Scholarly Research Journal for Interdisciplinary Studies, Online ISSN 2278-8808, SJIF 2021 = 7.380, www.srjis.com PEER REVIEWED & REFEREED JOURNAL, SEPT-OCT, 2022, VOL- 10/73
CHILDREN OF TIME: A POST-APOCALYPTIC STUDY IN WORLDBUILDING AND EVOLUTION OF A NON-HUMAN SPECIES Shubham Pandey Assistant Professor, Department of English, Lakshmibai College, University of Delhi
Paper Received On: 25 OCTOBER 2022 Peer Reviewed On: 31 OCTOBER 2022 Published On: 01 NOVEMBER 2022
Abstract Children of time is a story that undertakes a herculean endeavor: a fascinating attempt at worldbuilding, creating a snapshot as it were of the evolution of a particular species from simple biological creatures to wise and sentient beings. Aside from being a cogent account of a new world order in which intelligent spiders are at the top of the food chain and humans are the belligerent outsiders and colonizers seeking to seize control from the intelligent arthropods, Adrian Tchaikovsky’s novel also highlights the pertinent issue of ecological damage caused by anthropogenic activities which is rapidly taking the planet toward a cataclysmic event, the Sixth Extinction. Keywords: Post apocalypse, Worldbuilding, terraforming, God Complex, dystopia, Anthropocene, Xenophobia, Grotesque Scholarly Research Journal's is licensed Based on a work at www.srjis.com
As the story begins, the readers are introduced to a world where humans have made rapid progress in the field of science and technology. So much so, that they have become a space- faring species, finding new habitable worlds to colonize. But the quest for new worlds isn’t just a matter of choice. It is essential to the survival of the human race, because in their quest for new worlds to colonize, they have destroyed the only home that they have ever known. Earth’s atmosphere has become hostile to life. But the humans have no qualms about the devastation that they leave in their wake as they take the remaining members of their race, pack themselves in spaceships and venture out into the unknown in search of greener pastures, literally. As the humans wander about in space in their little spaceships, one can’t help but feel that the colonizer himself has been relegated to little colonies, at the vagaries of the unknown. This is a price they pay for their insatiable hunger for unsustainable progress at the cost of all. Copyright © 2022, Scholarly Research Journal for Interdisciplinary Studies