Children of Time

"I really enjoyed this book. I would probably classify it as hard sci-fi but it’s not at all technical. Kept me wanting more from start to finish "

"Great story, really looking forward to reading the next in the series. So many themes (top faves for me: right to exist/claim land, what is sentience, ethics in a survival situation) explored really well."

"This was one of my worst nightmares made flesh. Intelligent space faring spiders. Shudder. The most perplexing part though was using ants as computers..... is that possible?"

"Very clear and engaging SF about evolution and species right to exist. Could do with more emotional engagement but I found it compelling. "

"What an imagination! "

"This was beautiful. Unlike most people, I actually really like spiders, so I don't find the concept of giant hyper-evolved spiders as frightening as some people, so I went into this book expecting to at least somewhat like the spiders, but I was quite surprised when I found myself actually liking the spiders more then the humans and cheering for the spiders to win. This book blew my mind."

"Great sci-fi, fun to read 😊"

"Probably one of the best space fiction books I’ve ever read. Incredibly novel, and I couldn’t put it down."

"Epic science fiction with a diverse cast of humans and spider-evolved aliens. Wow! What a page-turner!"

"It took me two months, but I did it! And I’m happy I finished the book, even though I did struggle to get through parts of it. I’m including comments below that I sent to my book club since I missed the meeting that this book was discussed (and yes, this was my pick for the club), but all in all I did enjoy it. I think it’s a great sci-fi story and the ending was full circle. <br/><br/>Book Club Comments<br/>So out the gate I’ll admit I didn’t finish the book. Part of that was I really struggled to focus during the two weeks I was house bound, I had so many halfway read books that I couldn’t finish. I made it to exactly halfway (Section 5 “Schism”), but I fully believe I would have blown through this book if it hadn’t been for those damn spiders.<br/><br/>Listen, I can get on board with the future of humanity prowling space for a new home. I was super interested in Kern’s world, the whole coup with the moon colonists revolting, Guyen being shady and trying to upload his brain, and Holsten and Lain doing their thing. It’s been a really good story, I’m fascinated by the time jumps and I think it’s really well done story telling.<br/><br/>And then there are the spiders. I keep trying to care because it’s literally half the book and it’s supposed to be “the smartest evolutionary world building” or whatever the cover says, but I cannot get into it. Every time I get to a spider chapter I have to force myself to read it. It doesn’t help that I HATE spiders, the only thing worse is if it had been snakes, but it’s just not holding my interest.<br/><br/>Currently I’m debating if I can understand the novel’s conclusion if I just skip those chapters. I know it’s important because where I’m at they just sent the math answers to Kern, so I assume it all comes together, but if I have to read one more line about twitching spider legs I’m going to lose it. If you can poll the group and see I would really like to finish the story, I just am so hung up on how much I hate those sections!<br/><br/>It’s a weird sensation to love half the book and passionately hate the other half, but that’s where I’m at. I still plan on finishing it, but based on the feedback I’ll see if I can get through it without the spider drama. If not I’ll slog through it, which at this rate will take me to the end of the year…lol"