One of my fav book series, especially the first two. It’s so cool and we’ll written to get you invested in this spider society. Pleasant surprise to see you cover this. Cant wait to see you cover children of ruin. We are going on an adventure.
I discovered The Children of Time a few years ago and it has become one of my favorite books that I find myself returning to time and again. If you loved this book then I HIGHLY recommend the sequel Children of Ruin. The 3rd book is currently on my list to read soon but I’m excited to read that one as well.
So glad you covered this! It's one of my favorites and recently listened to the other two in the series. The audiobooks are really good! I think it'd make an awesome tv series, but I don't trust studios to do it justice. Maybe an indie one.
A novel I really think you should check out is "This is how you lose the Time War" it's a sapphic romance based from the authors own Thoschei Master/Doctor fanfiction and it's beautiful
Adrian Tchaikovsky is a boss. So many amazing books. In particular, he specializes in imagining and writing the most alien minds in sci fi. Not just autistic-coded or child-like, but really exploring just how different consciousness can be, even engaging heavily with the question in Children of Memory, which is my absolute favorite of his books (yes, even more than Children of Time, which is saying A LOT because I love that book). Some other great books of his (in order of awesomeness: - Service Model - Alien Clay - Doors of Eden - the Shattered Earth series (think Babylon 5 - esque but with even better aliens and even more enigmatic eldritch horrors! Though I'll concede that the last book in the series fell prey to the same flaw in B5 in that the eldritch horrors became a bit too comprehensible for my tastes. The first book stands well on its own though, and most of the best ideas are presented there anyways.) [SPOILERS] . . . . But when Kern realizes that her "monkeys", that she's been utterly failing to understand for I think centuries of communication at that point, are in fact spiders, and at first she recoils because they are SO not what she was expecting or thought she'd been nurturing. But then....she accepts them. They are hers even if they weren't what she expected, and she still struggles to understand them, so she is going to fight like hell to protect them and help them. I bawled my eyes out. By thoughtfully creating something that was not an accidental autistic analogy, better than anything else I've read (and I've read quite a bit) he captured the catharsis of a parent just accepting you for who you are, and not trying to change you and force you to be different. I also cried a bit at the homage to Star Trek at the end. I really hope Jessie gets a chance to read this someday because that ending out-star-trekked Star Trek. That made me cry a bit too.
I read this a few years ago, and it was really good. I was particularly fascinated with all the ways the spider's culture was *colored* by their biology without being wholly defined by it. The centrality of silk to their society, their architecture, their gender roles, all fascinating. I was surprised when an otherwise intellectual hard-SF story developed a subtle romance-subplot with a vore subtext, but I also found that quite amusing. Haven't gotten to the seuqels yet, but I've heard nothing but fervent praise for them.
Here's the irony. I am NOT a fan of spiders IN THE LEAST. At all. no thank you. After the initial shrieking stopped I was FASCINATED with this. SO MUCH. Ironically while I say it was my first Tchaikovsky, I didn't even realizing that at the same time (one audio one physical) I was reading one of this other books which is fantasy and TOTALLY different vibe. THe fact he is that versatile instantly made him one of my go-to always interested authors. It has been a DELIGHT seeing more people get behind him over the past couple years. For context, author has degrees in zoology, psychology, and was qualified to be a legal executive in england. SOOO... guy knows lots of stuff about lots of things. I will say the sequels, without spoilers, each have their own vibe.
It's really rare that you get an author that shows the same imaginative flare for both Hard Sci Fi and thoroughly weird fantasy, but Tchaikovsky can do both, and is incredibly prolific. He's also a thoroughly nice guy and a regular on the UK SFF con scene.
It’s funny you lead with not reading if you’re arachnophobic because the first thing I thought when I realised the central thesis of the book was “wow it would be interesting to get an arachnophobe to read this and see if they can pass the empathy test”
I really loved this book. It really matched up with what I know of Portia spiders and I liked the people well enough. Children of Ruin I had a harder time with because my understanding of cephalopods didn't match up with his octopuses and there was absolutely nothing about the human story line that appealed to me. So it was really frustrating going from one of my favorite books of all time to DNF.
I love spiders, and I love scifi, so I was all over this book. Unfortunately I love spiders so much that I immediately stopped reading when contact was made between the spiders and the humans...Because humans will human. Perhaps I should go back and finish it
Something I found interesting that you didn't really bring up was that Kern sees Holsten and the Gilgamesh crew as inferior to the point of seeing them as animals and how that's mirrored by Holsten seeing the generations born on the ship later in a similar light as he's reawakened throughout the millennia.
Oh wow, I finished reading this last week and have just started on the sequel. I hated the ending. Loved the rest of it, though, which is why I'm reading the next one.
Why did you hate the ending? I've seen that lose a few people, and I thought [spoilers] .... it was very naturally foreshadowed by their war with the ants. I also thought it was a brilliant critique of the prisoner's dilemma when applied to aliens and allegories.
@@patrickgreene5028 Because the bad guys win. The evil spider-monsters chemically mindrape the last remnants of the human species, brainwashing and enslaving them. Sure, the humans are complete and total ash-holes who ruin everything they touch, but they still suffered a fate worse than death.
One of my fav book series, especially the first two. It’s so cool and we’ll written to get you invested in this spider society. Pleasant surprise to see you cover this. Cant wait to see you cover children of ruin.
We are going on an adventure.
I discovered The Children of Time a few years ago and it has become one of my favorite books that I find myself returning to time and again. If you loved this book then I HIGHLY recommend the sequel Children of Ruin. The 3rd book is currently on my list to read soon but I’m excited to read that one as well.
This is my favorite book of the past decade so was really happy to see you reviewing it. Kudos to the patron
This is one of my all time favorite book series and authors. His Tyrant Philosopher series is also so enjoyable.
So glad you covered this! It's one of my favorites and recently listened to the other two in the series. The audiobooks are really good! I think it'd make an awesome tv series, but I don't trust studios to do it justice. Maybe an indie one.
A novel I really think you should check out is "This is how you lose the Time War" it's a sapphic romance based from the authors own Thoschei Master/Doctor fanfiction and it's beautiful
Adrian Tchaikovsky is a boss. So many amazing books. In particular, he specializes in imagining and writing the most alien minds in sci fi. Not just autistic-coded or child-like, but really exploring just how different consciousness can be, even engaging heavily with the question in Children of Memory, which is my absolute favorite of his books (yes, even more than Children of Time, which is saying A LOT because I love that book).
Some other great books of his (in order of awesomeness:
- Service Model
- Alien Clay
- Doors of Eden
- the Shattered Earth series (think Babylon 5 - esque but with even better aliens and even more enigmatic eldritch horrors! Though I'll concede that the last book in the series fell prey to the same flaw in B5 in that the eldritch horrors became a bit too comprehensible for my tastes. The first book stands well on its own though, and most of the best ideas are presented there anyways.)
[SPOILERS]
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But when Kern realizes that her "monkeys", that she's been utterly failing to understand for I think centuries of communication at that point, are in fact spiders, and at first she recoils because they are SO not what she was expecting or thought she'd been nurturing. But then....she accepts them. They are hers even if they weren't what she expected, and she still struggles to understand them, so she is going to fight like hell to protect them and help them. I bawled my eyes out. By thoughtfully creating something that was not an accidental autistic analogy, better than anything else I've read (and I've read quite a bit) he captured the catharsis of a parent just accepting you for who you are, and not trying to change you and force you to be different.
I also cried a bit at the homage to Star Trek at the end. I really hope Jessie gets a chance to read this someday because that ending out-star-trekked Star Trek. That made me cry a bit too.
One of my favourite books. Brilliantly written, very original story.
I read this a few years ago, and it was really good. I was particularly fascinated with all the ways the spider's culture was *colored* by their biology without being wholly defined by it. The centrality of silk to their society, their architecture, their gender roles, all fascinating.
I was surprised when an otherwise intellectual hard-SF story developed a subtle romance-subplot with a vore subtext, but I also found that quite amusing. Haven't gotten to the seuqels yet, but I've heard nothing but fervent praise for them.
As a fantasy die hard this is the book that properly got me into Sci fi.
Here's the irony. I am NOT a fan of spiders IN THE LEAST. At all. no thank you. After the initial shrieking stopped I was FASCINATED with this. SO MUCH. Ironically while I say it was my first Tchaikovsky, I didn't even realizing that at the same time (one audio one physical) I was reading one of this other books which is fantasy and TOTALLY different vibe. THe fact he is that versatile instantly made him one of my go-to always interested authors. It has been a DELIGHT seeing more people get behind him over the past couple years. For context, author has degrees in zoology, psychology, and was qualified to be a legal executive in england. SOOO... guy knows lots of stuff about lots of things.
I will say the sequels, without spoilers, each have their own vibe.
It's really rare that you get an author that shows the same imaginative flare for both Hard Sci Fi and thoroughly weird fantasy, but Tchaikovsky can do both, and is incredibly prolific. He's also a thoroughly nice guy and a regular on the UK SFF con scene.
Love the series, glad you got to share your thoughts on Children. Keep going in the series, it’s a wild, fun ride!
I am so glad you liked Children Of Time. I loved the book, I absolutely flew through it. I actually started the sequel, Children Of Ruin, recently.
Engagement for the engagement god!
It’s funny you lead with not reading if you’re arachnophobic because the first thing I thought when I realised the central thesis of the book was “wow it would be interesting to get an arachnophobe to read this and see if they can pass the empathy test”
Scared of spiders since a child and totally fell in love with them in Children of Time..
I really loved this book. It really matched up with what I know of Portia spiders and I liked the people well enough. Children of Ruin I had a harder time with because my understanding of cephalopods didn't match up with his octopuses and there was absolutely nothing about the human story line that appealed to me. So it was really frustrating going from one of my favorite books of all time to DNF.
An amazingly good series. I've just started reading the third book, "Children of Memory."
I love spiders, and I love scifi, so I was all over this book. Unfortunately I love spiders so much that I immediately stopped reading when contact was made between the spiders and the humans...Because humans will human. Perhaps I should go back and finish it
No spoilers but you 100 per cent should. Also, the sequel has cephalopods!
Something I found interesting that you didn't really bring up was that Kern sees Holsten and the Gilgamesh crew as inferior to the point of seeing them as animals and how that's mirrored by Holsten seeing the generations born on the ship later in a similar light as he's reawakened throughout the millennia.
I've heard about this story!
I haven't read it but heard it's the UA-camr
Hello future me favorite book
Oh wow, I finished reading this last week and have just started on the sequel.
I hated the ending. Loved the rest of it, though, which is why I'm reading the next one.
Why did you hate the ending? I've seen that lose a few people, and I thought [spoilers] .... it was very naturally foreshadowed by their war with the ants. I also thought it was a brilliant critique of the prisoner's dilemma when applied to aliens and allegories.
@@patrickgreene5028 Because the bad guys win.
The evil spider-monsters chemically mindrape the last remnants of the human species, brainwashing and enslaving them.
Sure, the humans are complete and total ash-holes who ruin everything they touch, but they still suffered a fate worse than death.