Children of Time
Adrian Tchaikovsky · 2015
Spiders evolve intelligence on a terraformed world. Tchaikovsky's 2015 novel performs the unlikely feat of making arachnophobes root for Portia and her descendants across generations of accelerated evolution. Won the Arthur C. Clarke Award.
The case against
Spiders carry the book; humans nearly sink it. Half the pages are spent aboard the ark ship Gilgamesh with Holsten Mason and a squabbling crew you will struggle to tell apart. The generational reset (each era's heroine is another Portia) keeps you at arm's length from any single character, and the prose is serviceable rather than beautiful.
Science Fiction & Fantasy · the Pro canon
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