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[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/children_of_time.jpg]]

A 2015 science-fiction novel by Creator/AdrianTchaikovsky which combines a convincingly alien society with a compelling story about the last humans left after the desolation of Earth.

The story starts with a brief glimpse of the human race at its technological peak: a society with the power and reach to travel to other solar systems, terraform worlds, integrate technology with their own minds, and begin a project to create a new intelligent race by uplifting monkeys on one of their terraformed planets. Unfortunately, it doesn't last. And then the real story starts.

Thousands of years after the fall of the "Empire", as the historians call it, an ark ship from a dead Earth is desperately seeking a hospitable planet to serve as a new home for the tens of thousands of people it carries in suspended animation. Their technology is cobbled together from what they could scavenge from the Empire, their goal is to find one of the terraformed planets that historians think ''may'' have been left behind, and the stakes are very, very high: they have nothing to go back to and no idea if any of the other Ark ships have survived. The green, growing planet they are approaching seems like their very own Eden.

However, thanks to one desperate, determined scientist, and thousands of years of patient evolution, the new world is already home to a race of thinking creatures - with a powerful, xenophobic guardian. And no, they're not monkeys. They have more legs. Eight, to be precise...

The novel intersperses the evolutionary and cultural history of a race of giant spiders with the story of desperate human survivors trying to find a home. You might be surprised by which ones you end up rooting for.

''Literature/ChildrenOfRuin'' and ''Literature/ChildrenOfMemory'' are sequels released in 2019 and 2022, respectively. These books have no connection to the ''Literature/ShadowsOfTheApt'' series, except Adrian Tchaikovsky's love for (and extensive knowledge of) invertebrates.

----

!!''Children of Time'' contains examples of:

* AfterTheEnd: Human society collapsed into a small number of survivors on an ice-bound Earth for centuries after the fall of the Empire. Even then, they were able to bootstrap themselves into another spacefaring civilization. Then the ice started melting, and it turned out it was filled with all kinds of toxic waste and pathogens that soon led human society to collapse a second time. All that remains are a handful of generation ships built to FlingALightIntoTheFuture and try to restart humanity somewhere else.
* AndTheAdventureContinues: The novel ends [[spoiler: with the descendants of humans and spiders, setting off to explore a signal from another solar system.]]
* AGodAmI: Kern starts out a little too enamored about playing God with uplifted monkeys, but she becomes especially obsessed after a few centuries of isolation and equipment failure. [[spoiler: Guyen later trys to emulate her in a way, seeking to essentially become the living computer of the Gilgamesh towards the end of his life.]]
* AliensAreBastards: Inverted beautifully, with the help of the nanovirus.
* AlienKudzu: The terraforming target [[spoiler: Kern points the ''Gilgamesh'' to is completely covered by a layer of grey fungus from pole to pole. The crew are unsure if it was already there or a result of the aborted terraforming product, but they have no way to clear it regardless.]]
* AntWar: Early in their civilized history, the spiders were almost wiped out by the expansion of a continent-spanning supercolony of giant ants, described as the world’s first superpower despite not even being sentient. They’d dealt with ants in the past and even semi-domesticated smaller colonies, but the supercolony is so huge and so adaptable that none of their previous strategies work against it. They end up [[spoiler:developing a bio-weapon that allows them to essentially overwrite the ants programming and add them to existing colonies, effectively domesticating them as well]].
* [[ApeShallNotKillApe Arachnid Shall Not Kill Arachnid]]: The uplift-virus infecting the spiders enforces a version of this, allowing normally solitary ambush predators to form functioning societies. There are limitations, as for much of their history the smaller, less valued males are still at significant risk of being killed by females with few consequences. [[spoiler:This element of the virus is weaponized at the climax of the book when the spiders infect the human refugees with a modified version of the uplift-virus before letting them colonize the planet.]]
* BigCreepyCrawlies: Downplayed. The uplift virus increased the size of the invertebrates it affected, which means ants the size of fists and spiders the size of your head, but no larger. There are physical reasons why giant bugs don’t exist in real life, and even in a more oxygen rich environment the spiders are said to push the boundary, even with new features required to simply exist at the size they are.
* BioPunk: The spider's entire tech-base, largely based around specially bred ant colonies and organic chemical engineering.
* BlackWidow: Female spiders often instinctively cannibalize their mates, though the practice slowly transitions from acceptable to outlawed, with the final step thanks to the work of a Fabian.
* BrainUploading: Used by the Empire when decisions can't safely be left to the judgement of an [=AI=]. Also what happens to Kern who leaves an upload of herself to manage things (including waking her up) while she's in cryo-sleep. Eventually [[spoiler:the satellite she is in begins to fail, but spider technology has advanced enough by that point they they're able to copy her into an ant-computer]].
* ColonizedSolarSystem: What humanity at the height of its technology became, colonising the outer bodies of the solar system through artificial habitats.
* DecoyProtagonist: In a manner of speaking. Almost every spider story focuses primarily on a Portia with her exploits later being quasi-legend in later stories. While the seventh story begins in the same fashion with Portia as the main lead, the narrative and main focus shifts to [[spoiler: Fabian as the main character of this story with Portia as the ''villain.'' Consequently, at the beginning of the eighth story, the Portia of the seventh story is forgotten while the Fabian is remembered as the Great Liberator.]]
* DevouredByTheHorde: [[spoiler: Happens to several of the mutineers, at the hands of the ant colony they crash-landed next to.]] Also something the Spiders risk any time they're fighting the ants.
* GenerationShips: [[spoiler: What the Gilgamesh turns into, after centuries of use, forcing some of the colonists and their descendants to remain awake for its continual maintenance and upkeep.]]
* GeneticMemory: The spiders enjoy this, thanks to the nanovirus. Called Understandings, it consists of both experiences and practical knowledge that gets passed down genetically. They eventually become aware of it and learn to exploit it - first by mating with particular males so that their skills get passed down to the next generation, and then refining the process until they can just inject that knowledge straight into their brains, making every spider a near InstantExpert in whatever field is required (it does generally take a day or two for the memories to become properly usable).
* GenerationXerox: Averted for Portia despite generally sharing the same names. Portia 1 is NOT the same as Portia 8. They run the gamut from noble warrior, scientist to religious fanatic. The same goes for the Fabians but is usually played straight with the Biancas (except for the first Bianca who is different from the rest of them).
* GoodVersusGood: Both sides in the war between humans and spiders are fighting for their survival as a species, and while both are flawed neither deserves to go extinct... but the cold logic of the situation still means that only one can survive. [[spoiler: Or so it seems, until it turns out that the spiders have managed to TakeAThirdOption.]]
* HeroicSacrifice: A rather unique kind. One of the Fabians, when stuck in a high-altitude vessel with a near-comatose Portia and only oxygen enough for one of them, triggers her mating instincts - causing her to eat him, thus both giving her the strength to recover and saving enough oxygen for her to make it to the ground.
* HiveMind: A literal, and scientifically accurate, example with the ants, which are not controlled by a central intelligence, but operate as a single organism the way they do in real life.
* HomeworldEvacuation: The human race has been forced to do this as the ice age ends... and releases all the toxic waste left over from the apocalyptic war that triggered the climate change in the first place.
* HumansThroughAlienEyes: The spiders capture a live human and study her in detail. Due to their very limited hearing, they never consider the possibility of speech as a form of communication (plus, why would you use the same orifice to eat AND communicated?). After she shows the ability to learn and imitate their signaling form of communication, they conclude she is has a limited degree of intelligence, similar to the lesser spiders on their planet.
* ItCanThink: The partially-uplifted ants manage to invert this. Despite developing sophisticated behaviors such as glassmaking and metallurgy, they ''don’t'' think. Each individual ant is just a bundle of dumb reflexes, and the intelligence they display as a collective superorganism is pure computation, using trial and error to discover more efficient means of expanding the colony and then improving on those means without consciously understanding why or how they work. [[spoiler:When the spiders finally get the ants under control, they’re able to exploit this trait to create ant-based ''computers''.]]
* InsectoidAliens: Arthropods, technically. The reader understands their complex society and culture. To the arriving humans, they are giant, terrifying, venomous monsters.
* MeaningfulName: The spaceship is named after the mythological sumerian king ''Gilgamesh'', who goes on a quest to defeat death and become immortal. Much like him, the crew of the ''Gilgamesh'' is on a mission to prevent death – of the human species, that is.
* MenAreTheExpendableGender: Played very straight among the spiders. For the majority of their history males are at best second class citizens who exist for the pleasure and comfort of females. They are routinely eaten after sex, and a female consuming a male outside of sex is frowned upon, but not actively punished. The shifting attitudes towards males forms a significant sub-plot of the book.
* ParadisePlanet: Kern’s World, a planet with large, lush green forests. Even the oceans are noted to appear green, due to abundant phytoplankton in the surface waters.
* PrisonersDilemma: Discussed by the the crew of the Gilgamesh in regards to first contact with alien species (the Portiids, in this case). While the crew of the Gilgamesh sees cooperation as preferable, the failure case if they're betrayed is the extinction of the human race. Given the stakes, they see no option but to fight rather than approach peacefully. [[spoiler:Fortunately for them, the Portiids are able to TakeAThirdOption, allowing for effective cooperation between the species]].
* SanitySlippage: Kern gets increasingly crazy over the centuries, as both her physical body and the machines she's hooked up to decays. [[spoiler: She seems to snap out of a lot of it once she figures out what the spiders really are and decides to come clean with them.]]
* SchizoTech: Due to their [[BioPunk non-human approach to technology]], the spider civilization has a bizarre (to humans) mish-mash of technology. For example, they invented advanced chemical and genetic engineering before radio or even electricity, and Kern is ''baffled'' when she has to introduce them to the idea of ''wheels''.
* SlaveRace: The spiders manage to turn the ants into one after figuring out how to "program" colonies with any desired behavior by introducing the right chemicals to them.
* SleeperStarship: The ''Gilgamesh'' is carrying a cargo of tens of thousands of frozen people, in the hope of starting a colony somewhere.
* SoleSurvivingScientist: Avrana Kern is the last known survivor of the days of the Old Empire, thanks to a combination of HumanPopsicle and BrainUploading. However, she’s become obsessed with her uplift project, and when the ''Gilgamesh'' approaches seeking to settle on the only habitable world they’ve discovered, she doesn’t consider them human and threatens to destroy them if they try.
* SpaceElevator: A much simpler proposition for an advanced spider civilization, given that they have their own silk to work with.
* StarfishLanguage: The spiders communicate through a kind of semaphore movement of their palps combined with vibrations made through webs or on the ground. Sound only registers as an incredibly faint vibration in the air, so the idea that humans use it as a primary means of communication doesn't even occur to them.
* StealthPun: Near the end of the book, the spiders have created a [[spoiler:World Wide Web]]
* {{Terraform}}: What was performed on Kern’s World, and numerous other extrasolar worlds within range of Sol. It’s never stated to what extent this was practiced within Sol, however.
* TheUnpronounceable: The Portiids StarfishLanguage uses a system of knots on thread to "write" and a system of vibrations and visual signals to "talk", neither of which can be rendered properly in our written language. Instead the viewpoint female is always Portia, named after the genus of jumping spider that was uplifted by the nanovirus; the main supporting female in any generation is always Bianca; and the main supporting male is always Fabian. As the narrative progresses, Viola is used when another main female character appears.
* UpliftedAnimal: The plot begins with a project to fill the galaxy with life by terraforming worlds and populating them with monkeys infected with the [[AppliedPhlebotinum Rus-Califi nanovirus]], which is designed to slightly mutate the brains of each successive generation of monkeys until sapience emerges. The terraforming succeeds on Kern’s World, but the monkeys never arrive thanks to the sudden destruction of human civilization. The virus, already introduced to the planet, instead begins working on the local arthropods. The effects range from a number of very large and abnormally smart but non-sapient creatures up to the jumping spiders and mantis shrimp who form world spanning empires (above and below the water, respectively). The virus was engineered to not effect other mammals so as not to interfere with the monkeys, but the virus being so effective on invertebrates in their absence was totally unexpected, although based on Kern's comments it seems the virus was expected to work far faster on the monkeys than it did on the invertebrates.
* UsedFuture: Most of humanity's technology is based on scavenged equipment from the glory days of the Empire. [[spoiler: It gets even more pronounced during the end of the book when the ''Gilgamesh'' starts seriously breaking down.]]
* WhiteAndGreyMorality: There are no complete villains in the story; while some characters are more flawed than others, all of them are doing what they genuinely think is best.
* {{Xenofiction}}: A beautiful example of the genre done right.

to:

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/children_of_time.jpg]]

A 2015 science-fiction novel by Creator/AdrianTchaikovsky which combines a convincingly alien society with a compelling story about the last humans left after the desolation of Earth.

The story starts with a brief glimpse of the human race at its technological peak: a society with the power and reach to travel to other solar systems, terraform worlds, integrate technology with their own minds, and begin a project to create a new intelligent race by uplifting monkeys on one of their terraformed planets. Unfortunately, it doesn't last. And then the real story starts.

Thousands of years after the fall of the "Empire", as the historians call it, an ark ship from a dead Earth is desperately seeking a hospitable planet to serve as a new home for the tens of thousands of people it carries in suspended animation. Their technology is cobbled together from what they could scavenge from the Empire, their goal is to find one of the terraformed planets that historians think ''may'' have been left behind, and the stakes are very, very high: they have nothing to go back to and no idea if any of the other Ark ships have survived. The green, growing planet they are approaching seems like their very own Eden.

However, thanks to one desperate, determined scientist, and thousands of years of patient evolution, the new world is already home to a race of thinking creatures - with a powerful, xenophobic guardian. And no, they're not monkeys. They have more legs. Eight, to be precise...

The novel intersperses the evolutionary and cultural history of a race of giant spiders with the story of desperate human survivors trying to find a home. You might be surprised by which ones you end up rooting for.

''Literature/ChildrenOfRuin'' and ''Literature/ChildrenOfMemory'' are sequels released in 2019 and 2022, respectively. These books have no connection to the ''Literature/ShadowsOfTheApt'' series, except Adrian Tchaikovsky's love for (and extensive knowledge of) invertebrates.

----

!!''Children of Time'' contains examples of:

* AfterTheEnd: Human society collapsed into a small number of survivors on an ice-bound Earth for centuries after the fall of the Empire. Even then, they were able to bootstrap themselves into another spacefaring civilization. Then the ice started melting, and it turned out it was filled with all kinds of toxic waste and pathogens that soon led human society to collapse a second time. All that remains are a handful of generation ships built to FlingALightIntoTheFuture and try to restart humanity somewhere else.
* AndTheAdventureContinues: The novel ends [[spoiler: with the descendants of humans and spiders, setting off to explore a signal from another solar system.]]
* AGodAmI: Kern starts out a little too enamored about playing God with uplifted monkeys, but she becomes especially obsessed after a few centuries of isolation and equipment failure. [[spoiler: Guyen later trys to emulate her in a way, seeking to essentially become the living computer of the Gilgamesh towards the end of his life.]]
* AliensAreBastards: Inverted beautifully, with the help of the nanovirus.
* AlienKudzu: The terraforming target [[spoiler: Kern points the ''Gilgamesh'' to is completely covered by a layer of grey fungus from pole to pole. The crew are unsure if it was already there or a result of the aborted terraforming product, but they have no way to clear it regardless.]]
* AntWar: Early in their civilized history, the spiders were almost wiped out by the expansion of a continent-spanning supercolony of giant ants, described as the world’s first superpower despite not even being sentient. They’d dealt with ants in the past and even semi-domesticated smaller colonies, but the supercolony is so huge and so adaptable that none of their previous strategies work against it. They end up [[spoiler:developing a bio-weapon that allows them to essentially overwrite the ants programming and add them to existing colonies, effectively domesticating them as well]].
* [[ApeShallNotKillApe Arachnid Shall Not Kill Arachnid]]: The uplift-virus infecting the spiders enforces a version of this, allowing normally solitary ambush predators to form functioning societies. There are limitations, as for much of their history the smaller, less valued males are still at significant risk of being killed by females with few consequences. [[spoiler:This element of the virus is weaponized at the climax of the book when the spiders infect the human refugees with a modified version of the uplift-virus before letting them colonize the planet.]]
* BigCreepyCrawlies: Downplayed. The uplift virus increased the size of the invertebrates it affected, which means ants the size of fists and spiders the size of your head, but no larger. There are physical reasons why giant bugs don’t exist in real life, and even in a more oxygen rich environment the spiders are said to push the boundary, even with new features required to simply exist at the size they are.
* BioPunk: The spider's entire tech-base, largely based around specially bred ant colonies and organic chemical engineering.
* BlackWidow: Female spiders often instinctively cannibalize their mates, though the practice slowly transitions from acceptable to outlawed, with the final step thanks to the work of a Fabian.
* BrainUploading: Used by the Empire when decisions can't safely be left to the judgement of an [=AI=]. Also what happens to Kern who leaves an upload of herself to manage things (including waking her up) while she's in cryo-sleep. Eventually [[spoiler:the satellite she is in begins to fail, but spider technology has advanced enough by that point they they're able to copy her into an ant-computer]].
* ColonizedSolarSystem: What humanity at the height of its technology became, colonising the outer bodies of the solar system through artificial habitats.
* DecoyProtagonist: In a manner of speaking. Almost every spider story focuses primarily on a Portia with her exploits later being quasi-legend in later stories. While the seventh story begins in the same fashion with Portia as the main lead, the narrative and main focus shifts to [[spoiler: Fabian as the main character of this story with Portia as the ''villain.'' Consequently, at the beginning of the eighth story, the Portia of the seventh story is forgotten while the Fabian is remembered as the Great Liberator.]]
* DevouredByTheHorde: [[spoiler: Happens to several of the mutineers, at the hands of the ant colony they crash-landed next to.]] Also something the Spiders risk any time they're fighting the ants.
* GenerationShips: [[spoiler: What the Gilgamesh turns into, after centuries of use, forcing some of the colonists and their descendants to remain awake for its continual maintenance and upkeep.]]
* GeneticMemory: The spiders enjoy this, thanks to the nanovirus. Called Understandings, it consists of both experiences and practical knowledge that gets passed down genetically. They eventually become aware of it and learn to exploit it - first by mating with particular males so that their skills get passed down to the next generation, and then refining the process until they can just inject that knowledge straight into their brains, making every spider a near InstantExpert in whatever field is required (it does generally take a day or two for the memories to become properly usable).
* GenerationXerox: Averted for Portia despite generally sharing the same names. Portia 1 is NOT the same as Portia 8. They run the gamut from noble warrior, scientist to religious fanatic. The same goes for the Fabians but is usually played straight with the Biancas (except for the first Bianca who is different from the rest of them).
* GoodVersusGood: Both sides in the war between humans and spiders are fighting for their survival as a species, and while both are flawed neither deserves to go extinct... but the cold logic of the situation still means that only one can survive. [[spoiler: Or so it seems, until it turns out that the spiders have managed to TakeAThirdOption.]]
* HeroicSacrifice: A rather unique kind. One of the Fabians, when stuck in a high-altitude vessel with a near-comatose Portia and only oxygen enough for one of them, triggers her mating instincts - causing her to eat him, thus both giving her the strength to recover and saving enough oxygen for her to make it to the ground.
* HiveMind: A literal, and scientifically accurate, example with the ants, which are not controlled by a central intelligence, but operate as a single organism the way they do in real life.
* HomeworldEvacuation: The human race has been forced to do this as the ice age ends... and releases all the toxic waste left over from the apocalyptic war that triggered the climate change in the first place.
* HumansThroughAlienEyes: The spiders capture a live human and study her in detail. Due to their very limited hearing, they never consider the possibility of speech as a form of communication (plus, why would you use the same orifice to eat AND communicated?). After she shows the ability to learn and imitate their signaling form of communication, they conclude she is has a limited degree of intelligence, similar to the lesser spiders on their planet.
* ItCanThink: The partially-uplifted ants manage to invert this. Despite developing sophisticated behaviors such as glassmaking and metallurgy, they ''don’t'' think. Each individual ant is just a bundle of dumb reflexes, and the intelligence they display as a collective superorganism is pure computation, using trial and error to discover more efficient means of expanding the colony and then improving on those means without consciously understanding why or how they work. [[spoiler:When the spiders finally get the ants under control, they’re able to exploit this trait to create ant-based ''computers''.]]
* InsectoidAliens: Arthropods, technically. The reader understands their complex society and culture. To the arriving humans, they are giant, terrifying, venomous monsters.
* MeaningfulName: The spaceship is named after the mythological sumerian king ''Gilgamesh'', who goes on a quest to defeat death and become immortal. Much like him, the crew of the ''Gilgamesh'' is on a mission to prevent death – of the human species, that is.
* MenAreTheExpendableGender: Played very straight among the spiders. For the majority of their history males are at best second class citizens who exist for the pleasure and comfort of females. They are routinely eaten after sex, and a female consuming a male outside of sex is frowned upon, but not actively punished. The shifting attitudes towards males forms a significant sub-plot of the book.
* ParadisePlanet: Kern’s World, a planet with large, lush green forests. Even the oceans are noted to appear green, due to abundant phytoplankton in the surface waters.
* PrisonersDilemma: Discussed by the the crew of the Gilgamesh in regards to first contact with alien species (the Portiids, in this case). While the crew of the Gilgamesh sees cooperation as preferable, the failure case if they're betrayed is the extinction of the human race. Given the stakes, they see no option but to fight rather than approach peacefully. [[spoiler:Fortunately for them, the Portiids are able to TakeAThirdOption, allowing for effective cooperation between the species]].
* SanitySlippage: Kern gets increasingly crazy over the centuries, as both her physical body and the machines she's hooked up to decays. [[spoiler: She seems to snap out of a lot of it once she figures out what the spiders really are and decides to come clean with them.]]
* SchizoTech: Due to their [[BioPunk non-human approach to technology]], the spider civilization has a bizarre (to humans) mish-mash of technology. For example, they invented advanced chemical and genetic engineering before radio or even electricity, and Kern is ''baffled'' when she has to introduce them to the idea of ''wheels''.
* SlaveRace: The spiders manage to turn the ants into one after figuring out how to "program" colonies with any desired behavior by introducing the right chemicals to them.
* SleeperStarship: The ''Gilgamesh'' is carrying a cargo of tens of thousands of frozen people, in the hope of starting a colony somewhere.
* SoleSurvivingScientist: Avrana Kern is the last known survivor of the days of the Old Empire, thanks to a combination of HumanPopsicle and BrainUploading. However, she’s become obsessed with her uplift project, and when the ''Gilgamesh'' approaches seeking to settle on the only habitable world they’ve discovered, she doesn’t consider them human and threatens to destroy them if they try.
* SpaceElevator: A much simpler proposition for an advanced spider civilization, given that they have their own silk to work with.
* StarfishLanguage: The spiders communicate through a kind of semaphore movement of their palps combined with vibrations made through webs or on the ground. Sound only registers as an incredibly faint vibration in the air, so the idea that humans use it as a primary means of communication doesn't even occur to them.
* StealthPun: Near the end of the book, the spiders have created a [[spoiler:World Wide Web]]
* {{Terraform}}: What was performed on Kern’s World, and numerous other extrasolar worlds within range of Sol. It’s never stated to what extent this was practiced within Sol, however.
* TheUnpronounceable: The Portiids StarfishLanguage uses a system of knots on thread to "write" and a system of vibrations and visual signals to "talk", neither of which can be rendered properly in our written language. Instead the viewpoint female is always Portia, named after the genus of jumping spider that was uplifted by the nanovirus; the main supporting female in any generation is always Bianca; and the main supporting male is always Fabian. As the narrative progresses, Viola is used when another main female character appears.
* UpliftedAnimal: The plot begins with a project to fill the galaxy with life by terraforming worlds and populating them with monkeys infected with the [[AppliedPhlebotinum Rus-Califi nanovirus]], which is designed to slightly mutate the brains of each successive generation of monkeys until sapience emerges. The terraforming succeeds on Kern’s World, but the monkeys never arrive thanks to the sudden destruction of human civilization. The virus, already introduced to the planet, instead begins working on the local arthropods. The effects range from a number of very large and abnormally smart but non-sapient creatures up to the jumping spiders and mantis shrimp who form world spanning empires (above and below the water, respectively). The virus was engineered to not effect other mammals so as not to interfere with the monkeys, but the virus being so effective on invertebrates in their absence was totally unexpected, although based on Kern's comments it seems the virus was expected to work far faster on the monkeys than it did on the invertebrates.
* UsedFuture: Most of humanity's technology is based on scavenged equipment from the glory days of the Empire. [[spoiler: It gets even more pronounced during the end of the book when the ''Gilgamesh'' starts seriously breaking down.]]
* WhiteAndGreyMorality: There are no complete villains in the story; while some characters are more flawed than others, all of them are doing what they genuinely think is best.
* {{Xenofiction}}: A beautiful example of the genre done right.
[[redirect:Literature/ChildrenOfTime2015]]
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* StealthPun: Near the end of the book, the spiders have created a [[spoiler:World Wide Web]]

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* PrisonersDilemma: Discussed by the the crew of the Gilgamesh in regards to first contact with alien species (the Portiids, in this case). While the crew of the Gilgamesh sees cooperation as preferable, the failure case if they're betrayed is the extinction of the human race. Given the stakes, they see no option but to fight rather than approach peacefully. [[spoiler:Fortunately for them, the Portiids are able to TakeAThirdOption, allowing for effective cooperation between the species]].



* StarfishLanguage: The spiders communicate through a kind of semaphore movement of their palps combined with vibrations made through webs or on the ground. Sound only registers as an incredibly faint vibration in the air, so the idea that humans are capable of true communication is ridiculous to them.

to:

* StarfishLanguage: The spiders communicate through a kind of semaphore movement of their palps combined with vibrations made through webs or on the ground. Sound only registers as an incredibly faint vibration in the air, so the idea that humans are capable use it as a primary means of true communication is ridiculous doesn't even occur to them.



* TheUnpronounceable: Due to their StarfishLanguage there is no way for us to know the spiders' real names, so Tchaikovsky uses human names instead. The viewpoint female is always Portia, named after the genus of jumping spider that was uplifted by the nanovirus; the main supporting female in any generation is always Bianca; and the main supporting male is always Fabian. As the narrative progresses, Viola is a another main supporting female is added.
* UpliftedAnimal: The plot begins with a project to fill the galaxy with life by terraforming worlds and populating them with monkeys infected with the [[AppliedPhlebotinum Rus-Califi nanovirus]], which is designed to slightly mutate the brains of each successive generation of monkeys until sapience emerges. The terraforming succeeds on Kern’s World, but the monkeys never arrive thanks to the sudden destruction of human civilization. The virus, already introduced to the planet, instead begins working on the local arthropods. The effects range from a number of very large and abnormally smart but non-sapient creatures up to the jumping spiders and mantis shrimp who form world spanning empires (above and below the water, respectively). The virus was engineered to not effect other mammals so as not to interfere with the monkeys, however in the absence of said monkeys, the virus was able to unexpectedly uplift the invertebrates instead, although based on Kern's comments it seems to have taken a fair bit longer than what was expected for the monkeys.

to:

* TheUnpronounceable: Due to their The Portiids StarfishLanguage there is no way for us to know the spiders' real names, so Tchaikovsky uses human names instead. The a system of knots on thread to "write" and a system of vibrations and visual signals to "talk", neither of which can be rendered properly in our written language. Instead the viewpoint female is always Portia, named after the genus of jumping spider that was uplifted by the nanovirus; the main supporting female in any generation is always Bianca; and the main supporting male is always Fabian. As the narrative progresses, Viola is a used when another main supporting female is added.character appears.
* UpliftedAnimal: The plot begins with a project to fill the galaxy with life by terraforming worlds and populating them with monkeys infected with the [[AppliedPhlebotinum Rus-Califi nanovirus]], which is designed to slightly mutate the brains of each successive generation of monkeys until sapience emerges. The terraforming succeeds on Kern’s World, but the monkeys never arrive thanks to the sudden destruction of human civilization. The virus, already introduced to the planet, instead begins working on the local arthropods. The effects range from a number of very large and abnormally smart but non-sapient creatures up to the jumping spiders and mantis shrimp who form world spanning empires (above and below the water, respectively). The virus was engineered to not effect other mammals so as not to interfere with the monkeys, however in the absence of said monkeys, but the virus was able to unexpectedly uplift the being so effective on invertebrates instead, in their absence was totally unexpected, although based on Kern's comments it seems to have taken a fair bit longer than what the virus was expected for to work far faster on the monkeys.monkeys than it did on the invertebrates.
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* BrainUploading: Used by the Empire when decisions can't safely be left to the judgement of an [=AI=]. Also what happens to Kern who leaves an upload of herself to manage things (including waking her up) while she's in cryo-sleep.

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* BrainUploading: Used by the Empire when decisions can't safely be left to the judgement of an [=AI=]. Also what happens to Kern who leaves an upload of herself to manage things (including waking her up) while she's in cryo-sleep. Eventually [[spoiler:the satellite she is in begins to fail, but spider technology has advanced enough by that point they they're able to copy her into an ant-computer]].



* UpliftedAnimal: The plot begins with a project to fill the galaxy with life by terraforming worlds and populating them with monkeys infected with the [[AppliedPhlebotinum Rus-Califi nanovirus]], which is designed to slightly mutate the brains of each successive generation of monkeys until sapience emerges. The terraforming succeeds on Kern’s World, but the monkeys never arrive thanks to the sudden destruction of human civilization. The virus, already introduced to the planet, instead begins working on the local arthropods, eventually causing a thriving civilization of jumping spiders to emerge, who share the world with an underwater civilization of mantis shrimp and a menagerie of other bugs made very large and abnormally smart, though not entirely sapient. (The other mammals on the planet were engineered to be immune to the virus so as not to interfere with the monkeys — its makers just didn’t anticipate it would be so successful in invertebrates.)

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* UpliftedAnimal: The plot begins with a project to fill the galaxy with life by terraforming worlds and populating them with monkeys infected with the [[AppliedPhlebotinum Rus-Califi nanovirus]], which is designed to slightly mutate the brains of each successive generation of monkeys until sapience emerges. The terraforming succeeds on Kern’s World, but the monkeys never arrive thanks to the sudden destruction of human civilization. The virus, already introduced to the planet, instead begins working on the local arthropods, eventually causing arthropods. The effects range from a thriving civilization number of jumping spiders to emerge, who share the world with an underwater civilization of mantis shrimp and a menagerie of other bugs made very large and abnormally smart, though smart but non-sapient creatures up to the jumping spiders and mantis shrimp who form world spanning empires (above and below the water, respectively). The virus was engineered to not entirely sapient. (The effect other mammals on the planet were engineered to be immune to the virus so as not to interfere with the monkeys — its makers just didn’t anticipate monkeys, however in the absence of said monkeys, the virus was able to unexpectedly uplift the invertebrates instead, although based on Kern's comments it would be so successful in invertebrates.)seems to have taken a fair bit longer than what was expected for the monkeys.
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* AlienKudzu: The terraforming target [[spoiler: Kern points the ''Gilgamesh'' to is completely covered by a layer of grey fungus from pole to pole. They're unsure if it was already there, a result]]

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* AlienKudzu: The terraforming target [[spoiler: Kern points the ''Gilgamesh'' to is completely covered by a layer of grey fungus from pole to pole. They're The crew are unsure if it was already there, there or a result]]result of the aborted terraforming product, but they have no way to clear it regardless.]]
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* AGodAmI: Kern starts out a little too enamored about playing God with uplifted monkeys, but she becomes especially obsessed after a few centuries of isolation and equipment failure. [[spoiler: Also Guyen, towards the end of his life.]]

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* AGodAmI: Kern starts out a little too enamored about playing God with uplifted monkeys, but she becomes especially obsessed after a few centuries of isolation and equipment failure. [[spoiler: Also Guyen, Guyen later trys to emulate her in a way, seeking to essentially become the living computer of the Gilgamesh towards the end of his life.]]



* AlienKudzu: The terraforming target [[spoiler: Kern points the ''Gilgamesh'' to is completely covered by a uniform layer of grey fungus from pole to pole.]]
* AntWar: Early in their civilized history, the spiders were almost wiped out by the expansion of a continent-spanning supercolony of giant ants, described as the world’s first superpower despite not even being sentient. They’d dealt with ants in the past and even semi-domesticated smaller colonies, but the supercolony is so huge and so adaptable that none of their previous strategies work against it.
* [[ApeShallNotKillApe Arachnid Shall Not Kill Arachnid]]: The uplift-virus infecting the spiders enforces a version of this, allowing normally solitary ambush predators to form functioning societies. [[spoiler: It is weaponized at the climax of the book when the spiders infect the human refugees with a modified version of the uplift-virus before letting them colonize the planet.]]
* BigCreepyCrawlies: Downplayed. The uplift virus increased the size of the invertebrates it affected, which means ants the size of fists and spiders the size of your head, but no larger. There are physical reasons why giant bugs don’t exist in real life, and the spiders are said to push the boundary, having evolved new features simply to exist at the size they are.
* BioPunk: The spider's entire tech-base, largely based around specially bred ant colonies.
* BlackWidow: Female spiders often instinctively cannibalize their mates, though thanks to a Fabian they eventually outlaw the practice.
* BrainUploading: Used by the Empire when decisions can't safely be left to the judgement of an [=AI=]

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* AlienKudzu: The terraforming target [[spoiler: Kern points the ''Gilgamesh'' to is completely covered by a uniform layer of grey fungus from pole to pole.]]
pole. They're unsure if it was already there, a result]]
* AntWar: Early in their civilized history, the spiders were almost wiped out by the expansion of a continent-spanning supercolony of giant ants, described as the world’s first superpower despite not even being sentient. They’d dealt with ants in the past and even semi-domesticated smaller colonies, but the supercolony is so huge and so adaptable that none of their previous strategies work against it.
it. They end up [[spoiler:developing a bio-weapon that allows them to essentially overwrite the ants programming and add them to existing colonies, effectively domesticating them as well]].
* [[ApeShallNotKillApe Arachnid Shall Not Kill Arachnid]]: The uplift-virus infecting the spiders enforces a version of this, allowing normally solitary ambush predators to form functioning societies. [[spoiler: It There are limitations, as for much of their history the smaller, less valued males are still at significant risk of being killed by females with few consequences. [[spoiler:This element of the virus is weaponized at the climax of the book when the spiders infect the human refugees with a modified version of the uplift-virus before letting them colonize the planet.]]
* BigCreepyCrawlies: Downplayed. The uplift virus increased the size of the invertebrates it affected, which means ants the size of fists and spiders the size of your head, but no larger. There are physical reasons why giant bugs don’t exist in real life, and even in a more oxygen rich environment the spiders are said to push the boundary, having evolved even with new features required to simply to exist at the size they are.
* BioPunk: The spider's entire tech-base, largely based around specially bred ant colonies.
colonies and organic chemical engineering.
* BlackWidow: Female spiders often instinctively cannibalize their mates, though the practice slowly transitions from acceptable to outlawed, with the final step thanks to a Fabian they eventually outlaw the practice.
work of a Fabian.
* BrainUploading: Used by the Empire when decisions can't safely be left to the judgement of an [=AI=][=AI=]. Also what happens to Kern who leaves an upload of herself to manage things (including waking her up) while she's in cryo-sleep.



* DevouredByTheHorde: [[spoiler: Happens to several of the mutineers, at the hands of the ant colony they crash-landed next to.]]

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* DevouredByTheHorde: [[spoiler: Happens to several of the mutineers, at the hands of the ant colony they crash-landed next to.]]]] Also something the Spiders risk any time they're fighting the ants.



* GeneticMemory: The spiders enjoy this, thanks to the nanovirus. Called Understandings, it consists of both experiences and practical knowledge that gets passed down genetically. They eventually become aware of it and learn to exploit it - first by mating with particular males so that their skills get passed down to the next generation, and then refining the process until they can just inject that knowledge straight into their brains, making every spider an InstantExpert in whatever field is required.

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* GeneticMemory: The spiders enjoy this, thanks to the nanovirus. Called Understandings, it consists of both experiences and practical knowledge that gets passed down genetically. They eventually become aware of it and learn to exploit it - first by mating with particular males so that their skills get passed down to the next generation, and then refining the process until they can just inject that knowledge straight into their brains, making every spider an a near InstantExpert in whatever field is required.required (it does generally take a day or two for the memories to become properly usable).



* HumansThroughAlienEyes: The spiders who capture a live human study her in detail, but never realize that she is sentient, as communication by sound is utterly absent from their society.

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* HumansThroughAlienEyes: The spiders who capture a live human and study her in detail, but detail. Due to their very limited hearing, they never realize that she is sentient, consider the possibility of speech as a form of communication by sound is utterly absent from (plus, why would you use the same orifice to eat AND communicated?). After she shows the ability to learn and imitate their society.signaling form of communication, they conclude she is has a limited degree of intelligence, similar to the lesser spiders on their planet.
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* BlackWidow: Female spiders often instinctively cannibalize their mates, though thanks to a Fabian they eventually outlaw the practice.
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''Children of Ruin'' and ''Children of Memory'' are sequels released in 2019 and 2022, respectively. These books have no connection to the ''Literature/ShadowsOfTheApt'' series, except Adrian Tchaikovsky's love for (and extensive knowledge of) invertebrates.

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''Children of Ruin'' ''Literature/ChildrenOfRuin'' and ''Children of Memory'' ''Literature/ChildrenOfMemory'' are sequels released in 2019 and 2022, respectively. These books have no connection to the ''Literature/ShadowsOfTheApt'' series, except Adrian Tchaikovsky's love for (and extensive knowledge of) invertebrates.
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* Terraform: What was performed on Kern’s World, and numerous other extrasolar worlds within range of Sol. It’s never stated to what extent this was practiced within Sol, however.

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* Terraform: {{Terraform}}: What was performed on Kern’s World, and numerous other extrasolar worlds within range of Sol. It’s never stated to what extent this was practiced within Sol, however.
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* ParadisePlanet: Kern’s World, a planet with large, lush green forests. Even the oceans are noted to appear green, due to abundant phytoplankton in the surface waters.


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* Terraform: What was performed on Kern’s World, and numerous other extrasolar worlds within range of Sol. It’s never stated to what extent this was practiced within Sol, however.
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* ColonizedSolarSystem: What humanity at the height of its technology became, colonising the outer bodies of the solar system through artificial habitats.
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* DevouredByTheHorde: [[spoiler: Happens to several of the mutineers, at the hands of the ant colony they crash-landed next to.]]
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GenerationShips: [[spoiler: What the Gilgamesh turns into, after centuries of use, forcing some of the colonists and their descendants to remain awake for its continual maintenance and upkeep.]]

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* GenerationShips: [[spoiler: What the Gilgamesh turns into, after centuries of use, forcing some of the colonists and their descendants to remain awake for its continual maintenance and upkeep.]]

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Changed: 61

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''Children of Ruin'' is a sequel that was released in 2019. These books have no connection to the ''Literature/ShadowsOfTheApt'' series, except Adrian Tchaikovsky's love for (and extensive knowledge of) invertebrates.

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''Children of Ruin'' is a sequel that was and ''Children of Memory'' are sequels released in 2019.2019 and 2022, respectively. These books have no connection to the ''Literature/ShadowsOfTheApt'' series, except Adrian Tchaikovsky's love for (and extensive knowledge of) invertebrates.



* AndTheAdventureContinues: the novel ends [[spoiler: with the descendants of humans and spiders, setting off to explore a signal from another solar system.]]

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* AndTheAdventureContinues: the The novel ends [[spoiler: with the descendants of humans and spiders, setting off to explore a signal from another solar system.]]


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GenerationShips: [[spoiler: What the Gilgamesh turns into, after centuries of use, forcing some of the colonists and their descendants to remain awake for its continual maintenance and upkeep.]]
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* AndTheAdventureContinues: the novel ends [[spoiler: with the descendants of humans and spiders, setting off to explore a signal from another solar system.]]
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* BigCreepyCrawlies: Downplayed. The uplift virus increased the size of the invertebrates it affected, which means ants the size of fists and spiders the size of your head, but no larger. There are physical reasons why giant bugs don’t exist in real life, and the spiders are said to push the boundary, and had to evolve new features simply to exist at the size they are.

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* BigCreepyCrawlies: Downplayed. The uplift virus increased the size of the invertebrates it affected, which means ants the size of fists and spiders the size of your head, but no larger. There are physical reasons why giant bugs don’t exist in real life, and the spiders are said to push the boundary, and had to evolve having evolved new features simply to exist at the size they are.
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* AntWar: Early in their civilized history, the spiders were almost wiped out by the expansion of a continent-spanning supercolony of giant ants, described as the world’s first superpower despite not even being sentient. They’d dealt with ants in the past and even semi-domesticated smaller colonies, but the supercolony is so huge and so adaptable that none of their previous strategies work against it.


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* BigCreepyCrawlies: Downplayed. The uplift virus increased the size of the invertebrates it affected, which means ants the size of fists and spiders the size of your head, but no larger. There are physical reasons why giant bugs don’t exist in real life, and the spiders are said to push the boundary, and had to evolve new features simply to exist at the size they are.
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* MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness: Hard to very hard, particularly around the details of space flight and the sheer amount of time it takes.
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* SoleSurvivingScientist: Avrana Kern is the last known survivor of the days of the Old Empire, thanks to a combination of HumanPopsicle and BrainUploading. However, she’s become obsessed with her uplift project, and when the ''Gilgamesh'' approaches seeking to settle on the only habitable world they’ve discovered, she doesn’t consider them human and threatens to destroy them if they try.
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* AfterTheEnd: Human society collapsed into a small number of survivors on an ice-bound Earth for centuries after the fall of the Empire. Even then, they were able to bootstrap themselves into another spacefaring civilization. Then the ice started melting, and it turned out it was filled with all kinds of toxic waste and pathogens that soon led human society to collapse a second time.

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* AfterTheEnd: Human society collapsed into a small number of survivors on an ice-bound Earth for centuries after the fall of the Empire. Even then, they were able to bootstrap themselves into another spacefaring civilization. Then the ice started melting, and it turned out it was filled with all kinds of toxic waste and pathogens that soon led human society to collapse a second time. All that remains are a handful of generation ships built to FlingALightIntoTheFuture and try to restart humanity somewhere else.

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