So you have turned the final page of Children of Time and now find yourself quite bereft, rather like a child who has finished all the sweets and wonders where more might be found. Fear not, dear reader! For the galaxy of science fiction holds wonders enough to fill a thousand lifetimes, and I shall be your faithful guide to fifteen extraordinary tales that capture that same marvellous spirit of evolution, alien minds, and humanity reaching for the stars.
A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge
For those who loved the spider civilisation in Children of Time
Here is a book that shall feel wonderfully familiar to admirers of Tchaikovsky’s clever arachnids, for Vernor Vinge presents us with his own spider-like aliens—the inhabitants of a most peculiar world orbiting a star that sleeps for centuries at a time. These remarkable creatures, whom the human observers call “Spiders,” have developed their own civilisation, complete with a brilliant polymath named Sherkaner Underhill who devises technologies to survive the long dark years.
Two human factions arrive to make first contact, and what unfolds is nothing short of magnificent. This Hugo Award winner stands as one of the finest examples of hard science fiction ever penned.
Semiosis by Sue Burke
For those who adored the theme of alien intelligence evolving alongside humans
What if the most intelligent life on a new world were not animals at all, but plants? Sue Burke imagines human colonists arriving on a planet they name Pax, seeking peace from Earth’s troubles, only to discover that the flora possesses consciousness and intentions of its own. A bamboo-like plant called Stevland attempts to domesticate the humans for its own flourishing—rather turning the expected relationship quite on its head!
The story unfolds across five generations, showing how both species must learn to coexist. Adrian Tchaikovsky himself praised it as “top class SF, intelligent and engaging.”
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
For those who treasured the unlikely friendship between species
Imagine awakening aboard a spacecraft with no memory of who you are or why you’re there, millions of miles from home with only corpses for company. This is the predicament facing Ryland Grace, a humble science teacher turned reluctant astronaut, tasked with saving Earth from a most unusual threat.
What makes this tale truly special—and I shall say nothing more for fear of spoiling the delicious surprise—is an encounter that ranks among the most heartwarming interspecies friendships in all of science fiction. A film adaptation arrives in 2026, so now is the perfect moment to discover this gem.
Blindsight by Peter Watts
For those who relished the harder scientific elements
This is perhaps the most intellectually demanding book on our list, and all the more rewarding for it. When alien probes scan Earth in an event called the Firefall, humanity dispatches a most unusual crew to investigate—including a linguist with multiple personalities, a cyborg biologist, and a captain whose genetic code incorporates vampirism.
What they discover challenges everything we believe about consciousness and intelligence. Peter Watts asks: might an alien species be brilliant beyond measure yet possess no inner experience whatsoever? It is cosmic horror of the most philosophical sort, and Elizabeth Bear declared it “the best hard science fiction novel of the first decade of this millennium.”
Hyperion by Dan Simmons
For those who appreciated the epic scope and literary ambition
Seven pilgrims journey to the world of Hyperion, each bearing a desperate hope and a terrible secret, each telling their tale along the way—rather like Chaucer’s travellers to Canterbury, though considerably further from home. They seek the Time Tombs and the mysterious Shrike, a creature of razorwire and blades that haunts the imagination long after the book is closed.
This Hugo Award winner weaves together science fiction, literary allusion, and profound philosophical questions into something quite unlike anything else in the genre. It is ambitious, beautiful, and absolutely essential.
A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge
For those who loved encountering truly alien civilisations
In a universe where the laws of physics themselves change depending on where you are—allowing greater technological wonders in the outer reaches of the galaxy—Vinge introduces us to the Tines: a species where individual consciousness emerges only from packs of creatures thinking together.
When children carrying a dangerous secret crash-land among the Tines, they become pawns in an alien power struggle while a desperate rescue mission races to save them. This Hugo Award winner blazes with the brazen energy of the finest space operas.
Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
For those who delighted in the sense of wonder and discovery
In the 22nd century, a vast cylindrical object enters our solar system—fifty kilometres long, spinning slowly, clearly artificial, and utterly silent. Commander Norton and his crew have mere weeks to explore this alien starship before it swings around the Sun and vanishes forever into the cosmic deep.
What they find inside defies comprehension: a frozen sea, a city of skyscrapers, mysterious biological machines. Clarke won the Hugo, Nebula, Jupiter, and Campbell Awards for this masterpiece of exploration and wonder.
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor
For those who enjoyed the expansive timeline and evolution of intelligence
Bob Johansson sells his software company, signs up for cryogenic preservation on a whim, and promptly gets himself killed crossing the street. He awakens a century later to discover his mind has been uploaded into a space probe and he’s been selected to search the galaxy for habitable worlds.
What follows is delightfully entertaining: Bob must contend with copies of himself (each developing distinct personalities), explore the cosmos, and perhaps save what remains of humanity. It manages to be both genuinely funny and surprisingly moving.
Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
For those who appreciated realistic future settings
Two hundred years from now, humanity has colonised the Solar System—Earth, Mars, and the asteroid belt exist in uneasy tension, and the folk who live between the planets are second-class citizens. When ice hauler Jim Holden and detective Joe Miller stumble upon a vast conspiracy, they find themselves holding the fate of millions in their hands.
This is space opera of the highest calibre, grounded in plausible physics and populated by characters you’ll genuinely care about. The beloved television adaptation merely hints at the riches contained in these pages.
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
For those who loved the survival and adaptation themes
The Moon explodes. In the opening sentence. From this catastrophe springs a tale of human survival that spans millennia, as the people of Earth have mere years to launch as many souls as possible into orbit before the Hard Rain renders our planet uninhabitable for thousands of years.
Stephenson packs this novel with meticulous scientific detail—Bill Gates praised its accuracy—while never losing sight of the human drama at its core. The title refers to the seven women who become the genetic mothers of all future humanity.
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
For those who cherished the character development and found-family themes
Sometimes called “cosy science fiction,” this charming tale follows the wonderfully diverse crew of the tunnelling ship Wayfarer as they journey across the galaxy to their next job. There are no grand battles here, no universe-threatening villains—just people (and aliens) of various species learning to understand one another.
Rosemary Harper, fleeing her past, finds something precious among this motley crew: a family. The Guardian called it “a quietly profound, humane tour de force.”
All Systems Red by Martha Wells
For those who enjoyed exploring what makes something truly sentient
Meet Murderbot: a cyborg security unit who has hacked its own governing module and would really rather be watching soap operas than protecting the humans it’s assigned to guard. Yet when danger threatens, Murderbot finds itself caring despite its best efforts not to.
This novella won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards, launching a beloved series. Murderbot’s sardonic voice and awkward social interactions have charmed countless readers, and a television adaptation premiered in 2025.
The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin
For those who appreciated the grand cosmic perspective
During China’s Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space. What answers changes everything. A civilisation from a nearby star system—one plagued by the chaos of orbiting three suns—learns of Earth and sets forth on a four-century journey to claim it.
This Hugo Award winner introduced many Western readers to Chinese science fiction and presents alien contact with a scope and ambition that takes one’s breath away. Ken Liu’s translation preserved all the wonder of the original.
Pandora’s Star by Peter F. Hamilton
For those who wanted an even bigger universe to explore
In the year 2380, humanity has spread across hundreds of worlds connected by wormholes. When a distant star simply vanishes—enclosed, it seems, by an artificial barrier—the Commonwealth must send an expedition to discover why. What they find behind that barrier will change everything.
Hamilton builds worlds with extraordinary richness and populates them with mysteries enough for multiple volumes. This is vast, immersive space opera with aliens unlike anything you’ve encountered before.
Old Man’s War by John Scalzi
For those who relished humanity finding its place among the stars
On your seventy-fifth birthday, you may join the Colonial Defense Forces. What they do to make elderly recruits into soldiers is remarkable; what those soldiers discover about humanity’s place in a hostile universe is sobering indeed. John Perry, widower and former advertising writer, enlists to see what lies among the stars.
Scalzi writes with wit and verve, delivering military science fiction that never forgets to be humane. This is the start of a delightful series that balances action with thoughtful speculation.
Finding Your Next Great Read
Each of these remarkable books offers something that lovers of Children of Time will recognise: the wonder of encountering alien minds, the sweep of evolutionary time, the question of what makes us human when the universe proves so very strange. Whether you desire hard science, found family, cosmic horror, or cosy adventure, there is something here to fill the space that Tchaikovsky’s spiders have left in your heart.
Now go forth, dear reader, and lose yourself in worlds beyond imagining. Second star to the right, and straight on till morning.
