I received a free digital copy from the author/publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest feedback.

Children of Time tells the story of an epic space adventure that turns into a journey that takes thousands and thousands of years. A terraformed planet's neuro-virus unexpectedly creates a super-smart spider species that evolve over generations to becomes scientists, alchemists and space explorers. Up in the sky, a ship full of hundreds of thousands of humans is travelling from a destroyed Earth looking for a new home for the human species. When the Gilgamesh finds this earth-like planet, they are stopped by a human-like satellite guarding the planet. And the journey starts from there.

I'm not sure how to describe this book except it's something I've never read anything like before. I thought I was getting a deep space adventure, I ended up getting a history of giant, genius spiders that at first creeped me out, but then I ended up loving. I actually liked the spider bits more than the chapters on the Gilgamesh. Particularly with the adventures on the ship, I kind of felt like things were going around in circles and story just kept repeating itself. The timeline was pretty hard to follow and i never knew if Key Crew had been in suspension for a few years, a hundred years or a thousand years. With the spider, because of how they talked about Understandings, it was easier to know how much time had passed. I became fascinated with them and how they worked.

Considering how slowly paced the book was, the ending did feel almost rushed, particularly with the whole solution thing. I felt like that happened and then it was over. And a small epilogue that we didn't really need. I don't think I'd read this book again though from other reviews from people who really love science fiction, they thought it was fantastic. I don't think I have the SF mind for this kind of really in-depth science fiction novel. But I'm looking forward to reading more books in this genre and developing my sense and love for them.