Children of Time

My first read from Tchaikovsky and one that has cemented him as one of my new favourite authors. A fantastic entry into the SciFi genre for people who primarily stick to Fantasy. The systems are not overly explained, but it still contains some philosophical questions on what it is to be human.

The story centres around humanity and our quest to terraform other planets to make them hospitable to human life. In this particular case however, spiders have evolved to be the dominant species, not any kind of mammal or specifically ape that we were expecting.

The spiders however progress through the stages of development, even though it goes in slightly different stages to ours, and eventually are capable of space exploration. By this time however, the last surviving vestiges of humanity are desperate to land no matter the cost, and must face the spiders head-on.

The situation can be summed up as the Prisoners Dilemma, and the characters even discuss as much. But when the stakes are so high, there is only one inevitable outcome. Though the results of that outcome were very unexpected.

It should be noted, that for people who want 'strong independent women' characters, Isa Lain is that woman. She loved, she lost, she faced Gods and monsters, she sacrificed everything for the survival of humanity. This is the 'strong woman' we need to see more of in media, and it strikes me that Tchaikovsky is good at writing women because he treats us like people.

I look forward not only to reading the rest of this series, but the rest of his works, and have already pre-ordered his next book. (Shroud)