This was an extremely clever and ambitious book that managed to be enjoyable and a real page turner while engaging with some of the big questions. It opens a long way in the future - but nonetheless, centuries or millenia before the rest of the plot. A scientist intends to populate a terraformed planet with apes, plus a virus that will speed their mutation. It's meant to be in the name of spreading human life through the universe, but for her, it's more about becoming a god. then three things go wrong: instead of monkeys, its spiders that populate the planet and get infected with the evolutionary virus; terrorists put an end to space travel and interplanetary communication and plunge earth into an ice age and a technological collapse, and the scientist ends up trapped in a cryogenetics chamber, orbiting the spider planet, with her mind merged with an AI.
After that rather complicated start, the action divides in two. The more conventional, but still very well done half picks up a few thousand years after the opening, and focuses on a ship carrying earth's last survivors (the planet having become entirely uninhabitable, but the technology having started to revive) to the rumoured terraformed planet, in a journey that will take centuries or millenia and rely on putting people in statis. The most fascinating things here are the way that the ultra-futuristic society the book opened with are ancient history to the characters on the ship, with the study of their language and civilisation referred to as "classics," (the main POV character in these chapters is a classicist)and similarly, the way what seems to us like an incredibly advanced society are still a shadow of their former glories. This plot line is hardly unique in sci-fi, but these elements, along with the tense adventures, interesting characters and interactions and a real sense of time and distance make it stand out.
However, it's the alternating chapters that are really fascinating and unusual - because they are told from the point of view of generation after generation of the spiders who inhabited the terraformed planet, as they evolve to and beyond the intellectual and societal level of humans, while maintaining fundamentally arachnid approaches to thinking, communicating and living. These chapters really show a breath-taking degree of world-building and of thinking laterally about how societies, religions and norms develop and what intelligence and progress really mean.
Of course, the two plot lines ultimately converge, along with the third element of the utterly ancient scientist from the beginning, still living out her life orbiting the planet half god, half victim of an unimaginable horror. I won't go into spoiler territory here, but suffice to say the book is far too nuanced for this to play out quite the way you might think, and it's a surprisingly small plot of the plot,
Definitely worth a read if you're after sci fi with a genuine philosophical and scientific edge, or just something a bit different to read.
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See full series- Kindle Price:£16.97By clicking on the above button, you agree to Amazon's Kindle Store Terms of UseSold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
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There are 3 books in this series.
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By clicking on the above button, you agree to Amazon's Kindle Store Terms of UseSold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
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Filled the void left by completing Three-Body Problem
What an amazing book. It filled the void left by completing The ThreeBody Problem by Cixin Liu. I read 600 pages cover to cover in 5 days, just couldn't put it down. Brilliantly written, the story unfolds at a steady pace after gripping the reader from the opening chapter. Highly recommended 👌🏾 I have book two ready to start.
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- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 October 2017
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 February 2024
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BookloverReviewed in Germany on 16 March 2018
Überraschung - die Kinder der Zeit haben 8, nicht 2 Beine....
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RodolfoReviewed in Brazil on 21 May 2023
Satisfação total desde a compra até o recebimento!
Ainda não li o livro por causa de outras leituras que estou fazendo no momento.RodolfoSatisfação total desde a compra até o recebimento!
Reviewed in Brazil on 21 May 2023
No entanto, deixo registrada a minha satisfação quanto à entrega (do pedido cuja chegada levou 10 dias) e com o estado do produto, que veio muito bem embalado e sem partes amassadas.
Espero que minha leitura e estudos com a língua inglesa possam ser beneficiados com essa história envolvente e cheia de aventuras! Recomendo a todos que estão interessados!
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