640 pages
English language
Published June 30, 2016
Children of Time is a 2015 science fiction novel by author Adrian Tchaikovsky. The work was praised by the Financial Times for "tackling big themes—gods, messiahs, artificial intelligence, alienness—with brio."It was selected from a shortlist of six works and a total pool of 113 books to be awarded the Arthur C. Clarke Award for best science fiction of the year in August 2016. The director of the award program said that the novel has a "universal scale and sense of wonder reminiscent of Clarke himself."In July 2017, the rights were optioned for a potential film adaptation.A sequel, Children of Ruin, was published in 2019.
Some fairly standard scifi suspension of disbelief is required, but the story rewards it. A noticeable lack of diversity in the humans is made up for in other species. The different perspectives are great, conflict is so much more engaging when you understand the different sides.
An immensely satisfying story about human advancement and hubris that gave me everything I'm looking for in good sci fi. It's an exciting story filled with twists and turns that touches on deep, familiar ideas in profound and novel ways. There's lots to think about, characters to care about, and story lines to look forward to. The kind of book that gets me looking into the rest of the author's catalog.
I enjoyed this one a lot. The ending left a little bit more to be desired, but overall it was a great read.
