Space Opera Fans discussion

Children of Time is considered a modern classic, it won the Arthur C Clarke Award for best novel in 2016 and features on many peoples top 10 SF novels of all time. Do you agree? I would love to hear your comments, this is what I had to say ....

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is a fantastic novel. It's hard, it's space opera, it's jam packed with amazing world building, it does share some DNA with previous works but generally it feels very original. I know it's part of a series so if you are umming and aarrghing over whether to commit to jumping into a series like this then fear not, the first installment is worthy all of its own!

I will stick my neck out here and consider this groundbreaking, a top 10 among must read science fiction novels of the 21st Century (so far).

The story kicks off with a science team from Earth in orbit around an exoplanet with a plan to terraform the planet and accelerate evolution there with the use of nanotechnology. The story covers vast periods of time (hence the title) and many millennia later an ark ship from earth comes along in the hope of finding a terraformed paradise .... what happens next is truly mind blowing, so good!

Why not 5 stars? Well I'm not keen on how Tchaikovsky handles the characterization, the scientists, Kern or the crew of the of the ark ship but maybe thats just my immutable thinking.

All in all though a super novel every lover of Science Fiction should read.



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