nicanical
I thought this story had a compelling setting and view of a possible future.
I liked the use of uplift here (i.e., the artificial acceleration of a species' intelligence). I feel like it's not a concept featured so frequently in written sci-fi (I can name several examples in film though), nor is it featured as prominently as it is in Children of Time. Usually, monkeys are the ones uplifted, and/or it's a horror story. Here, we have uplifted spiders in a non-horror story. Very cool! And jumping spiders too, the bros of the spider world—look them up.
I also liked that time dilation was featured, similar to how Alastair Reynolds does it. Most of the other SF stories I've read sidestep this by allowing faster-than-light tech, or drastically limiting distances traveled. So it's refreshing to see time dilation explicitly described and how it can affect characters, etc., even if it ultimately is a minor thing in this story.
The structure is relatively simple: chapters alternating between spiders and humans. Between the two, I felt the human side was weaker—the characterization for the humans was a bit meh. I would describe the prose as straightforward, direct, but not spartan—it's more detailed than, perhaps, Isaac Asimov's style. Personally, I prefer simpler styles like this that get out of your way, so the writing here was right up my alley. You might not like it if you prefer flowery and meandering, or dense and expository dump-style prose.
I thought this story had a compelling setting and view of a possible future.
I liked the use of uplift here (i.e., the artificial acceleration of a species' intelligence). I feel like it's not a concept featured so frequently in written sci-fi (I can name several examples in film though), nor is it featured as prominently as it is in Children of Time. Usually, monkeys are the ones uplifted, and/or it's a horror story. Here, we have uplifted spiders in a non-horror story. Very cool! And jumping spiders too, the bros of the spider world—look them up.
I also liked that time dilation was featured, similar to how Alastair Reynolds does it. Most of the other SF stories I've read sidestep this by allowing faster-than-light tech, or drastically limiting distances traveled. So it's refreshing to see time dilation explicitly described and how it can affect characters, etc., even if it ultimately is a minor thing in this story.
The structure is relatively simple: chapters alternating between spiders and humans. Between the two, I felt the human side was weaker—the characterization for the humans was a bit meh. I would describe the prose as straightforward, direct, but not spartan—it's more detailed than, perhaps, Isaac Asimov's style. Personally, I prefer simpler styles like this that get out of your way, so the writing here was right up my alley. You might not like it if you prefer flowery and meandering, or dense and expository dump-style prose.
