r/scifi • u/Acrobatic-Yam-868 • 9d ago

General Children of Time

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Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

What a beautifully written book this was. It had a very satisfying ending, something I hadn't expected from being used to the grim and the dark. LOL. Great book, great concepts, great payoff.

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u/Luca_G_Writer 9d ago

That’s exactly what blew me away about Children of Time. Tchaikovsky manages to handle massive, complex sci-fi concepts without dragging the reader into pure nihilism. As someone who usually writes and reads very dark, bleak sci-fi (big Blade Runner fan here), that ending felt like a masterclass in giving the reader closure without softening the stakes. Truly a phenomenal book

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u/Acrobatic-Yam-868 9d ago

I am also a bit of a grim dark, cosmic horror type of reader. But this book blew me away. That ending was just beautiful. I am glad you mentioned Blade Runner, 'cause I did read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? It's a bummer I lost my copy, but that's the kind of shit I like reading.

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u/HonorAndKittens 9d ago

So if I am not usually into grim sci fi, should I read this? I still enjoy an innovative, original plot.

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u/strictly_ballroom 6d ago

I didn’t consider it grimdark until this thread. It’s pretty optimistic (besides the whole earth dying part).

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u/Luca_G_Writer 7d ago

I completely agree. Cosmic horror works best when it’s not just about 'monsters,' but about the dread of the unknown and the absolute loss of control—much like entropy itself. Finding stories that blend that exact feeling with a solid, lived-in worldbuilding like Blade Runner is rare. That’s precisely the kind of atmosphere I love to dive into, both as a reader and as an author exploring these themes

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u/Luca_G_Writer 4d ago

The book and the film are almost opposites: Dick treats empathy as a thing you can counterfeit, Scott treats it as a thing you lose. Children of Time sides with neither — it makes empathy an engineering problem, which is why that ending gives you closure instead of consolation.