Empathy for the Buggers.
I’ve dabbled in Adrian Tchaikovsky’s one-off novels, but never gotten into his grand space bound epics. After reading Service Model, I figured what the heck, I’m a big nerd, this guy writes some interesting stuff, I’ll try out this grand Children of Time series of his that keeps popping up. Hoo boy, this book was not at all what I expected. I’ve read some Tchaikovksy and enjoyed it. The novels were always fun little stories that had great moments, but were never something that I really loved. Children of Time was outstanding.
The book alternates between what feels like a nature documentary narrated by David Attenborough and the life of a historian, on of the last members of humanity, as the species slowly travel across galaxy. The remains of civilization are on a single ship, searching for a new home, in an out of stasis and situations arise. Gaps between our historian protagonists sleep can span hundreds of years. At first he is older than his peers. Over time, his peers are woken up more frequently and stay out longer. In the span of two weeks of waking, he sees friends younger than him become elderly. What felt like closing and opening his eyes, were literal generations. Every time he surfaces like a submarine to find his world changed.
The nature documentary chapters were unexpected. They follow lives and exploits of jumping spiders. Spiders that through a series accidents, are larger, smarter, and inherit an anciently terraformed world. Following the arachnids throughout similarly large stretches of time, I found myself cheering them on. They befall and surpass a variety of existential threats throughout the millennia. Throughout the book, there is a sense that conflict will eventually arise between these two species over the one habitable planet. As a reader, I feared the conflict. I had empathy for both sides. Two-legged and eight.
While this is the first book of a series, I am perfectly happy to stop right here and not read the sequels. I have this fiction anxiety where I fret the author will “ruin” my beloved world, characters, story. I convince myself that I’m happy not knowing everything, not knowing what might happen. I think Children of Time is a perfect read all on its own. Maybe I will get over it for this series and continue on. I guess time will tell.