Reviews tagging 'Cannibalism'

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

9 reviews

leemartin91's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This book rides into some pretty classic sci-fi philosophy with gleeful abandon. I think if it had gone wrong then it could have felt like too much of a grab-bag ("if I throw enough concepts at them it will be taken seriously"), but I think it works for Tchaikovsky - he uses them as things to drive the story forward and have characters interact, rather than hanging up and pontificating on them.

Would strongly recommend.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexism and Cannibalism

Minor: Body horror

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

adventurous tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

maybe just the mood I'm in but it never quite clicked for me :( the spiders were cool though

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Genocide, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Sexism, Terminal illness, Violence, Xenophobia, Cannibalism, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Ableism

Spiders, insects. Passing use of cr*pple/d, single use of the R slur.

toopunkrockforshul's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Really loved this book, such an interesting premise and it really explores the full depths of everything that it sets up. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Genocide, Violence, Medical content, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, War, and Injury/Injury detail

iono's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism and Cannibalism

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Murder, Abandonment, and Colonisation

Minor: Cursing, Genocide, and War

cirrusfloccus's review against another edition

adventurous challenging informative inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

"Ein SciFi-Buch über intelligente Spinnen" - so wurde mir Children of Time verkauft, so bin ich beim Lesen da drangegangen. Und es ist auch wirklich das - zu 50%. Genau 50% des Buches (jedes zweite Kapitel) ist über Spinnen, immer intelligenter werdende Spinnen, wie sie langsam eine Gesellschaft und Technologie entwickeln.
Die anderen 50% sind Menschen auf einem Raumschiff, die versuchen eine neue Erde zu finden. Am Anfang dachte ich noch, sie werden mit den Spinnen interagieren, aber das tun sie nur in zwei Kapiteln des gesamten Buches. (Auch die Kurzbeschreibung ist so geschrieben, dass man denkt, dass die Menschen und die Spinnen tatsächlich interagieren werden.)

Insgesamt hatte ich das Gefühl, das der Entstehungsprozess ungefähr so abgelaufen sein muss:
 Autor: Ich will ein Buch über intelligente Spinnen schreiben!
 Verlag: Okay, wenn du es SciFi machen kannst.
 Autor: Ich hab eine Idee entwickelt, wie die Grundlage, warum die Spinnen intelligent sind, SciFi ist.
 Verlag: Nein, wir brauchen mehr Raumschiffe! Und Krieg! Zwischen Menschen! Sonst ist es keine *echte* Science Fiction.
 Enttäuschend. 

Wenn man darüber hinwegsieht, ist das Buch echt gut. Obwohl die Entwicklung der Spinnen über Generationen hinweg erzählt wird, hat der Autor es geschafft, nachvollziehbare Charaktere zu schaffen.
 Bei den Menschen sind es eher durchgängig dieselben Charaktere - aber dennoch ausgearbeitet, mit Persönlichkeiten. Man nimmt wirklich an ihrem Leben Teil - bei den Spinnen liest es sich, trotz Mühen, eher wie ein Bericht. (Alles andere halte ich aber auch für unmöglich, wenn man ständig Jahre springt.) 

Trotzdem ist es irgendwie kein einzelnes Buch - es sind zwei, in eins gepresst und dann abwechselnd erzählt. Ich weiß nicht, ob die Zielgruppe für "will gleichzeitig ein Buch über intelligente Spinnen und über Menschen, die eine neue Erde suchen, lesen" existiert, aber ich bin sie jedenfalls nicht.
Sollte sich jemand, wie ich, für die Spinnen interessieren, würde ich das Buch immer noch empfehlen - ich würde nur dazu empfehlen, jedes zweite Kapitel zu überspringen. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism

Moderate: Cannibalism

Minor: Abortion and War

nodogsonthemoon's review

adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and War

cookiecat73's review

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Sexism, Xenophobia, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and War

Moderate: Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Kidnapping, Abortion, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Child death, Incest, Excrement, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

rachel1's review against another edition

adventurous challenging inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is what sci-fi should be about. Someone using their expertise to create the most in-depth worldbuilding. I didn't expect the author's zoology degree to be relevant, boy was I wrong. The human parts were good but it was the spider parts I was really invested in. I would tell my twin sister everything about how the spiders' society and biology are evolving. I didn't tell her much about the humans. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Cursing, Genocide, Gun violence, Sexism, Xenophobia, Cannibalism, and War

Minor: Animal death

The book contains a lot of giant spiders.

mzy42's review against another edition

inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Genocide

Minor: Confinement, Gun violence, Cannibalism, and Colonisation

Spiders