Series
Children of Time
Adrian Tchaikovsky · 4 novels · 2 short stories · 2015–2026
Adrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Time follows two threads: a terraformed planet where an experimental nanovirus meant to accelerate primate evolution instead uplifts a species of spiders into a technological civilization guided by the recorded personality of a human scientist, and the last survivors of Earth aboard a generation ark ship searching for a new home. The two threads collide across mismatched timescales as the ark ship's crew, cycling in and out of cryosleep, finally reach the spiders' world. It's the first of a loosely connected series that applies the same premise to different alien biologies in each subsequent book.
Summary by Loreful, from public sources
Reading order
The order the books came out.
Best read in the order they were published.
- Omnibus editions(1 edition)
Map
Children of Time at the centre, its books fanned around what holds them. Pick anything for its details, and zoom out for similar series in orbit — the reading order above lists the same books as text.
Stats
By decade
- 2010s2
- 2020s4
Shape
4 novels · 2 short stories
1 author
reads like:science fictionaliensother star systemsfar futurechallengingadult
Mood
Grim and intense: 75% of this series' placed works, the catalog's 46%.
this series · the catalog · one dot = one book4 of 6 works carry a tone
Edges of the map
- Children of Timedarkest · most intense
- Children of Memorybrightest · calmest