Book · 2015
Children of Time
by Adrian Tchaikovsky
A nanovirus meant to uplift monkeys lands on spiders instead, and eight thousand years later the last human survivors arrive looking for a new Earth.
What does Reddit think of Children of Time?
r/printSF cites Children of Time more than almost any other book in the tracked corpus, and the pitch stays specific: spiders built into a civilization by an accidental uplift virus, no human stand-in doing the alien thinking for them. r/suggestmeabook is blunter about it. The ↑681 comment just names the book and adds 'intelligent spiders, very different way of thinking.' No defense mounted, none needed. r/Fantasy's ↑339 pick ranks it with Chronicles of Elantra as one of the only non-human POVs that actually works, calling the trilogy brilliant outright. A separate printSF thread puts Tchaikovsky's run on the same shelf as Ann Leckie, 'on an extremely hot streak,' next to a writer the commenter calls 'LeGuin 2.0.' Four subreddits, four independent routes to the same title, and not one displayed excerpt arguing the other side. Nearly nine thousand mentions across seven years is a lot of drive-by recommendations pointed the same direction — not proof of quality, just of reach.
Evidence, not a rating
Recommendation receipt
A compact, source-linked answer derived from the same Reddit sample and editorial synthesis as this page.
Editorial summary
r/printSF cites Children of Time more than almost any other book in the tracked corpus, and the pitch stays specific: spiders built into a civilization by an accidental uplift virus, no human stand-in doing the alien thinking for them. r/suggestmeabook is blunter about it. ' No defense mounted, none needed.
Read if
Pick this up if you want an alien species built from spider biology instead of a human in a rubber suit — r/printSF keeps it on hand for exactly that request. Land here by way of the Chronicles of Elantra comparison and you're in r/Fantasy's crowd, which says more about the execution than any back-cover blurb could. Deep-time, multi-generational plotting rewards patience; want a tight single POV instead, this isn't that book.
Skip or borrow first if
Almost every top-quote is a one-line drive-by recommendation, not a discussion of what the spiders actually do on the page.
Strongest published evidence
“Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Intelligent spiders, very different way to thinking.”r/suggestmeabook source · score 681 ↗
Dissent & strongest caveat
Almost every top-quote is a one-line drive-by recommendation, not a discussion of what the spiders actually do on the page.
Community feedback & reader fit
Themes
- · Alien intelligence built from evolutionary time, not human analogy
- · A terraforming project that outlives everyone who started it
- · Multi-species contact across deep time
- · Hard SF that crosses over into r/Fantasy territory
- · Tchaikovsky's run compared to Ann Leckie's post-Ancillary work
Common praise
- + r/printSF reaches for it first whenever someone asks for alien consciousness that isn't a human in a costume.
- + r/Fantasy's top comment ranks it with Chronicles of Elantra as one of the only non-human POVs that actually lands.
- + A separate printSF thread puts Tchaikovsky on the same shelf as Ann Leckie and calls his run 'an extremely hot streak.'
- + r/suggestmeabook regulars just drop the title and move on to the next request — no argument required.
Common criticism
- − Almost every top-quote is a one-line drive-by recommendation, not a discussion of what the spiders actually do on the page.
- − r/TrueLit logged six mentions in seven years — the literary-fiction crowd hasn't picked it up.
- − It gets bundled into the same 'best hard SF' lists as Dark Matter and Wool, which flattens what's specific about the biology.
- − r/Fantasy calls it a trilogy in the same breath it's recommended, and newcomers sometimes assume book one won't stand alone. It does.
Who it's for
Pick this up if you want an alien species built from spider biology instead of a human in a rubber suit — r/printSF keeps it on hand for exactly that request. Land here by way of the Chronicles of Elantra comparison and you're in r/Fantasy's crowd, which says more about the execution than any back-cover blurb could. Deep-time, multi-generational plotting rewards patience; want a tight single POV instead, this isn't that book. Once you're through, the rest of Tchaikovsky's 'hot streak' that printSF keeps referencing is worth stacking next to it.
Mentions over time
Top subreddits
Which Reddit comments matter for Children of Time?
The most relevant excerpts across the subreddits where this book is mentioned — opinionated, argued takes first, then top-upvoted mentions. Click through to read the full thread.
“Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Intelligent spiders, very different way to thinking.
“Probably the best example I've seen is the Children of Time trilogy by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Brilliant. I can honestly only think of one other in Chronicles of Elantra, and its really well done but the race is only introduced in the 18th book or so in the series. Really enjoying the race, though!
“Jeff VanderMeer is really likely to be a real hall-of-famer, and, and I think Adrian Tchaikovskyn is on an extremely hot streak right now with the Children of Time books (and others), as is Ann Leckie, who I tend to see as LeGuin 2.0. I've this very sneaky suspicion that Arkady Martine, Becky Ch…
“Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Brilliant book.
“Children of Time. Each chapter flips between humans and sentient spiders. So it's not 100% non-human, but it IS 100% a great book.
“I have had similar thoughts: He publishes lots of reliably good books, and occasionally great ones. Maybe if he slowed down his output he would put out reliably great ones? Here’s the thing though: Firstly, what the hell do I know? Maybe his output is better because he writes more. Maybe if he spen…
“Check out **Children of Time** by Adrian Tchaikovsky.
“Science fiction rather than fantasy but Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky features a lot of this!
“Not fantasy but Children of Time. “Yes, spiders are icky but this book makes you love them. No, no, I promise…”
“Children of Time - Adrian Tchaikovsky
“I think AdrianTchaikovsky is actually three smaller authors hiding in a trench coat. Only way to explain his output with the laws of physics as we currently understand them. Excited about the children of time one for sure!
“Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky fits the bill, as long as you aren't looking for humanoid characters?
“I feel the same and I’m just 10% in. Read Children of Time by tchaikovsky just before picking up Winds Of Truth and not gonna lie it’s very hard to go back to Sanderson after that!
“Obligatory Children of Time trilogy suggestion.
“Children of Time made me less afraid of spiders
Convinced? Pick up Children of Time
Readers also mention
All books like Children of Time →Books that share discussion threads with Children of Time — counted from the comments, not curated.
Guides featuring Children of Time
Ranked best-of lists and editorial guides where this book's tracked mentions place it.
Children of Time — frequently asked
Is Children of Time one book or a trilogy?+
The original novel is a complete story on its own; Tchaikovsky wrote two sequels afterward, Children of Ruin and Children of Memory. r/Fantasy's ↑339 comment calls the whole thing 'the Children of Time trilogy' when recommending it, which is accurate to the series but can make newcomers think they need all three books for an ending. They don't — book one closes.
How does Children of Time compare to Ann Leckie's Ancillary books?+
Reddit places them in the same category rather than ranking one over the other — the printSF comparison is about scale and ambition, alien consciousness and civilizations built from first principles, not plot similarity. If Ancillary Justice's non-human narrator worked for you, Children of Time runs the same experiment on evolutionary biology instead of AI.
Is Children of Time worth it if I don't normally read hard sci-fi?+
r/Fantasy's own engagement with it, over a thousand tracked mentions, suggests it crosses over fine. The biology gets explained as it goes, and the emotional throughline (a dying human diaspora against an emerging spider civilization) reads more like character-driven SF than a physics lecture. r/booksuggestions treats it as a safe default for readers asking outside genre-specific subs.