Children of Time by Adirian Tchaikosky

I read this book to get my brother to stop talking about alien *insert creepy animal here (I don't want to spoil it)*. Every time I'd see him, he would ask if I read Children of Time and then proceed to explain the premise as if he hadn't explained it to me the last time I saw him. After maybe the fourth or fifth time I decided to read the book to shut him up.

Look, I'm not a big sci-fi reader, but this one did actually sound interesting to me. It's about how Earth begins terraforming planets to prepare them as possible future homesteads for humans. Part of this plan involved developing a nanovirus to speed evolution in a selected species, allowing it to quickly evolve on one of these planets. This was a hail Mary in case the human species didn't survive.

Most of the book occurs thousands of years after these efforts, when humans only have faint memories of the "old empire" that carried out the terraforming and nanovirus projects. A spaceship of hundreds of cryogenically sleeping people has set out to find one of these planets and inhabit it, as Earth is increasingly becoming uninhabitable. After finding a potential planet, they are stopped from landing by what seems to be a keeper of the planet. It's unclear if they are communicating with a human, AI, or a combination of the two. But what is clear, is the entity will do everything in its power to protect the planet and its children.

A great aspect of this book is that we get the perspective of the inhabitants on the spaceship but also the inhabitants of the terraformed planet. While I was less interested in their day to day life and politics (which was still interesting), I was fascinated by their idea of religion, which involved the mysterious keeper of their race. The premise provided a great way to explore the idea of a species origins and the development of religion. While it seems plausible to understand how this civilization came to its beliefs, it really makes you wonder about your own.

This is the first of three books in the Children of Time series, which was awarded the Hugo award for best series in 2023. I liked this one so much, I'll pick up the next, Children of Ruin, which is about a different terraformed planet. I haven't heard anything more about the plot, which probably means my brother hasn't read it yet. I'll have to read it first and tell him all about it!