A new entry in the wildly successful Children of Time series from award-winning master of science fiction Adrian Tchaikovsky.
In this epic adventure, we visit a far-future after Earth fell, where ark ships had hunted for a new home. They sought lost worlds terraformed in earth’s forgotten past. We follow a ship crewed by maverick humans, spiders and a spectacularly punchy mantis shrimp captain as they rediscover one such world, and an ark.
Then human crewmate Alis wakes to discover that she, her captain and the ship’s intelligence are the only ones left on their ship. But what happened to those who left to explore the ark . . . and the world below?
Children of Strife is the extraordinary next volume set in the Children of Time universe, featuring epic adventure, first contact and the nature of intelligence among the stars.
The series
In a distant corner of the universe, a dying planet becomes the crucible for humanity’s greatest experiment—one that will determine whether a new civilization can rise from the ashes of a fallen empire. Children of Time is a science fiction epic that stretches across millennia, exploring the complexities of evolution, intelligence, and survival in a universe where nothing is ever as it seems.
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At the heart of this tale is a planet where a failed terraforming project has resulted in the unexpected rise of an intelligent species—giant, hyper-evolved spiders. As these arachnid civilizations struggle to survive and thrive, humanity’s own story unfolds in parallel, as it faces extinction and a desperate mission to colonize the stars. What begins as a simple quest for survival soon spirals into a high-stakes battle for the very future of both species, where questions of identity, ethics, and what it means to be "civilized" take center stage.
With a narrative that blends hard science fiction with deeply philosophical questions, Children of Time takes readers to the edges of what humanity is capable of—both in triumph and in tragic failure. Tchaikovsky's world-building is masterful, offering a richly detailed landscape where social structures, evolutionary biology, and the intricacies of alien intelligence come to life. The result is a series that challenges the reader to reconsider the nature of intelligence, the costs of progress, and the possibilities for interspecies cooperation—or conflict.
As the series unfolds, the boundaries between the "human" and the "alien" blur in fascinating ways, pushing the characters—and readers—into moral dilemmas that are as thought-provoking as they are thrilling. What happens when humanity’s legacy collides with the unknown? Can we learn from the mistakes of the past, or are we doomed to repeat them on a cosmic scale?
For those captivated by the intersection of biology, philosophy, and space exploration, Children of Time offers a unique blend of intellectual depth and pulse-pounding action, leaving readers eagerly awaiting the next chapter in this mesmerizing saga.
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