyes of the incredible main characters. Following their stories and their emotional evolution, is what made me want to keep turning those pages and keep burning that midnight oil. I found myself leapfrogging alternate chapters as I was keen to know how certain characters' stories played out and could not bear the tension built up by the alternating chapter approach the author took to his storytelling. Of course I immediately went back to pick up the other story threads and found myself equally invested in what I had earlier pushed out of the way. That is how good the storytelling is, and how engaging his characters are. Now you will find you gravitate more to one set of characters in this book than another, as Adrian Tchaikovsky's skillfully uses them to carry forward different philosophical arcs, but he never lets that overwhelm his incredible ability to tell a very dramatic, emotional story. And it really was this that made me turn those pages. And ok, if I am being honest I did fall in love with 3 of the most delicately written characters that moved me to tears on so many occasions. And for me, particularly with this book, it was the emotional wranglings of the author that kept me hooked. The way chapters would end on a cliff hanger or with a dramatic reveal, that kept me saying "just one more chapter before I go to bed". The way he knew how to tug at the heart strings just as much as he knew how to spike those adrenaline levels. He knew what buttons to press and how best to calm those fraying nerves. Now if you are not a sci-fi reader, or are considering this book as a way to help alleviate the effects of a recent book hangover, then can I just say please give it a go. The science is accessible and the emotional storytelling is universal, no matter which characters you follow. You will find yourself challenged as well as entertained. It will make you think about our own evolution and how present our own world is in the future Adrian Tchaikovsky's writes about. And most important of all, it will stay with you long after you finish the final chapter... and that is for me what tips this book over from being "good" to being "great".

• Worth to read even if you are not into Sci-Fi or just want to test the waters

  I love techno thrillers and historical fiction and I just wanted to try science fiction cause i loved science fiction movies as a kid. I found a lot of science fiction to be dated, so after a long search ( It was recommended on the internet) I found this book read its blurb and then bought it. This book is as contemporary as it gets and it is as scientific fiction as it can get and yet does not feel like science fantasy ( fantasy is not my cup of tea or coffee or juice). The story that the author says and the world he builds is actually mind boggling, imaginative, informative and most importantly interesting and entertaining ( that's why i read books) Its like chaos theory, its like Jurassic park ( the book not the movie , not that i don't like the movie) where the author sets the pieces /characters and they just react in a chaotic and wonderful way, this book has it all, in fact the chaotic actions begin much earlier the Jurassic park. the characters mentioned in the book have been well written and each have their motives, strengths, weakness and oversight. Even if you are not into sci fi, you can read it as a simulation of what will probable happen if two species ( one human and another spider based) both having sixth sense and both having developed civilization independently on different planets and how they would perceive each other and try to understand each other. the development of a spider society to a civilizational level is also described, their culture , their language , their mode of communication is all wonderfully described and is completely believable. the climax is also unexpected , i don't know how they will take the second part ( its a trilogy, by the way) but i will read it soon

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