Adrian Tchaikovsky
Autor(a) de Children of Time
About the Author
Adrian Tchaikovsky is a British fantasy and science fiction author, born on June 14, 1972 in Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire. He studied Zoology and Psychology at the University of Reading. His career focus changed to law and has worked as a Legal Executive in both Reading and Leeds. He's the author of mostrar mais the Shadows of the Apt series, and his standalone novel Children of Time is the winner of the 2016 Arthur C Clarke Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. (Bowker Author Biography) mostrar menos
Séries
Obras de Adrian Tchaikovsky
Alien Clay 8 cópias
The Dreams of Avaris 3 cópias
Spoils Of War [short story] 3 cópias
Short Changes 3 cópias
Conquest Unbound: Stories from the Mortal Realms (Warhammer Age of Sigmar) (2022) — Contribuinte — 3 cópias
Children of Time 3-Book Set by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Children of Time, Children of Ruin, Children of Memory) (2023) 2 cópias
Lost to their own Devices 2 cópias
An Old Man in a Harsh Season 2 cópias
The Fall Of Lady Sealight 2 cópias
The Sun of the Morning 2 cópias
Fallen Heroes 2 cópias
To Own the Sky 2 cópias
The Prince 2 cópias
Ironclads (short story) 2 cópias
Feast and Famine (short story) 2 cópias
Camouflage 2 cópias
Fabled Journey 1 exemplar(es)
Shadow Hunters 1 exemplar(es)
The Shadows of their Lamps 1 exemplar(es)
The Working Title 1 exemplar(es)
Oannes, From the Flood [short fiction] 1 exemplar(es)
Children of Dagon (short story) 1 exemplar(es)
Loyalties 1 exemplar(es)
Good Taste (short story) 1 exemplar(es)
Psí vojáci (Dogs of War, #1) 1 exemplar(es)
The God-shark (short story) 1 exemplar(es)
Rapture (short story) 1 exemplar(es)
2144 and all that (short story) 1 exemplar(es)
The Artificial Man (short story) 1 exemplar(es)
Sword and Circle 1 exemplar(es)
The Dissipation Club (short story) 1 exemplar(es)
The Naturalist 1 exemplar(es)
Care (short story) 1 exemplar(es)
The Mouse Ran Down {short story} 1 exemplar(es)
The Roar of the Crowd (short story) 1 exemplar(es)
Inferno! A Warhammer 40,000 Collection (Inferno! Warhammer 40,000) (2021) — Contribuinte — 1 exemplar(es)
Low Energy Economy 1 exemplar(es)
Queen Of The Night 1 exemplar(es)
Pipework 1 exemplar(es)
Idle Hands 1 exemplar(es)
Associated Works
Two Hundred and Twenty-One Baker Streets: An Anthology of Holmesian Tales Across Time and Space (2014) — Contribuinte — 89 cópias
2001: An Odyssey in Words: Celebrating the Centenary of Arthur C. Clarke's Birth (2018) — Contribuinte — 53 cópias
Consolation Songs: Optimistic Speculative Fiction for a Time of Pandemic (2020) — Contribuinte — 27 cópias
Stories of Hope and Wonder: In Support of the UK's Healthcare Workers (2020) — Contribuinte — 11 cópias
Looking Landwards: Stories Commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the Institution of Agricultural Engineers (2013) — Contribuinte — 6 cópias
Newcon Press Sampler — Contribuinte — 1 exemplar(es)
Unexpected Journeys — Contribuinte — 1 exemplar(es)
Etiquetado
Conhecimento Comum
- Nome de batismo
- Czajkowski, Adrian
- Data de nascimento
- 1972
- Sexo
- male
- Nacionalidade
- UK
- Local de nascimento
- Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire, England, UK
- Locais de residência
- Woodhall Spa, Linconshire, England, UK (birth)
Reading, Berkshire, England, UK
Leeds, Yorkshire, England, UK - Educação
- University of Reading (zoology and psychology)
- Ocupação
- fantasy writer
legal executive - Agente
- Simon Kavanagh (Mic Cheetham Literary (UK))
Membros
Resenhas
Listas
Prêmios
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Estatísticas
- Obras
- 108
- Also by
- 42
- Membros
- 15,313
- Popularidade
- #1,486
- Avaliação
- 3.9
- Resenhas
- 611
- ISBNs
- 393
- Idiomas
- 10
- Favorito
- 21
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Children of Time has been right on the edge of my radar for a while now, I'd seen lots of great things about it but other books were just higher on my list. And then, one of my partners'; friends recommended and lent him a copy, and at the same time, I spotted it popped up for 99p on Kindle. I like it when we get to read a book at the same time because we have such different reading tastes it can lead to some interesting chats! And it turns out two more of his friends have also read it recently, so lots of discussion around on this one.
Plot
The premise is that in the far future human scientists are about to launch a bold new experiment to study the effects of a specially engineered virus on a newly terraformed planet. The intention was to study the accelerated evolution of primates, but when war breaks out plans go awry and the virus ends up targeting the local arachnid population. Thousands of years later an arc ship carrying the last remnants of humanity is looking for a new planet to make home.
Spiders
The spider portions were interesting and made me think about the way we humans look at the world, particularly our tendency towards domination and destruction. It is this that bumps up what would otherwise be a three-star read for me to four stars. It is amazing to me that the author pulled off writing a book with slowly evolving sentient spider characters! And we are not talking about spider-people hybrids, they very much remain spiders with crucial differences in thought, language and behaviour to the humans. The fact that they are spiders is very much the point!
Though initially, I didn't mind the scientific reasoning for the path their evolution takes after a while, because I don't understand the biology (or have a particular desire to), I just started to skim read all the explanatory stuff (much like when I read
Project Hail Mary
;I skipped over all the maths!).
I enjoyed that the spiders are named after romance novel/soap opera characters (Portia, Bianca, Viola, Fabian). Having been an Eastenders fan in its heyday, there is something hilarious to me about a spider called Bianca.
(I just realised how incredibly weird this book must sound to anyone who had not already read it!).
Humans
I do like the idea of a human colony ship on a thousands year journey, but then I found - as I always do - all the time jumps involved kept me from being truly invested in the characters, or understanding them. We only sort of get to know POV character Holsten, and eventually Lain but that comes so late in the book that she felt like wasted potential as easily the most interesting character. Really all the interesting stuff takes place while Holsten is frozen in his pod, and he just gets woken up an intervals and has to catch up on events without ever experiencing them first hand.
To get very picky about why this book didn't completely thrill me, I felt there was a big hole in the human side of the story that I found distracting. We are told that humanity destroyed itself, and the technology was disabled somewhere around one to two thousand years ago (the start of the book). So far in the past that Holsten's people refer to the "ancients" and the "Old Empire," know next to nothing about what really happened, and now speak different languages.
The technology that humans have now is meant to be basic compared to that of the Old Empire. I guess building giant arc ships for a thousands-year journey is relatively simple technology compared with nano viruses and terraforming. Clearly, there was something akin to a Dark Age, but I wanted to understand a bit more about the reasoning and ideology behind all of that. My mind wasn't satisfied with such a vast expanse of missing history andhuman experience (how did society collapse, survival rates, religion, education etc), that explains how all these people came to be on the arc ship. Holsten is our POV and we never learn anything about his past life, anything about his family, relationships or how he came to be on the key crew.
I suppose at the end of the day I am more interested in who and how the humans came to be where they are, rather than the biological reasoning for how spiders could form a society or create technology!
Writing
As for pacing, at times it did feel a bit hard going (mainly in the middle spider bits), and when things did pick up it would only be a chapter before another big time jump that broke my engagement. This is always something I struggle with in books! I would prefer to have spent a bit more time with the humans, witnessing more of the pivotal events, and understanding them as people so I could feel more invested in the individual characters.
All that said though the ideas and imagination here are incredible! It's such a cool idea, and actually very well executed despite not aligning with my very picky personal preferences. While I didn't love it, I am open to reading the next book in the series which is honestly a huge endorsement for me (I rarely get into a series)! I am intrigued to see where the heck this is going to go!
I am on a bit of a streak with books like this, where I definitely understand why other people are so excited about it but it just misses my sweet spot. For what its worth my (not a sci-fi fan and arachnophobe) partner gives this 5 stars and states "it's the best science-fiction book I've ever read."
If you like more thought-provoking science fiction, I highly recommend giving it a go.
You can read this review and more on my blog.
REVIEW SUMMARY
I LIKED
- Incredibly imaginative, just such a cool idea and actually very well executed.
- Never thought I’d be interested in how spiders could evolve!
- Thought provoking – must human nature always be so destructive?
I DIDN'T LIKE
- Not character driven enough for my personal preferences (spans centuries, time jumps etc).
- I would have liked more on the huge “dark ages” gap in human history.
View all my reviews… (mais)