So I… Guess I like spiders now? #TeamPortia

Children of Time is the Arthur C Clarke award-winning science fiction novel from Adrian Tchaikovsky. I first heard about Adrian on Twitter and I knew instantly that I had to put his SF work on my TBR. As I’ve mentioned a few times before on this blog, I wasn’t particularly well read in SF when I started writing and I’ve spent the better part of the past year rectifying that, going from some of the classics of the genre to the modern day. A couple of things I’ve discovered about myself are: 1) I’m quite a slow reader, actually (compared to other people who review books); and 2) I enjoy books with a bit of chonk to them.

Classic SF, while amazing in its own right (see my ongoing love for Ursula K. Le Guin’s work), tends to be on the shorter side (with some notable exceptions, see: Dune), whereas modern SF does get quite a bit longer with more focus on characters and worldbuilding and incorporating the heady concepts into those things. And Adrian’s Children of Time is an astounding example of modern SF.

Blurb

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?

Review

Anyone who knows me will know I hate spiders. But at the same time, I am begrudgingly fascinated by them. I’ve been known to do quite a lot of research on spiders, and among my friends I’m the guy they turn to if they want to know what species of spider is terrorising them at home - though I won’t touch them… or go anywhere near them… Especially the big hairy house spiders that would sooner run at you than away from you and have legs that won’t fit nicely into a cup. I mean, just this morning (at the time of writing, so probably several days before I hit publish) my wife told me she got one out of the bath using a glass and as she went to release it outside, it splayed its legs so it wouldn’t come out! Horrid things.

But jumping spiders: they’re a different thing entirely. The only ones I see regularly around my house are zebra spiders, and I could sit and watch them for ages. They’re amazing little critters. It’s no surprise really, because the jumping spiders are some of the most intelligent of their kin. So it’s also not surprising that the spiders that feature heavily in Children of Time as some of the main characters, are jumping spiders. Specifically of the species Portia Labiata. And I simultaneously love and hate Adrian for it.

Children of Time is written in two distinct styles with chapters alternating between them: The story of humanity leaving a ravaged Earth to find a new home on a vast sleeper ship called the Gilgamesh is told in the past tense, and follows classicist Holsten Mason and the other key crew of the ship as the centuries go by on their journey. The story of the rising spider civilisation, on the other hand, is told in the present tense, and follows generations of Portias, Fabians and Biancas as they evolve from their tiny Earth-born ancestors to the metre-long super-intelligent inhabitants of their planet. I’ve seen a few people moan and gripe about the spider chapters being just big boring info-dumps, but to that I say “what rubbish!” They’re some of the best parts of the book! The way it’s told immediately gave me Attenborough-style nature documentary vibes (and it works very well, given the centuries of ground Adrian has to cover), and the shift to present tense makes sense given the Portids’ entirely different perception of things like the world around them and the passage of time. Adrian does an incredible job of giving us a wholly alien perspective, and as the quote on the cover from Peter F. Hamilton says, the evolutionary worldbuilding cannot be oversold. It’s rock-solid, meticulously researched, ruthlessly intelligent and at the same time you really do come to care about Portia and her kin as they go through this journey of wonder and discovery that is fraught with danger, disease and war.

Another thing that surprised me about the book that is more personal to my journey as a writer, is how Adrian handled the downfall of Earth and the groups of people responsible. This all happens right within the first chapter of the book, so I wouldn’t really consider it a spoiler, but I’ll try and be as vague as possible. In my Augment Saga (in books still to be finished) I have a particularly troublesome idealistic organisation, and I had been fretting over whether it was realistic that these people could become a legitimately believable threat. Then, lo and behold, Adrian has a similarly idealistic group actually causing that Earth’s downfall in Children of Time. So I feel a lot better about it, and it has prompted me to go back and change the name of the group because mine seemed rather inelegant by comparison. This is where learning from other writers is a great benefit. You get to see how these concepts have been handled from a different perspective and that can help you work your way around fleshing out your own concepts in an “Oh, I didn’t consider that angle/aspect/consequence” sort of way.

And, my word, the ending of this book. I honestly loved it. When I realised what was happening I just sat there with a goofy grin on my face because it was so brilliant. I could only aspire to write an ending like that. Bravo!

Anyway, as you can tell, Children of Time comes highly, highly recommended. What a fantastic read, and I will absolutely be reading the follow-up Children of Ruin soon(ish).