Children of Time

Adrian Tchaikovsky is a prominent and prodigious author of science fiction and fantasy who has published more than 30 books, roughly half of which are science fiction. Children of Time is the first installment in his award-winning trilogy of the same name; the other novels are Children of Ruin and Children of Memory. When Children of Time won the Arthur C. Clark Award in 2016, “judges compared [it] to the eponymous author’s own work” (Flood, Alison. “Arthur C Clarke Award Goes to Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Novel of ‘Universal Scale.’” The Guardian, 24 Aug. 2016). Tchaikovsky is particularly praised for his depiction of the spiders on Green Planet, specifically his ability to make the spiders sympathetic without forcing them into an anthropomorphic lens. This ability likely comes from Tchaikovsky’s educational background and his personal love for spiders. He received degrees in zoology and psychology from the University of Leeds, choosing these fields because he wanted “to understand the behaviour—the minds—of the nonhuman” (Tabler, Beth. “Interview – Adrian Tchaikovsky.” Before We Go Blog, 7 Mar. 2021). His drive to understand the nonhuman mind led him to create sentient insect, arachnid, alien, and other nonhuman species in many of his novels.