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| Adrian loves insects and arachnids |
Children of Time is certainly a science fiction epic in the sense of being impressive in size and scope. Originally written as a standalone, it became Tchaikovsky's best-selling novel and so, of course, has spawned sequels. This first book in the series is a chunky 600 pages, and the action of the story covers thousands of years of future history.
Review
No worries, however, as certain other species do respond well to the virus, foremost among them perhaps being, oddly enough, jumping spiders. Over the course of millennia the spiders grow rather large (dog-sized, I gathered) and much smarter, as do ants and some types of crustaceans. This is where the novel really shines. Tchaikovsky does a wonderfully entertaining job of projecting out what higher consciousness would be like for these unlikely species given their innate characteristics. At one point the spiders and the ants go to all-out war, and it looks bad for the spiders until they cleverly figure out a way to control the ants by manipulating the way they sense their environment.
The novel begins sometime in the far future aboard a space station orbiting a distant planet that has been terraformed and is on the brink of the next stage of development. Under the guidance of Dr. Arvana Kern, primates will be introduced into the ecosystem along with an uplift virus that will speed their evolution. (The station isn't named Brin 2 for nothing.) Being no fan of the directions that humanity has taken, Kern intends to nurture a new intelligent species that may perhaps avoid some of the mistakes her own has made. Things go catastrophically wrong during the setup stage, however, and through a series of events that strain credulity just a bit, the virus is introduced into the planet's atmosphere but the monkeys don't survive. Kern becomes the only surviving human member of the expedition after a coup attempt. Her own consciousness gets mixed up with the ship's AI, and she continues to watch over what she thinks of as Kern's World for thousands of years, not knowing that her primates are long since dead.
During this vast amount of time, humanity manages to destroy the Earth and pretty much wipe itself out everywhere in the galaxy except for one desperate starship (not even a ragtag fleet) searching for a habitable world. Ancient records lead them to Kern's World, but the misanthropic Kern-AI-thing wants nothing to do with humanity and warns them away. She is, after all, busy using radio transmissions to nurture the evolving intelligence of what she believes are her beloved primates on the world below. Unfortunately for the last remnants of humanity, the technologies of the old empire were far greater than those they now possess, so even their vast starship is no match for the weaponized countermeasures of the Brin 2 station. They are sent to the location of another terraformed planet, a quest that again takes thousands of years since no faster-than-light travel exists in this universe. But, before they leave, a band of mutineers manages to get past the Brin station and land on the planet for a brief moment in which the spiders unknowingly glimpse their creators and the humans witness a world that they view as a horror beyond words.
If things went a little haywire on Kern's World, they went completely off the tracks on the second terraformed planet, which is covered with one vast fungal network. Things are getting desperate for the last hope of humanity by this point but the crew of the Galactica, er, I mean the Gilgamesh, are able to avail themselves of some old-empire technology at this abandoned outpost. Their leader believes that they have no alternative but to return to Kern's World and fight for possession of the planet.
I'll skip ahead and assure you that the final battle is a scorcher!
What I've described is just the bare skeleton (or perhaps I should say exoskeleton) of the novel. The really good stuff comes in the growing awareness of the spiders over the generations, and in the changing relationships and situations of the humans over the millennia as they go into and out of cryogenic sleep at different times and over varying periods during their ever-more-desperate search for a home. The novel is complete and satisfying in itself and flies by quickly despite its length.
During this vast amount of time, humanity manages to destroy the Earth and pretty much wipe itself out everywhere in the galaxy except for one desperate starship (not even a ragtag fleet) searching for a habitable world. Ancient records lead them to Kern's World, but the misanthropic Kern-AI-thing wants nothing to do with humanity and warns them away. She is, after all, busy using radio transmissions to nurture the evolving intelligence of what she believes are her beloved primates on the world below. Unfortunately for the last remnants of humanity, the technologies of the old empire were far greater than those they now possess, so even their vast starship is no match for the weaponized countermeasures of the Brin 2 station. They are sent to the location of another terraformed planet, a quest that again takes thousands of years since no faster-than-light travel exists in this universe. But, before they leave, a band of mutineers manages to get past the Brin station and land on the planet for a brief moment in which the spiders unknowingly glimpse their creators and the humans witness a world that they view as a horror beyond words.
If things went a little haywire on Kern's World, they went completely off the tracks on the second terraformed planet, which is covered with one vast fungal network. Things are getting desperate for the last hope of humanity by this point but the crew of the Galactica, er, I mean the Gilgamesh, are able to avail themselves of some old-empire technology at this abandoned outpost. Their leader believes that they have no alternative but to return to Kern's World and fight for possession of the planet.
I'll skip ahead and assure you that the final battle is a scorcher!
What I've described is just the bare skeleton (or perhaps I should say exoskeleton) of the novel. The really good stuff comes in the growing awareness of the spiders over the generations, and in the changing relationships and situations of the humans over the millennia as they go into and out of cryogenic sleep at different times and over varying periods during their ever-more-desperate search for a home. The novel is complete and satisfying in itself and flies by quickly despite its length.
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