Literature

Children of Time

Adrian Tchaikovsky · 2015

Lindy Score

4,166·Classic

11 yrs

Age

3

Endorsers

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Why it endured

Uplifted spiders evolve civilization over millennia while the last remnants of humanity search for a new home. One of the most ambitious first contact novels ever written.

What they're saying

3 people recommend this book

Andrej KarpathyAI researcher & former Tesla AI Director

Interesting premise on a very high level - follows an alien civilization "booting up" from scratch, intertwined with the shenanigans of a rebooted spacefaring human civilization. Enjoyed the idea of the "classicist". Severe lack of technical bits and pieces, making it overall a quite "soft" sci-fi. A little too long, could probably be compressed by 5X of more. The attempt at world building is valiant, but ultimately quite shallow and not very believable. 2/5

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PewDiePieContent creator & book reviewer

It's just very interesting. It really made me look differently on, how we value species; I look at the humanity in the future, but overall it was just a fun space adventure. I really enjoyed it. I thought it was it was fun from the beginning to the end.

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Chris WilliamsonHost of Modern Wisdom podcast

Exceptional. Humanity attempts to terraform a planet using genetically accelerated primates, but the plan spectacularly fails. If you're drawn to far-future concepts and exploring where humanity might end up, this hits perfectly. The narrative alternates between two storylines each chapter, creating an interesting rhythm.

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