# Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

62 Hacker News commenters recommended Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky and 3 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Recommended for its alien intelligences, especially its spider characters and sci-fi ideas. Some find the writing shallow or unengaging.

## Why people recommend it

- Convincing alien and non-human minds (6 comments): "I absolutely love the "humans meet weird alien intelligences" genre of sci-fi (e.g. Children of Time)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49747845)) "That series or Fire Upon the Deep are really good for conceptualizing truly alien intelligence" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49427905)) "When I first read that it was fascinating because it seemed so alien" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46051130))
- Excellent, memorable science fiction (7 comments): "Books definitely have natural writing, read more fiction! I recommend Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47323791)) "Children of Time is a incredible book. It's the first Sci-Fi book that I read and I enjoyed it thoroughly" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47563844)) "Children of Time is a remarkable book, one of the best science fiction stories in a very long time." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46672042))
- Spider and animal evolution storyline (4 comments): "he does an excellent job of extrapolating from the actual quirks of each animal into a culture" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50117998)) "Great sci-fi series about spiders, crows, and squid evolving and traveling into space." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50117738)) "Children of Time is fantastic! I ended up totally rooting for the spiders in the end." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48748952))
- Thought-provoking ideas on intelligence and morality (4 comments): "recommended, if just for the amount of metaphors on consciousness it gives you" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47995656)) "Read Children of Time for a great exploration of this theme." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49984610)) "Good sci-fi based book exploring morality + intelligence" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47672797))

## What people warn about

- Shallow, unengaging writing (2 comments): "found him to be completely unengaging as a writer" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47317424)) "very shallow and mainstream writing" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46940724))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir](https://hackerapproved.com/p/project-hail-mary.md): 117 recommend
- [There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm](https://hackerapproved.com/p/there-is-no-antimemetics-division.md): 98 recommend
- [Blindsight by Peter Watts](https://hackerapproved.com/p/blindsight.md): 96 recommend
- [Dune by Frank Herbert](https://hackerapproved.com/p/dune.md): 82 recommend
- [Accelerando by Charles Stross](https://hackerapproved.com/p/accelerando.md): 71 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0316452505?tag=YOURTAG-20) (affiliate link)
- [Bookshop.org](https://bookshop.org/a/YOURID/9780316452502) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky", https://hackerapproved.com/p/children-of-time/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).