Future humans terraform a planet and, through an unfortunate accident, infect it with a nano-virus that significantly accelerate the evolution of spiders. With their new found biological advantages, the spiders evolve from a species of lonely predators into a space traveling civilisation.While the spiders were on the fast track of evolution, we follow the wondering of the last humans, traveling in an ark-ship called Ghilghames, in search of a new home.The book ends with an epic conflict between the last humans and the new sentient spiders.

The Premise of Children of Time

Adrian Tarkovsky's book reads like a traditional space opera from the golden age of SF. What sets it apart is the focus on biology, as the author carefully documents how a spider civilisation could look like:<ul><li>the spiders didn't use speech but communicated through vibrations and scents</li><li>knowledge was passed through genetics, rather written word</li><li>wars were won by reprogramming the enemies rather than exterminating them.</li><li>since the spiders lived on a new planet, there were no fossil fuels so the scientific revolution of the spiders was different than others</li><li>the early spider civilisation was matriarchal </li></ul>

The power of Biology

Since the book spans thousands of years, documenting the evolution of the spiders could have turned boring pretty fast. But the spider history arc is told using the same archetypal characters. We follow Portia, the adventurous spider, Bianca, the heretic or Fabian, the only male character. Using the same names for the spider heroes is more than a trick. It makes sense in the lore of the book because the spiders evolved by passing their innovation (called the Understanding) to their offsprings. So there is a genetical timeline continuation to the main characters ... over thousands of years.

Archetypal Permanence

“Life is not perfect, individuals will always be flawed, but empathy – the sheer inability to see those around them as anything other than people too – conquers all, in the end.”

An original space opera, where instead of aliens we have a human created specie of sentient spiders. Light, fast paced reading. 

The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home. Following their ancestors' star maps, they discovered the greatest treasure of a past age--a world terraformed and prepared for human life. But all is not right in this new Eden. The planet is not waiting for them, pristine and unoccupied. New masters have turned it from a refuge into mankind's worst nightmare. Now two civilizations are on a collision course and must fight to survive. As the fate of humanity hangs in the balance, who are the true heirs of this new Earth?

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The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age--a world terraformed and prepared for human life. But all is not right in this new Eden. In the long years since the planet was abandoned, the work of its architects has borne disastrous fruit. The planet is not waiting for them, pristine and unoccupied. New masters have turned it from a refuge into mankind's worst nightmare. Now two civilizations are on a collision course, both testing the boundaries of what they will do to survive. As the fate of humanity hangs in the balance, who are the true heirs of this new Earth?

PORTIA - THE SPIDER HERO

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