Children of Time

This book is massively impressive, and one of those instances where my rating is more for personal enjoyment than objective merit.

The way he chronicled (and, you know, INVENTED!) the evolution of the spider species is pretty mind-blowing, but I've realized how much my ultimate enjoyment of scifi is connected to how deeply I'm invested in individual characters, and the generation-to-generation approach that was necessary for this evolution story means I didn't have a particular character to root for until the final Fabian showed up in the back half of the book.

The humans are hard to get attached to for different reasons, although again I found the progression of the story fascinating, but even if you do get attached, their story is a little depressing.

I though the end was brilliant, and I didn't struggle with pacing or momentum, but alternating between humans and spiders, chapter to chapter, with little time spent with anyone I felt invested in did detract from my overall enjoyment. And as cool as the ideas are, I am ultimately reading for escape/enjoyment these days.

Still highly recommended for anyone who enjoys idea-driven scifi. I'm definitely going to try some other books by this author even though I don't plan to continue with this particular series.