Contents:
Also, gone are pretty much all of the horror elements found in book one. This book continues the same great story but tries to keep t 4 Stars I am giving The Machine Awakes 4 Stars but I could have gone three stars. This book continues the same great story but tries to keep the alien Spider mechs as a side note. This changed the entire dynamics and feel of the story and the world and not for the better. The plot and the pacing are fine.
The ending is no surprise and can be seen coming from the start. I wanted to love this book as I did the first one but it came up quite short. Adam Christopher is fantastic and I cannot wait to read more from him. Aug 11, Lindsay rated it really liked it. You know how Alien was a horror and Aliens was an SF action flick? Adam Christopher may be taking a leaf out of that book here. This one was also much longer than the first one, but didn't have all the tropey repetitive stuff that the first one had either.
Generally speaking I enjoyed this one much more than the first. In this one we have some of the political aftermath of the first book, so internal military politics with the Fleet Command Council that soon degenerates into coup and assassinatio You know how Alien was a horror and Aliens was an SF action flick? In this one we have some of the political aftermath of the first book, so internal military politics with the Fleet Command Council that soon degenerates into coup and assassination attempts.
Fairly quickly the main characters center around the investigation of the assassination with the main investigator and a suspect taking most of the POV. This all unearths a plot which goes to corruption within and around the Fleet, more information about the psi-marines that featured prominently and without much explanation in the first book and eventually Spiders, AIs and spaceship battles. Overall, much more my cup of tea than the first one, but people who enjoyed the first one may find less to enjoy here.
There are still some creepy horror bits, but nothing like the first one. One further note on pacing: Entertainingly creepy and dark SF thriller, fed by conspiracy, AIs, strange mining facilities harvesting Jupiter's storms and those terrifying spiders. Mar 29, Jeremy rated it liked it. This story starts off promising but as it progressed I felt like it lost its way. The blurb mentions the assassination of the head of the Fleet and the 1st half of the story is like a SciFi police procedural following the investigation.
Sadly, by the time the story reveals the reason for the assassination I found the explanation to be dumb and the assassination to be unnecessary. By the end of the book I was getting fed up with the badly done reveals, which were unsatisfying when considering the This story starts off promising but as it progressed I felt like it lost its way.
By the end of the book I was getting fed up with the badly done reveals, which were unsatisfying when considering the mysterious set up. I felt like the first half was a 4 star read and the second half was a 2. Nov 10, Ghost Whistler rated it liked it. The setting is interesting: But the story is a little boring and runs out of steam.
The plot is serviceable and the writing is ok, but not attention grabbing. Distinctly average, but I would be interested in further exploration of this setting, providing a decent plot and better writing. It's not really a horror story at all, whereas the first book is much more so. May 07, Paul Taylor rated it liked it. Wasn't really impressed by this book, I'm afraid to say.
I'm a massive fan of the author and as a standalone book this is fine, but it's too far of a departure from the first book. They barely felt related to one another at all. Nov 10, Stevan Hicks rated it it was amazing. Great SciFi epic not too dissimilar from the mass effect universe. Aug 15, Chris rated it it was amazing. A perfect follow up. Apr 14, Samuel Tyler rated it liked it. It is the nature of human beings to make life difficult for themselves. Where are the bug hunters when you need them?
Too busy hunting hired killers instead! With the death of two leading political powerhouses, the government It is the nature of human beings to make life difficult for themselves. With the death of two leading political powerhouses, the government of Earth is under threat of revolution. The only people able to investigate are the agents of the Fleet Bureau, a body set up to offer a neutral political standpoint. This means that Special Agent Von Kodiak find himself in the heart of government when he would much prefer to be stamping out the Spider menace. For the second book author Adam Christopher has decided to set the book in the same universe, but completely change the style.
What was once a contained and riveting universe has opened into something that borders on the bland. Christopher seems to have not heeded this lesson from recent history and creates a book that should be about fighting giant mechanical spider in space and instead makes it a book about space politics.
The first third is a rather plodding affair as we learn about the structure of the Fleet that controls future Earth. Readers may be initially upset to realise the investment they had in book one was limited and their despair will only be compounded as the politics is revealed. However, persevere for 70 pages or so and the book begins to open.
The good elements of the book all come from the character of Agent Von Kodiak, who is officially dead, making him free to go anywhere and do as he wishes. He is the person that drives the story onwards and it eventually settles in a very interesting place. The final act of the book has all the elements you would want from a book that is extensively about killer spiders from beyond Mars. There is intrigue, betrayal and space battles galore. It also builds upon the Universe itself as a new corporate threat is revealed. Christopher appears to be an author with a great Universe, but who is unable to create an intriguing story within it.
This happening once may be a mishap, two in a row begins to suggest a pattern. Original review on bookbag. Jul 11, Bonnie McDaniel rated it liked it Shelves: I don't read much military science fiction. The few short stories I've read dwelt way too much on extremely detailed, lovingly pornified descriptions of weapons, and that isn't something I care for. But when I cruised through the "New Arrivals" section at the library a while back, this book's cover drew me, and its plot summary didn't sound too bad, so I decided to give it a try. I'm glad I did. I've never heard of this author, but I think he's someone to watch.
There is almost no history given of the Spider War, other than the fact that forty years ago, a Mother Spider blew up Earth's moon! Adam Christopher doesn't dwell much on Earth politics, but the impression I get is that the war has forced humanity into a one-world government, and that government is the military, also called the Fleet.
This book is kind of an odd hybrid; it's definitely military SF, but it's also a murder mystery, a thriller, and a police procedural. Many times, books like these sadly neglect their characters. Christopher doesn't do that; he doesn't have tremendous depths of characterization, but the people here are three-dimensional, not cardboard although I wish the female lead, Caitlin, didn't need to be rescued so much. The villain is a bit over the top, chewing the scenery quite nicely, but he definitely makes a splash. I don't know if this book has been optioned for film, but I wouldn't be surprised.
I do wish there was more backstory on the Spiders, however. Maybe they are self-replicating machines, but something had to build the original prototype, and write the alien operating system. There is a book previous to this one, which I think I will check out.
In the meantime, this book isn't bad at all. Apr 29, Brannigan rated it really liked it Shelves: Previously Published at TheQwillery. This book takes an interesting turn as it doesn't really have anything to do with the events and characters from the first book. They're mentioned, but a reader would do fine jumping on board with this second book without missing a beat. I like this in a world building standpoint. It gives the universe a bigger feel. It helps that this book covers mor Previously Published at TheQwillery.
It helps that this book covers more locations than the first book.
I also like this because I sometimes get bored with one main hero that seems to have so many amazing adventures, it's just so unrealistic. It's refreshing to meet new people and see new places. For the most part, Christopher does a better job with his characters in this book than the first. They are more interesting and feel more developed. However, he could have made better use out of Caitlin, a capable character who doesn't need to be a constant victim.
The psi-marines are very cool and I look forward to learning more about them. I also have to give him credit for making a very cool villain that he hasn't overused throughout the series. One aspect of the first book that I missed in this one is the fear factor. I also didn't care for the weird religious aspect of the story, but I rarely enjoy that part of books as I feel most authors make religious people sound crazy. The Machine Awakes is a world-builder's dream. Christopher's universe keeps getting bigger, and I'm interested to see where he goes in book three.
I would only recommend this book to adults because of its strong language, violence and adult situations. This series is perfect for those of us who like to see a whole universe come alive with an interesting villain who wants to destroy it all. Aug 24, Lara rated it really liked it Shelves: I feel like this book might have really been closer to 3. So, for the most part this is sort of a space detective book almost. The Fleet has experienced some super high-level assassinations and obviously wants to find out who would do such a thing and why.
Kodiak is called in f I feel like this book might have really been closer to 3. Kodiak is called in from a super secret undercover assignment to investigate, and since he's officially dead for some reason? I don't really remember , it works out nicely since he can sneak around and his tracker says he's someone else entirely. The other part of the story focuses on Caitlin, a psi-marine who disappeared from the Fleet before finishing her training, after hearing that her twin brother has been killed in action on a far away War World.
And then the Spiders and their creepy AI that's taking over everything in the universe!!! All that stuff is connected. Not necessarily neatly, and towards the end things get a little messy and there's a lot of dumb action movie-type dialogue and a villain who is Even so, I mostly enjoyed this. It's an interesting world, and I really enjoy my time spent there.
Although sometimes I feel like it's more the ideas that carry me through than the actual writing. If that makes sense. But anyway, write book 3 and I'll read it, Adam Christopher! May 07, Henry Lazarus rated it liked it. Humanity is at war with a machine intelligence. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. Preview — Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky.
A race for survival among the stars Humanity's last survivors escaped earth's ruins to find a new home. But when they find it, can their desperation overcome its dangers? 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 gre A race for survival 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?
Hardcover , pages. Published June 4th by PanMacmillan first published June Children of Time 1. Clarke Award for Best Novel To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Children of Time , please sign up. I just finished reading this book and enjoyed it a lot. Now I don't know what to read. I've read Seveneves, Aurora, and these books have me wanting more. This question contains spoilers… view spoiler [It's interesting that the main villain here is a woman, but is there a more sympathetic female POV in this one?
Dan Slotman This answer contains spoilers… view spoiler [ I agree with the other answers. The sympathetic protagonists in this book are the spiders, with their inbred empathy. The antagonist is humanity, in …more I agree with the other answers. The antagonist is humanity, in pursuit of manifest destiny.
Kern, presumably the villain identified in the question, performs a near-deistic role in the story. This role is fulfilled directly as the spiders worship her as a god figure and indirectly as the humans are forced to treat her as an unstoppable force with her lost technology. Going back to the spiders as a sympathetic protagonist, it is difficult to treat any them as a having a positive female point-of-view.
While the most powerful of spiders are female, the societal inversion of matriarchy results in an unsubtle echoing of male values and perspectives. In my view, Fabian represents slavery most directly, but one could also argue that his arguments for enfranchisement echo those of women's suffrage. Either way, again, Fabian does not directly represent a female perspective in that he is explicitly gendered male, and is at best a weak proxy for an female character in a matriarchal society.
See all 15 questions about Children of Time…. Lists with This Book. I had a feeling I would like this book but hells bells, I had no idea how much I would love it. You have Earth that is pretty much going to pot, then goes to pot because of some stuff. Then people wake up a million years later on their ships. Well, okay not a million but still. So there is space! They were working on making the planet livable. Dudes and dudettes, this book is like no other I have read. YOU might have, but I have not.
Loved it, looks nice on my shelf with one of his other books. I'm a happy camper. View all 44 comments. Oct 08, Bradley rated it it was amazing Shelves: There's something wildly giddy welling up within me, and I blame it entirely on this book. There have been a couple of brilliant SF titles to come out this year and I would swear belong on the Hugo list, and this is yet one more.
Kim Stanley Robinson's Aurora was one, as was Scott Hawkins's The Library at Mount Char , but if I had to break down the individual merits of each, I might wind up saying that this one deserves it the most. For pure SF, it hits the heights of ideas, memorable characters, There's something wildly giddy welling up within me, and I blame it entirely on this book. For pure SF, it hits the heights of ideas, memorable characters, exploration, and message, although the message is definitely not one that is apparent until the end.
If all that isn't enough to perk you up, then how about a society of biopunk spiders learning to tame themselves and their world with the propelling help of a nanovirus designed to uplift an entirely different species, but lacking those poor monkeys, had to make due with some jumping spiders from old Earth? From page one we get a precious nod to David Brin for his wonderful Uplift series, but right as we begin to suspect that it's a rip-off, everything goes to hell.
I call that an auspicious beginning. And then we get slices of alien life complete with great self-contained stories, with nothing worthless to the grand over-tale being spun, including the war and eventual domestication of deadly intelligent army ants, the fight for the poor male spider's rights who don't appreciate being eaten after mating , and the eventual discovery that the original scientist that had seeded the world with the nanovirus, who still lived as a cyborg, was not, in fact, a god. And if that isn't enough, let's get to know the human side of the equation.
They've had a rough time climbing back out of a dark age only to discover that the Earth is a complete shit hole and there's nothing left to be saved. They rose on the backs of the dead society that had brought humanity to this pass and went out to search for a new home. Unfortunately, everything has gone to shit except this one little paradise that's defended by a mad cyborg god who thinks that humans are shit.
She'll protect her precious project from anything that dares disturb it. My god this was a great book. I had a bit of a learning curve in the first few dozen pages getting over the somewhat sparse writing, but there's a purpose to it. A hell of a lot has to happen to build such an enormous tale without stretching it out into a dozen equivalent and impoverished books. In this one novel, we get everything. I'll revisit this review at a later time and see if it still captures my imagination as much as the other Hugo Possibles, but my mind wants to put all my bets on this one.
The flaws in Aurora, despite the brilliant setup, message, and end, are just enough to push it down a rung for me. Library at Mount Char was mostly dark fantasy with a damn huge nod at turning it into a real SF title, and I still think it's awesome and mythic, but if I had to choose between something that's obviously SF to the core and beyond and a great book that has more in common with American Gods and Jonathan Strange and Mr.
Norrell, both of which won Hugos in their years despite being fantasies , then I'd choose Children of Time. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to sit on the fence. Having to choose between two novels that are very different in scope, writing, and characterizations is a hell of a thing. Both are fantastic at what they do. I cried during both. I'll just have to revisit my memories later to be certain. Oh, there is one more thing I need to mention. I hate the title.
Fans of any classic SF need to read this gem.
View all 92 comments. And the ones from the ark are amazed by the technology they being in a space ship capable of interstellar travels, remember? Now I don't know what to read. So that sciency bit is also off, but I went along with it anyway because the evolution of all the generations of Portias was just so damn fascinating Portia is one of the spiders, no spoiler there. This is what scifi is all about and I'd love to read another book from this author that explores a different corner of this universe!
It has a hell of a lot more flow to it, and just as much idea exploration as anything written by Alastair Reynolds. View all 92 comments. Apr 16, Emily Books with Emily Fox rated it really liked it. This was such an interesting read! If you're looking for a different take on the whole alien thing I never thought I would end up rooting for spiders View all 5 comments.
Jan 16, carol. It's not that I have a spider-phobia--I like to think we have a truce regarding squishing and biting--it's that something about their structure and movement speaks to a primeval instinct to run away. Children of Time popped up in friend reviews, but I'll be honest--it wasn't until I realized there were giant spiders and colony ships that I really became intrigued.
I am usually interested in the moving island of space colonization, and the inclusion of what seemed to be genuine aliens piqued my curiosity. Could it be done? Could an author really give an alien feel and yet remain sympathetic to creatures that inspire such fear? Aside from that general set-up, I went into Children blind. Tchaikovsky structures the premise and then alternates the narrative between the two species. Once settled into the story-telling rhythm, he adds another wrinkle.
I appreciate the way he told the story, easing the reader in and then building on the concepts. The human narrative tends to be more dialogue oriented, the spider-narrative more internal. It makes for an interesting pace change that might have dragged had the entire book been one style or the other. Her people are more suited to offence than defence, but they have been unable to retain the initiative in this conflict. She will have to improvise. There is no plan for what comes next. She may die, and her eyes look into that abyss and feed her with a terror of extinction, of un-being, that is perhaps the legacy of all life.
I thought the feel of primitive spider-thinking rather believable, and appreciated the structuring of a very different world-view. I ended up believing the premise enough to enjoy the story and not feel hampered by arguing the science in my head. Also interestingly--particularly in a genre known for its sexism--the tendency of some female spiders to eat the males after mating is turned toward matriarchic ends. I was also intrigued by the spiders' interaction with other beings on the world, as well as how they are characterized.
Her comprehension is coarse, of a necessity, but approximates to the truth. Each ant does not think. It has a complex set of responses based on a wide range of stimuli, many of which are themselves chemical messages produced by other ants in response to still more eventualities. It is complex enough to convey cognitive concepts of world-view as well as philosophical underpinnings of what intelligence and interconnectivity is.
I didn't overtly realize it as I read, but I think there were parallel discussions of what humanity means and aims for, a particularly worthwhile topic for our time. In trying to be the ancients, they had sealed their own fate--neither to reach those heights, nor any others, doomed instead to a history of mediocrity and envy. Still, it ended up being a book full of unexpected twists and turns. A few did not, and I remain ambivalent about the ending.
However, there were also moments when I thought, "this reminds me of Ursula LeGuin and one of her world-building, sci-fi masterpieces. Overall, I'd definitely recommend it to someone who is in the mood for classic-feeling science fiction with modern sensibilities. Four and a half webs, rounding up because it deserves recognition for Big Ideas, not because it's screaming to be included in my personal library. View all 53 comments. Sci-fi and Space Opera fans. Recommended to Petrik by: Smart and imaginative, highly recommended for everyone who loves Sci-Fi and not recommended for anyone with arachnophobia.
This is a highly praised book, it won Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Novel in and most likely, will be 5 stars read for anyone who has never read anything like it. Plus, for even more praise, the film rights to the book has also been sold to Lionsgate. T Smart and imaginative, highly recommended for everyone who loves Sci-Fi and not recommended for anyone with arachnophobia. The plot revolved around the race for survival between races on attaining a single terraformed planet; The races being the last surviving humanity that fled their dying Earth, and the sentient spiders accidentally evolved by a mad scientist; these beings were born and live on the planet.
Children of Time Polish cover This standalone encompassed a lot of relatable topics to our society such as gender discrimination, greed, and on the bright side, empathy. Unfortunately for me, I have read something very similar to this in a manga called Terra Formars and because of that, my experience on this was a bit ruined.
The premise of this book with that particular manga is very similar, with the differences being the planet is Mars and the sentient creatures are cockroaches. Children of Time plot direction is almost the total opposite. I expected more interaction between the two species but they happened only twice throughout the entire book, one very briefly too. I may sound a bit too negative here. However, I was wrong. No loose ends, the conclusion of this book was truly incredible and made all my struggle through the middle section of the book worth it.
I highly recommend this to every Sci-Fi fans but not to anyone with arachnophobia; because.. Trust me, the last book of that trilogy made everything this book looks like an ant regarding its scope. View all 36 comments. Aug 11, Dana Ilie rated it it was amazing Shelves: The author acknowledges our implicit arachnophobia and then very cleverly turns it on its head; indeed, after a while you kind of forget that these characters are spiders at all, even when they get stuck in to very spiderish behaviour.
Their cities, for example, are great forests festooned with web complexes and, latterly, organic machinery and vehicles. The many versions of the spider society are also resolutely female and this novel is one of the few I can think of that presents a detailed, believable and sympathetic matriarchy.
That it is in not in any way a utopia, without seeming unrecognisable or awful either, is another credit to the unapologetic intelligence of this book. View all 8 comments. Oct 07, Philip rated it it was amazing Shelves: This is some of the smartest, most exciting, and most imaginative fiction I've read in a long time. It's grand, expansive, and both character-driven and plot-driven. So cool and creative. The evolution of the Portias and their clusters is endlessly compelling. The journey that the humans take over the millennia, if not as thrilling, is dramatic in its buildup to the inevitable convergence of the two groups.
It chronicles the rise and fall o 5ish stars. It chronicles the rise and fall of the human population and explores its recurring, natural gravitation towards malignant ambition and self-destruction. View all 11 comments. Children of Time was my first novel by this author, and wow, what a way to start my initiation into the Adrian Tchaikovsky fan club! I just loved this. First of all we have this incredible story, which has everything in place for a space opera of the grandest proportions. Long ago, when Earth was on its l 5 of 5 stars at The BiblioSanctum https: Long ago, when Earth was on its last legs and humanity feared it could go no further, scientists were sent out beyond the solar system to find and terraform new planets to ensure the future of our species.
One of them, the brilliant but megalomaniacal Dr. Avrana Kern was successful in locating such a world, but just as she was about to implement a nanotech virus to accelerate the development process, sabotage occurred. Kern herself was forced to be transformed, reduced to an AI mind and a body preserved in stasis. However, her nanovirus, the one intended to speed up evolution in the monkeys, did in fact make it onto the planet, imbedding itself into—wait for it—a species of spiders.
Years and years go by. Earth is no more. The chapters aboard the Gilgamesh were compelling with their human drama and fight for survival, but in my opinion, it was the sections about the spiders which were the most fascinating. As such, they eventually become something akin to spiders but not as we understand them, having been altered by the virus but also by factors specific to their unique physiology.
The author deserves extra bonus points too because it takes a real talent to write genuine, relatable and sympathetic non-human characters, and even more when they are effectively overgrown, freaky arachnids. Culture is evolving in its own way too on the Gilgamesh, and every time Holsten wakes he is hit with another shock of how perspectives and attitudes on the ship have changed since the last time he emerged.
Basically, you have got to read this book. View all 7 comments. May 07, Phrynne rated it it was amazing Shelves: What a beautiful book. Six hundred totally absorbing pages. One of the best Science Fiction books I have ever read. Not being particularly coherent here but let me say again it is very, very good. It shows mankind at its worst - I would not have cared if the last human being in the universe had died at the end. I hate spiders but was converted to the sentient kind and I was cheering them on as they grew smarter and smarter. I could not imagine how it was going to end but Adrian Tchaikovsky is som What a beautiful book.
I could not imagine how it was going to end but Adrian Tchaikovsky is some kind of genius and the last few pages were just brilliant. Naming the ship Voyager was a touch of magic. Recommend reading for anyone not just sci fi enthusiasts. There is something in this book for everyone. Oct 18, Robyn rated it it was amazing Shelves: Five stars because this puppy had me rooting for arachnids.
Five stars for carefully crafted characters, humans and otherwise alike. Five stars because of the incredible, millennia- spanning plot. Not what I expected and so satisfying. Feb 05, Apatt rated it it was amazing Shelves: Winner of the Arthur C. Most cumbersome book title ever this is the full title of the edition I bought. Fortunately, on the bright side, this is my only complaint about this book!
Indeed there is a direct tribute to Brin in Children of Time , in the form a little spaceship called Brin 2. However, the emphasis of the novel is not about the uplifting itself, but about the accidental sentient species that arise from the project and its subsequent interaction with humanity. However, the nanovirus is sent to the intended planet and infects several species of insects instead.
Spiders turn out to be the chief beneficiaries of this project as the virus is most effective on them. This starts off one of the two main narrative threads which chronicles the rise of the spider race as the ruler of the planet. This massive spaceship is carrying working crew and thousands of people in suspended animation, to be defrosted when a habitable planet is found. Unfortunately the only habitable they manage to find, after hundreds of years and generations of crew have come and gone, is the nice planet now ruled by the spiders.
Wonderful Polish edition cover It has been a busy month so it took me almost three weeks to finish. Somehow it makes me appreciate the book even more as my constant companion to many places. The narrative is quite interesting from the first chapter and as characters, situations and world building are gradually laid down it becomes increasingly compelling, by the end of the book I was completely riveted. The spider protagonists are also very well developed, and quite admirable.
I love sci-fi biotechnology, organic devices, homes and transportations. Their tech is based on hyper advanced biochemistry instead. I love how their society is ruled by the female, and the physically weaker and less intelligent males are generally disposable second class citizens. That is until a radical and messianic male spider comes along.
The human side of the story is less fascinating but it never drags down the narrative. Their state of affairs is quite pitiful compared to the spiders. Generations are born on the spaceship and never set foot on a planet. As the humans and the spiders head for collision that would result in genocide of one side or the other I found myself curiously rooting for the spiders; mainly because the spider characters are generally better developed and they do have the moral high ground of being the invadees , not the invaders.
Thematically it is mainly a story of racial prejudice and a plea for tolerance, with both sides thinking that there is a necessity to completely wipe out the other side for the survival of the race. Whatever the outcome Children of Time is one of the best space operas I have ever read, with a nice and clear writing style and a straightforward linear structure of the twin plotlines that make the book very accessible.
The sci-fi tech is highly imaginative and the science behind it is clearly explained without resorting to infodumping; some very good characterization, thrilling plot developments and a very good ending makes this one of the greats for me. It may also be Charlotte's Web for adults? I haven't read that one, but my spider-sense says yes. It also reminds me a little bit of a computer game called Sim Ant. Interestingly his fantasy series Shadows of the Apt is also based on insects.
They had mostly stayed behind, holding to their corroding faith that some great power would weigh in on their behalf if only things became so very bad. At her disposal is fragile silk, biochemistry and symbiosis, and the valour of all those who will put their lives at her disposal. You can never truly know the extent of what you are ignorant about. There has been a pleasant number of readers who really don't like spiders but a have got through the book; and b have come out of it willing to give the little guys the benefit of the doubt.
Of course now I need to stealth-write a book that has spiders as utterly horrible people-destroying bad guys just to utterly throw my readership View all 22 comments. Mar 10, Mayim de Vries rated it liked it. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special. Adrian Tchaikovsky is famous for infusing his books with themes and motives related to his interests. He studied zoology and psychology. He is also interested in natural history, with particular emphasis on the world of insects.
Together with human civilisation standing on the verge of destruction, we embark upon a fantastic interstellar travel. A tantalising cosmic odyssey, which takes place over the span of millennia, filled with extraordinary adventures, heroes, and dramatic twists. Hundreds of thousands of years pass. A spaceship with the last surviving people finds a place similar to Earth. It turns out that the living conditions on the planet are a result of its terraforming many thousands of years ago. It is but a remnant of a wider experiment aimed at creating an intelligent species able to develop at an accelerated pace.
The intention was to create a new, better man. Yup, here come the sentient spiders. They are absolutely awful! The first is the one presents the actions of the inhabitants of the last ship-ark with the human cargo, Gilgamesh view spoiler [note the stroke of genius, to call the ship with the name of an ancient hero known mostly for his long and perilous journey to discover the secret of eternal life hide spoiler ] , trying to find a new planet to settle on.
The second one shows the evolution of the spiders, accelerated by a special nanovirus. Consequently, we have one chapter about the human journey through the universe, and another one about the life of spiders on the green planet. And I would never expect that the adventures of insects can be so enticing! To the contrary, human protagonists are a considerable weakness of the book. Pitched against humans, the Portias, Biancas and Fabians, even the Violas of the spider-folk are clear winners.
Throughout the thousands of years, we trace the evolving story and the civilisation through the many! Just as much as I was quite indifferent to the human figures I treated them as tools meant to give the spiders time to evolve and at the same time, to push the action forward , I found myself positively cheering for the insects! The rich style of the Mr Tchaikovsky is impressive. Tchaikovsky's tale is a story about the demise of one civilisation and the birth of another.
On this very simple, not to say simplistic, premise, the Author creates a brilliant cosmic epos, which contains many key elements that are the driving force of more than one classic science-fiction novel. We have the destruction of humanity, genetic experiments, interstellar journey, fighting for survival with alien forms of life, artificial intelligence, playing the god. Especially gender war in this book is delightful.
It is also a critical vision of the distant inheritors of the Earth, irreversibly poisoning the environment, and thus approaching the point of eliminating their own species. Despite the threat of total extermination, people still cannot get rid of deadly social mechanisms and habits, nurturing the inspiration to remain masters of the whole universe against all odds.
Adam Christopher's The Machine Awakes is a far future space opera set in the opera by Adam Christopher and the second book in the Spider Wars series. www.farmersmarketmusic.com: Spiders' War (): S. Fowler Wright: Books. Start reading Spiders' War: A Novel of the Far Future on your Kindle in under a minute .
Go be human elsewhere. In the novel, we can also see a civilisation devolving, understanding less than before, losing memory and wisdom, too busy with survival to pass on the knowledge. In the book, all the coveted achievements of civilisational development like genetic engineering or transcending the boundaries of artificial intelligence, resonate only in echoes of former splendour and mimicked copies. The old ambitions of conquest, large-scale attempts at creating terraformed planets, leave only negligible traces behind.
Additionally, humanity is crippled by its own irredeemable nature. We are poisoned by the propensity to violence which we, as a species, seem unable to transcend. The green world with giant arthropods, with its nascent civilisation where biology and custom are at constant war, where tradition is set against the progress, the known past against the unknown future, and where the intellect bent to break the shackles of yesterday triumphs, reads like a veritable paradise.
This is something that the Author denies the humans. Where spiders are thriving on empathy and cooperation and altruistic sacrifice, humans cheat, abuse and destroy. But the worst thing is that this catastrophic tone and constant trajectory of humankind towards destruction is not substantiated by anything. Why would humanity be unable to retrace their developmental steps when the spiders basically zipped through evolution and progress? Explanations for the evolutional check-mate that would anchor the ending in any kind of logic.
The finale and the epilogue seemed terribly arbitrary and bent on proving a very controversial hypothesis. This was the decisive factor regarding my rating. It provided me with excellent multi-level entertainment, and at the same time raised many important issues as a poignant warning, foretelling what the humanity may face if we continue to push towards the mutual destruction of each other and the whole environment.
And this is not us. View all 21 comments. Jan 08, Algernon rated it really liked it Shelves: This is the future. This is where mankind takes its next step. This is where we become gods. Science has given mankind the tools to travel to distant stars, to terraform their planets and to play with the building blocks of life: It sounds like a dream come true, an utopian future in which everything is possible.
In practice, the deployment of miraculous scientific discoveries from the laboratory to the real world is fraught with the same issues that have plagues past generations: Instead of agents of progress, scientists turn into agents of destruction. Adrian Tchaikovsky explores this deep divide between idealistic dreams and grim reality in two directions: It's been done before, but Tchaikovsky manages to be here both traditional and original. The story reminds me of the golden age SF in its mostly positive atitude towards science, in looking at the big picture rather than at the lives of the individuals, in tracking social movements through the lens of technological progress, in its plain, clear-cut storytelling and often unidimensional characters.
The originality of the project comes from the same passion of the author that made his fantasy epic special: Tchaikovsky is really keen on his arthropods. This almost obsession with the insect world is giving Thhaikovsky an edge over his fellow writers through the huge diversity of the regnum, a much richer source of inspiration that the usual human shaped aliens. I know that for me, as a photographer, it is always fascinating to turn a macro lens on even the most common specimens of these arthropods, and that a close up look at their multifaceted eyes or at the shapes of mandibles and antennas will make me think of aliens living unnoticed among us humans.
They are among the most diverse groups of animals on the planet, including more than a million described species and representing more than half of all known living organisms. I was more wary of dogs and chickens than of bugs. I know though that many readers would exclaim in disgust if I insist on repeating that this is a story about huge, intelligent, predatory spiders hide spoiler ]. I was already a fan of the author before his move from fantasy to SF, but this new story reinforced his position among my favorites. It's not easy to keep a good balance between action and exposition and emotionally charged characterization, especially if you have no familiar frame of reference for your social and economic structures and you have to start anew with the main actors after each generational change.