Trans Megathread for the Week of 2025-01-06 to 2025-01-12 - Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Children of Time is a 2015 science fiction novel by Adrian Tchaikovsky.
In the distant future, humanity seeks to create new habitats for itself on distant planets, terraforming them and seeding them with life. Dr. Avrana Kern is heading one such project, orbiting the tentatively named "Kern's World", where the plan is to release monkeys infected with a nanovirus that will accelerate their evolution. Through an act of sabotage from an anti-technology group that has also destroyed much of Earth, the monkeys are never released, and the virus instead infects a species of spider, Portia labiata. The book follows the evolution of the spiders and their eventual civilisation, as well as a remnant of humanity that fled to Kern's World hoping to find paradise.
also children of ruin and children of memory, the sequels, are really good
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My parents and immediate family keep asking me "when are you bringing home a girlfriend?" every time I visit and I have no idea how to tell them that sooner or latter the "girlfriend" that will come home might just be me.
Feudal societies placed great emphasis on family lines and inheritance (moreso than capitalist ones at least). Culturally speaking, this is kind of a leftover from that time, the same way people often admire or idolise various kings (even if they tell you that they oppose monarchy).
In my case, this feudal system of mariage existed literally just 1 generation ago (my parents were the first in my whole family to not have an arranged marriage). My parents have literally already spent their entire life savings on my education. Their retirement plan is for me to take care of them while they spend as little money as possible (outside of their pension) so that my inheritance is maximized.