Children of Time | Book Review
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- Опубликовано: 16 окт 2024
- Featuring some Children of Time specific music and new, never-before-seen commissioned art work, a spoiler-free review of Adrian Tchaikovsky's "Children of Time."
Artist credits:
Music: “Children of Time We’ll Remember”
(based off of and including original instrumental from Billy Joel's "Time to Remember")
by Rocky Sams
/ @rockysams7780
Art Work:
“Gilgamesh Webbed”
“Karst on Hull”
by Camila Farfan
@yerutidraw on Instagram
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I read this in 2016 and still think about it often. The way a society/civilization is depicted evolving over millennia, through the hopes and dreams of just a few individuals throughout history was done really well and my favorite aspect of the book. The sequel was also great and I'd love more!
Yes agree on the sequel too. I really like the way in which we see how the ship and the awake people are different or organized differently, or different power structures each time Mason wakes.
I started Children of Time via sample on Kindle. Not sure why I wasn’t riveted, as I enjoy Tchaikovsky’s writing style and have heard great things about this book. I keep getting sidelined by other books. Finally started recently to go back and read the classics like 2001, Foundation, Rama, etc. and Dan Simmons can always be relied on for distraction. I’ll get to it eventually.
Yeah Children of Time was one I liked more on re reread. Alot of Tchaikovsky's work is heavy for the first two hundred pages (Shards of Earth was too). Knowing the atmosphere and who everyone was, I liked it more this time.
Personally it's once the Portia Spider's storyline starts to pick up that hooked me fully on the story, who knew a dog sized sapient jumping spider could seem like such an appealing friend.
Couldn't stop myself getting Children of ruin moments after finishing the first audiobook to continue the story, always hurts when such interesting unique stories stop after a single book
About the dislike 2. I think the idea was that their struggle feels human. That makes them much more relatable.
LOVE THE SONG! Still haven't read any Tchaikovsky but you make me really want to read him!
Of the Tchaikovsky I read, this is the one id recommend for you, I think as a rec its a slam dunk read for you BG
Great review buddy. You definitely sold me on this book. Loved the song too
Thanks Dale. That version sticks in my head now, whenever I hear the real song hahah
I was afraid this book would creep me out too much, but I ended up loving it, and I'm looking forward to the sequel. Enjoyed your review and the memories it evoked.
Thanks. The sequels very good too. I think you will like it. Have you read Tchaikovsky's Shards of Earth yet?
@@FIT2BREAD No, but it's on my wishlist now. 😉
Hehe same. I knew about the spiders and thouggt it would be too much for me.
Michael, you have outdone your self. The music is too fun. I loooove it.
Thanks Shelly. I've got more music coming in the next weeks as well for Iron Widow, Snow Crash, City, Enders Game, Stranger in a Strange Land, and Shadow of the Torturer.
@@FIT2BREAD i can't wait
First time viewer here. That musical intro is rather fantastic mah dude!
Thanks Ryan. Depending on if you've read them, you might get a kick out of some of the parody intros I've done on other recent reads like Enders Game, Stranger in a Strange Land, House of Suns, etc.
Very well done book review. Sounds interesting .
Thanks Elly
Another great review, Michael! Thanks.
Thanks 7!
Michael, I was just thinking about this book and author today! We must be on the same wavelength. I’ve only read his historical flintlock fantasy, Guns of the Dawn, and his plot work was wonderful. I’ve heard great things about this one, and it was great to hear your thoughts in the non-spoiler section!
Thanks J, but tell me honestly...did you sing along with the theme song? ;) seriously though, I can't imagine anyone reading this and being disappointed. It's just so well done.
This was my graduation song from high school lololol. Good old Billy Joel. I love your song parodies !
Ha...you are dating yourself ;)
@@FIT2BREAD lmao !!!
I have two questions for the author though. At the end of the book he says the spiders had to do something to the nano virus to get it to work with mammals but it's original purpose was chimpanzees or something. It really confused me. Was the virus undecided prior to infection? I'm also confused as to why having the nano virus would make them get along without some "understanding" attached to it.
Asher, I don't think I understand your questions correctly, but my understanding was that the virus mutated the spiders and made them evolve rapidly (instead of the chimps). That's all the virus did. I think, if I remember correctly, since we go through many generations of spiders, we eventually get to intelligence and civilization with them
@@FIT2BREAD at the end, the reason the spiders and humans were able to come to an understanding was because the humans were infected with the virus. This somehow gave the humans a sense of, they are like us which ended the final conflict. I know it's fiction but it felt really unsatisfactory, considering how casually they killed other things infected with the virus including their own kind. If it had an understanding attached to it it would have made more sense but I'm reading the second book now so I know that understandings aren't easily transferable because of the species gap. When the spiders infected them with the virus they commented that they had to do special work on the virus to get it to work in mammals which seemed strange to me because it was originally supposed to work on chimps. I know that all the creatures it infected on the planet were invertebrates but my question is why? If it was originally designed for chimps why did it work on spiders in the first place and why doesn't it work on mammals now when it's original design was for a group of mammals? The only way I can make this work in my head is that the virus was undecided but when it attached to the invertebrates it changed in a way that made it incompatible for mammals but that wasn't made explicit in the story.
The original target was a population of monkeys. It's indeed one of the main problems of the book that the virus just randomly hit something else, multiple species even, and with no apparent difficulty to apply its payload. It should have been easy to restrict it to primates, easier still to infect the monkeys before they were anywhere near the planet.
The spiders did not infect the humans with the original virus, but with a variant of the version they used to transmit knowledges betwen themselves. This version was of course meant for spiders, so they had to adapt it to affect mammals.
I had read it long ago but had forgotten the book itself. I had memories of the kern planet civilization growing and evolving but I didn’t recall any storyline. When I read it last year, I started recognizing different parts so I was delighted to discover this was the book that had parts that stayed with me for years.
Awesoke. I hope the video helped recover some memory also
@@FIT2BREAD yep, I'd starting forgetting about some of the intrigue on the ship itself.
This is literally one of my all time favourite books and a big reason why I keep searching for that special book in between the good or very good ones….that intro….THAT INTRO!!! - you saying you’ll use music more in your videos is awesome! I’ve been using a bit of one of my band’s songs as my “theme” on my channel and that’s fun…love the way you do these and it’s a fantastic review. Such an amazing book! I was disappointed by the sequel…have you read that yet?
Thanks. Im having so much fun writing the lyrics for them. I did read Children of Ruin and I do like it. I can see where some won't like it at all near Children of Time though.
Finally got a chance to watch... awesome intro!
Thanks!!
I have to read this. Great job reviewing the book. The singer has a great voice.
I agree. The singer, Rocky...His channel is in the description, you should check him out.
I was under the impression that the spider species that was uplifted was from Earth and a part of the cargo. They survived the disaster and the apes did not.
I wanted more information on the apparently uplifted undersea civilization that was really only teased at in the book. Hopefully a third volume will return us to Kern's World.
I beleive they came about from the original terraforming. The uplift virus nailed them when it impacted the planet.
just listening to you i realise how much i've forgotten about the story since i read it :-D one of my faves as well!
Did you read the sequel too, Larry?
@@FIT2BREAD i haven't yet!
Uplift really did bring out the best in everyone
Fabian sure lived up to his potential
got an extra sub just for the opening song! i choked on my drink! lol
Awesome ha. I think thay was the first book review I used an intro song for. You might also like the ones for Steanger in a Strange Land, Brave New World, and House of Suns
@@FIT2BREAD Thanks for the recommendations. Will definitely check them out.
Was really not crazy about the end of this book. Felt like it was missing some serious antagonist.
I can see that...did you go on and try Children of Ruin?
This book is clearly inspired by "The Empire of the Ants" by Bernard Werber, dare I say a clone. I don't know what is the fuss about with this book. The human storyline was kind of boring for me and the spider storyline, at least at the beginning, was like reading an wikipedia article.
Spoilers below:
Then comes the totally flawed biotech which, I'm no biologist but, it clearly cannot function. Spiders that become scientists and build lenses for microscopes and to look at the stars. How the hell did they do that? Then at the end they fly to space with a helium filled balloon made out of spider silk! Really?? And they destroy a space ship that is supposed to withstand micrometeorite and space dust hits, with ROCKS??
*** End spoilers
Besides the bad science, I consider Tchaikovsky's writing really bad and hard to follow, or maybe it was just bad translation in my language.
This book was a complete BS for me. It is enjoyable at times and the action during the human storyline and even the battle at the end is quite entertaining, but the bad writing and the bad science was triggering for me. It's probably a good read for a 14-18yo.
I liked the 2nd book in the series a little bit more, but not by much.
Haxxy, first of all..nice call on The Empire of the Ants..mam did I love that as a kid...probably saw it three times on one of the three channels we actually got!! 2nd...ok...definitely not a clone situation tho...cmon! Fair enough though, I really liked Children of Time, and can respect that you did not...and your reasons why. Have you tried Tchaikovskys Final Architects Series? I'm really enjoying that too.
@@FIT2BREAD The movie I think is made after the book written by H.G Wells. The book I'm talking about is the first in the "Ants" trilogy, written by the French author Bernard Werber. Probably is not well known in the US, but is very popular in Europe. Yes, I was thinking giving Tchaikovsky another chance with the first book in that series.
I'm somewhat glad that I'm not the only one disliking the novel, and for similar reasons!
Crazy the gilgamish shit was trash the spiders what made the book SMH
I like the ideas of long cryosleep and waking up to different situation and evolving relationships among a crew dealing with any number of issues
It's almost as if I read a different book.
TLDR: Stretched out plot, no strong protagonists and questionable science make this one a disappointment.
(Some mild spoilers ahead)
You could write a blurb about this book that would also match Vernor Vinge's excellent _A Deepness in the Sky:_ Multiple factions of humans meet over a planet on which spidery pre-spaceflight sentients move towards their future.
Sadly, that's about all _Children of Time_ has in common with _Deepness._ Let's shower some praise on _Deepness_ to see where _CoT_ is lacking:
First, Trixia Bonsol: One character from _Deepness_ is the key to the best description of aliens I've seen in SF. Vinge uses a clever trick to make the aliens easily relatable without artificially antropomorphizing them, to the point where members of one family of aliens are my favorite characters in the book.
In CoT, descriptions of the spiders are sufficiently arachnoid, but their life, and more importantly their characters remain distant. At one point, science is heavily bent to serve the plot: The virus that is used to uplift the spiders was easily able to create the empathy necessary to create a society, but only between females. Males are not even second-classs cititzens, but often tasty snacks. Why is the powerful virus helpless all of a sudden, except to create artificial drama? (Note 1: Canibalism is not just "icky", it has some real negative impact on survival. Note 2, from Wikipedia: "P. labiata females are extremely aggressive to other females, trying to invade and take over each other's webs, which often results in cannibalism.")
Overall though, the description of the spider's society is among the best parts of the novel. Tchaikovsky manages to think of entirely new ways to solve problems, it's not just a human society with eight legs.
Second, Thomas Nau: _Deepness_ has one of the best antogonists in all of SF. Very clever and very evil not just in his actions, but also the description of his character.
_CoT_ not only lacks a strong antagonist, but also a protagonist. The human point-of-view character is nothing more than a that, a pure spectator without any influence on the action. (I don't think he ever has to make a decision.) The only person who would make an interesting protagonist only appears as a side character.
The spiders don't even have a possible protagonists, since their story is told in episodes that are generations removed from each other.
In addition to their lack of relatability, characters also act very stupid when it serves the plot, especially (and unfortunately) during the climatic encounter at the end.
Two possible antagonists in _CoT_ appear: One is removed off-screen, the other just fizzles out.
I'm aware that pro/antogonists are fictional constructs, and not necessarily realistic, but they work.
Third, Focus: _Deepness_ almost completely uses technologies from classical SF: Bussard drives, laser guns and so on. One of the few exceptions is Focus, an extremely powerful tool mastered by the antagonists, and not only a Big Gun, but through its nature an important element of the plot.
_CoT_ has serious problems with technology. I already mentioned the uplift virus, which has capabilities which blatantly serve the plot. Even worse, and one core plot point: Why is the virus sophisticated enough to be able to breed intelligence and empathy into spiders, but is not even able to differentiate between arthopods and vertebrates? The designers wanted to uplift one particular species, not a lot of random ones.
The ant's capabilities are simply magic, they are not only able to isolate genes (without any knowledge of DNA), but they also serve as electronics. Their description in the first half of the book is much better, and their dependency on pheromons is well described. After a certain point however, they are just a swarm of deus ex machina.
Kern is another example of bad use of technology. It's a hybrid of a human and a computer, but how it was created and what its nature is in the end is badly described.
There are also some errors in basics physics. To name two examples: 1) You cannot detect whether an alien radio source directly in front of you is transmitting specifically in your direction. 2) An orbiting thing does not de-orbit after it's destroyed by lasers. These are not major problems by themselves, but indicators for a weak foundation in science, and contributing to the lack of suspension of disbelief.
Finally, two nitpicks about vocabulary: 1) It's not "evolution" except in the broadest sense of the word. Biological evolution is inherently unguided, which is not at all the case in the book. 2) "Nanovirus" is not a thing, every virus is "nano". For example, SARS-CoV-2 is between 50 and 140 nanometer long.
The prose is mediocre (ie. standard for SF :-), with some awkwardness when intimacy or cursing are mentioned. Not spectactular, but good enough to be no distraction.
Overall, the book is disappointing, though I admit it might be less so when you have no knowledge of biology. The most important fault however is the complete lack of anyone to love or hate. Things happen to people, but there is no reason to care.
Avoid.
I wrote most of my review before reading any other review, and before knowing anything about the author.
I wonder what I am missing. More to the point, why is science so sketchy if he is a zoologist?