Book Club: Children of Time
Sep. 10th, 2023 10:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
janestarzMatt S. wanted to start a book club with our tabletop group and I of course jumped at the chance to get some more direction in my reading. We set up a list and chose to start with Adrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Time. Below are my notes.
Part 1.
"The protagonist (Avrana Kern) is kind of a scary human bitch who shows a lot of insufferable traits: rampant ambition, disregard for her colleagues and other humans. And then this absurd twist happens, making me very curious how she will change and grow during the story."
The story is about an experiment with monkeys being subjected to a nanovirus to mate exclusively with other monkeys that are infected with this virus, and the virus also enhances their natural abilities. This way the humans hope to create a new breed of humans quickly, while awaiting the results of the experiment in cryo in a pod above the planet.
But something goes wrong...and the monkeys never make it down to the planet.
In Part 2 we read that the pod above the planet sends out a maths test, and I wrote "Of course it is a maths test, THE universal language.
Also, I guess the spiders are not done evolving yet, but the humans will take their planet (or try to)."
Humanity has almost destroyed itself in a mutiny, and the survivors salvage what tech they can, venturing out to other solar systems because Earth is beyond saving. These humans arrive at the planet with the pod and the nanovirus and it is more beautiful than they could ever dream. The pod warns them not to interfere with the experiment and is ready to blast them from the sky...
Part 3.
"Nice to read the humans and spiders seem to go through the same things. As above, so below.
The spiders' evolution including religion, scientific discovery and even slavery is impressive.
Human society is degrading while the spider society is (slowly) growing.
And then instead of a peaceful solution, humans do what humans do..."
All in all it was somewhat of an interesting read, but there was one huge flaw with this book: as interesting as the presumed protagonist Avrana Kern was in the first chapter, as indifferent I was for the spider's fate. They are too alien, their society too strange, to empathise with fully. They communicate by tapping their (many) legs in a certain rythm for crying out loud.
I suppose spiders going to space is something that could happen, especially after thousands of years of forced viral evolution, but there was never a point in the book that I felt for Portia, or Violet or Fabian. They were just too alien!
And the humans in the story were no better off: while we did follow a human crew throughout the book, I never felt any attachment to the historian. Him being put into cryo between parts of the book and never being fully briefed at what is going on, makes it no easier to empathise with the humans. If the historian can't fully understand what is going on and what has been happening in between his cryo-sleep, then how can a reader empathise?
I'm glad to have finished the book and it was an interesting concept, but I don't think I'll be reading it again any time soon.
Part 1.
"The protagonist (Avrana Kern) is kind of a scary human bitch who shows a lot of insufferable traits: rampant ambition, disregard for her colleagues and other humans. And then this absurd twist happens, making me very curious how she will change and grow during the story."
The story is about an experiment with monkeys being subjected to a nanovirus to mate exclusively with other monkeys that are infected with this virus, and the virus also enhances their natural abilities. This way the humans hope to create a new breed of humans quickly, while awaiting the results of the experiment in cryo in a pod above the planet.
But something goes wrong...and the monkeys never make it down to the planet.
In Part 2 we read that the pod above the planet sends out a maths test, and I wrote "Of course it is a maths test, THE universal language.
Also, I guess the spiders are not done evolving yet, but the humans will take their planet (or try to)."
Humanity has almost destroyed itself in a mutiny, and the survivors salvage what tech they can, venturing out to other solar systems because Earth is beyond saving. These humans arrive at the planet with the pod and the nanovirus and it is more beautiful than they could ever dream. The pod warns them not to interfere with the experiment and is ready to blast them from the sky...
Part 3.
"Nice to read the humans and spiders seem to go through the same things. As above, so below.
The spiders' evolution including religion, scientific discovery and even slavery is impressive.
Human society is degrading while the spider society is (slowly) growing.
And then instead of a peaceful solution, humans do what humans do..."
All in all it was somewhat of an interesting read, but there was one huge flaw with this book: as interesting as the presumed protagonist Avrana Kern was in the first chapter, as indifferent I was for the spider's fate. They are too alien, their society too strange, to empathise with fully. They communicate by tapping their (many) legs in a certain rythm for crying out loud.
I suppose spiders going to space is something that could happen, especially after thousands of years of forced viral evolution, but there was never a point in the book that I felt for Portia, or Violet or Fabian. They were just too alien!
And the humans in the story were no better off: while we did follow a human crew throughout the book, I never felt any attachment to the historian. Him being put into cryo between parts of the book and never being fully briefed at what is going on, makes it no easier to empathise with the humans. If the historian can't fully understand what is going on and what has been happening in between his cryo-sleep, then how can a reader empathise?
I'm glad to have finished the book and it was an interesting concept, but I don't think I'll be reading it again any time soon.
