📚心得【Chidren of Time #4: Children of Strife】 by Adrian Tchaikovsky, 2026

#Speculative_Evolution #地球化計畫 #跨越多時代 #非自然進化 #後人類

2026年3月底開賣，想不到不到一個月就被我看完了 😆

第四集有讓我感覺到「還好前三集沒有白讀！」這一集會有第一集世代船的既視感、Kern的舊敵恩怨、第一集點到即止的龍蝦種族、第二集「愛探索」的Nodan種族、以及第三集對虛擬與現實界線的深刻辯證，前幾集的每一條線索都在這集匯聚。

Adrian的敘事風格一如既往地透過多角色視角交錯敘事、時間線刻意打亂，開頭看來極其混亂，直到讀完六、七成，才會像被無可避免的重力牽引一般，發現所有的混沌都在向同一個交集點收束。回頭看，才驚覺一切早有秩序。這已經是我讀的第五本Adrian的書，還是被他驚豔到了。

角色方面，他筆下那些與人類天差地遠的外星智慧生命，讀著讀著就會讓你感同身受，就算是如Eldritch horrork般的Nodan也是如此。唯一的例外大概是第二集那群既像巫師又像藝術家的章魚們，感覺Adrian也特別少寫到牠們。

讀科幻最過癮的，莫過於闔上書頁後，能用新的眼光觀察這個世界，對人事物有了更多猜測與想像，甚至想通了一些過去百思不解的問題，這本書完全滿足了這些需求。能活在Adrian持續創作的時代，真的很幸運。 

⚠️以下劇透⚠️ 

我從沒想過科幻框架下，竟然能出現一個泛靈論的「非自然界」。在Marduk（或是萬神殿成員們稱的Hartland）這顆人為地球化的星球上，「自然」被萬神嚴重干預，演化沒有固定法則、生物沒有固定型態，每一株植物、每一場災難，都像被神祇的敵意所引導，並針對居住其上的人類各種戲謔，想玩你的時候偏不會直接送你一場瘟疫間接讓你人口減半，而是享受各式各樣的虐待方式慢慢折磨，還要各個村落定期獻上祭品供其玩弄。在這種環境下長大的人類，對任何「自然」事物都毫無信任，每個人都帶著深入骨髓的受害者心理。

而這片混沌的自然，當然也不可能演化出智慧生物，萬神殿仰賴的生物電腦運作是透過物種間的化學與光學訊號交換，一旦出現能獨立思考的個體，整個系統便會失去穩定 —— 於是那五位萬神殿成員（或四位半）就這樣永遠卡在一台無法分割的電腦裡，彼此鬥法，陷入搞不出名堂的死循環中。 

Easier, somehow, to say we deserve this, we sinners, than admit the planet they’re on is mad and hateful, and torments them for no reason other than its own amusement. Mezclo believes none of it. The earliest records show only a relentless assault by a cruel universe. No wonder her people have grown bitter and cruel themselves.

這集還有一條讓我久久難以釋懷的支線，人類探險家Alis繼上集Miranda之後進入了第三集的Imir回音般的模擬引擎 —— 一台能讀取意識並建構無法分辨真假的模擬世界機器，是不是很像《火影忍者》中宇智波斑的「無限月讀」呢？她在其中跑了不知幾千次輪迴，試圖尋找模擬器製造者的資訊，時間甚至超過了正常人類的壽命，卻她被自己有限的想像力困住，最終連自己也分不清虛幻與現實。然而在這一切之後，她得出了一個出人意料的結論：現實，比那面實現自己任何願望的鏡子更令人驚奇。

原因很簡單，「夢境是無法超越一個人的邏輯邊界的。」如果世界完全由自己的意識投射而成，它就失去了不可預測性與新穎性。模擬世界內的天花板，是「已知的幸福」；而現實最迷人的地方，正是那些你無法預先想像的「未知的衝擊」，真正的啟發來自於與不符合自身邏輯的人事物碰撞。

讀到這裡，我想到自己讀科幻的經驗，若沒有這些他人所寫的故事與作品，我根本無法靠自己想像出這些東西，這也是為何「擁有不同體驗的他者」對人類如此重要。

The machine in Imir is a thought-experiment-enabler. Of course things make logical sense within it. The real universe has more variables, by definition, as it contains within it the simulation. 

螳螂蝦的設定也很有趣，水中火與電難以存在，科技發展受到很大的限制，又沒能像章魚那樣繼承舊人類的遺產，因此科技水平始終停留在中世紀水準。但牠們天生就有能一擊秒殺大多數同類的雙拳，因此需要一定的智慧避免被暗算，也有一定的儀式替代直接地面對面對決（例如打獵比賽等），整個社會建立在武力與階級之上 —— 所有權需靠武力守護，資源靠戰鬥奪取，每一隻都像西部牛仔隨時手握著槍、到哪都一觸即發，攜帶武器、耀武揚威是對其他人的基本尊重。一旦接觸到Panspecific贈與的星際科技，牠們便把整個宇宙當成戰爭遊戲場（牠們自己稱之為「The Escalation」），幾乎將自己這支踏出母星的殖民分支打到滅種 —— 數千隻銳減至僅剩72隻。Panspecific找到牠們時，牠們仍在虛空中嘶吼：「眼前事物都是我的！來挑戰我！」唯一阻止牠們繼續自相殘殺的，只是彼此之間的距離太遠、一時找不到對手。更令人不寒而慄的是：即使事後感到後悔，那段酣暢淋漓的殺戮歲月，在牠們的記憶中仍是最快樂的時光。 

Yet remembers that, at the time, it was glorious. That’s the true horror. Not simply what was done, but how it felt. How good it felt, to be the best. To take on all challengers, his ship against his rivals’.

...some of them had begun to realize they’d taken their war games too far. Cato remembers. Not a nightmare. That’s the true horror. It was like waking from the most perfect dream.

在The Escalation之前，螳螂蝦們總是不明白，為何即使不鬥爭、沒有明顯的階級制度，Portiids仍然願意分享知識與資源；如此殘暴的牠們，也在鬥爭到幾乎滅絕後了解到，有時勝利的成本比避免鬥爭還大。螳螂蝦之間總是難以合作，總是在對彼此說「不」，所以才必須相互威脅、鬥爭，但不合作，許多事情就是辦不成；而辦不成，就無法達成更崇高的目的。

The logical end result of unchecked adherence to Stomatopod ideals of dominance and conflict. The Portiids, in contrast, have a worldview made of connecting threads, each to each, pulling together.

...Except he has seen the cost of fighting. The most bitter of all lessons, that sometimes winning is worse.

...What happens when someone says no? Then these things don’t get done. People die. It probably happened quite a lot, at the fringes of the Panspecific reach, in situations like this, where ships and crews were operating with minimal backup. That was the risk people took, when they decided to push the boundaries of their society. As they always would. 

科學設定上，我有些懷疑以「整個生態系」作為生物電腦，並上傳意識於其中運行的可行性。如果將演化視為程式、生命視為計算過程，微觀的 RNA 序列就像邏輯閘，昆蟲與菌體則是傳輸資料的匯流排，捕食互動則交織成子系統。這種架構看起來缺點還真不少，生物訊號的傳遞與互動可謂極其緩慢，星球天候更是一大變數，一場意外的降雨就可能擾亂物種間的互動，進而導致整個運算程序的中斷。我自己感覺，像 Kern 那樣運用螞蟻這樣的單一物種做為運算基礎應該穩定又有效率得多。

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IMO總分：91分，系列中繼第一集後最好看的神作續集。

核心思想：★★★★★ 核心討論議題是否有趣*5

劇情細節：★★★★★ 綜觀整體劇情的質與量*4

角色刻畫：★★★★★ 角色群的必要性與深度*3

科學軟硬：★★★☆☆ 是否符合現實物理現象*3

結局滿意：★★★★☆ 結局滿意度與有無餘韻*3

易讀程度：★★★★★ 閱讀時章節是否難消化*2

#Speculative_Evolution #Terraforming #Spanning_Eras #Unnatural_Evolution #Post_Human

Released at the end of March 2026, and I’ve already devoured it in less than a month! 😆

Book 4 truly made me feel that the first three books were not read in vain! This installment brings a sense of déjà vu from the first book’s generation ship, the grudges of Kern’s old enemies back on Earth, the "lobster" race that was only briefly mentioned in Book 1, the "adventure-loving" Nodan species from Book 2, and the profound dialectic between virtuality and reality from Book 3. Every thread from the previous books converges here.

Adrian’s narrative style remains consistent, interlacing multiple character perspectives and deliberately scrambling the timeline. It seems utterly chaotic at the start, but once you hit the 60~70% mark, it’s as if you're pulled by an inevitable gravity. Soon you'd realize all the chaos is converging toward a single point. Looking back, you'd see everything was ordered from the beginning. This is the fifth book of Adrian’s I’ve read, and he still manages to blow me away.

Regarding the characters, he has a gift for making readers empathize with non-human intelligences that are worlds apart from humanity, even the Eldritch horrors such as the Nodan. The only exception might be the octopuses from Book 2, who are like a mix of wizards and artists. It feels like Adrian intentionally writes about them notably less since.

The most satisfying part of reading sci-fi is closing the book and seeing the world through new eyes, with more conjectures and imaginings about people and things, and even solving questions that were previously incomprehensible. This book completely satisfies those needs of mine. I feel truly lucky to live in an era where Adrian is still creating.

⚠️ Spoilers Below ⚠️

I never imagined that within a sci-fi framework, an animistic "unnatural world" could exist. On Marduk (or "Hartland," as the Pantheons call it), a terraformed planet, "nature" is heavily interfered with by the Gods. Evolution has no fixed patterns, and biology has no consistent forms. Every plant and every disaster feels guided by the hostility of deities, playing cruel jokes on the human inhabitants. When the Gods want to toy with you, they won't simply send a plague to indirectly halve the population; instead, they enjoy various forms of torture, demanding regular sacrifices from villages for their amusement. Humans raised in this environment have zero trust in anything "natural," possessing a victim complex that reaches their very marrow.

This chaotic nature, of course, could never evolve intelligent life on its own. The biological computer the Pantheon relies on operates through chemical and optical signal exchanges between species. The moment an independent-thinking creature emerges, the entire system loses stability. Consequently, those five Pantheon members (or four and a half) are stuck inside an indivisible computer, fighting among themselves in a dead loop that produces nothing.

Easier, somehow, to say we deserve this, we sinners, than admit the planet they’re on is mad and hateful, and torments them for no reason other than its own amusement. Mezclo believes none of it. The earliest records show only a relentless assault by a cruel universe. No wonder her people have grown bitter and cruel themselves.

Another plot that I can't stop thinking about involves the human explorer Alis. Following Miranda from the previous book, she enters the simulation engine of Imir — a machine capable of reading consciousness and constructing a simulated world indistinguishable from reality. Doesn't it feel like Uchiha Madara’s "Infinite Tsukuyomi" from 《Naruto》? She runs through thousands of cycles trying to find information about the simulator's creator, spanning a duration far exceeding a normal human lifespan. Yet, she is trapped by her own limited imagination, eventually losing the ability to distinguish between illusion and reality. However, after all this, she reaches a surprising conclusion: reality is more wondrous than a mirror that grants your every wish.

The reason is simple: "A dream cannot transcend the logical boundaries of the individual." If the world is entirely a projection of one's own consciousness, it loses unpredictability and novelty. The ceiling of a simulated world is "known happiness," whereas the most charming part of reality is the "impact of the unknown" that you cannot imagine in advance. True inspiration comes from colliding with people and things that do not conform to your own logic.

Reading this, I reflected on my own experience with sci-fi. Without these stories written by others, I could never have imagined these things on my own. This is why "the Other with different experiences" is so vital to humanity.

The machine in Imir is a thought-experiment-enabler. Of course things make logical sense within it. The real universe has more variables, by definition, as it contains within it the simulation. 

The setting for the mantis shrimp is also fascinating. In water, fire and electricity are difficult to harness, severely limiting technological development. Since they didn't inherit the legacy of Old Earth humans like the octopuses did, their technology remained at a medieval level. However, they are born with dual fists capable of "one-shotting" most of their kind. Thus, they require a level of intelligence to avoid being bushwhacked and use rituals (like hunting competitions) to replace direct face-to-face duels. Their entire society is built on might and hierarchy—ownership must be defended by force, and resources are seized through combat. Each one is like a Western cowboy with a gun always in hand, ready to blow at any moment; carrying weapons and flaunting power is basic respect for others. Once they gained access to interstellar tech gifted by the Panspecific, they turned the entire universe into a wargame (which they call "The Escalation"), nearly driving their own space-faring colonies to extinction—dwindling from thousands to just 72 survivors. When the Panspecific found them, they were still screaming into the void: "Everything in front of me is mine! Challenge me!" The only thing stopping them from further self-slaughter was the sheer distance between them; they simply couldn't find an opponent for the moment. More chillingly: even if they felt regret afterward, that period of exhilarating slaughter remains the happiest time in their memories.

Yet remembers that, at the time, it was glorious. That’s the true horror. Not simply what was done, but how it felt. How good it felt, to be the best. To take on all challengers, his ship against his rivals’.

...some of them had begun to realize they’d taken their war games too far. Cato remembers. Not a nightmare. That’s the true horror. It was like waking from the most perfect dream.

Before "The Escalation," the mantis shrimp could never understand why the Portiids were willing to share knowledge and resources without struggle or an obvious hierarchy. After fighting to the brink of extinction, these brutal creatures learned that sometimes the cost of victory is higher than the cost of avoiding conflict. The mantis shrimp always found it hard to cooperate; they were always saying "no" to each other, which is why they had to threaten and fight. But without cooperation, many things simply cannot be achieved—and if they cannot be achieved, higher purposes remain out of reach.

The logical end result of unchecked adherence to Stomatopod ideals of dominance and conflict. The Portiids, in contrast, have a worldview made of connecting threads, each to each, pulling together.

...Except he has seen the cost of fighting. The most bitter of all lessons, that sometimes winning is worse.

...What happens when someone says no? Then these things don’t get done. People die. It probably happened quite a lot, at the fringes of the Panspecific reach, in situations like this, where ships and crews were operating with minimal backup. That was the risk people took, when they decided to push the boundaries of their society. As they always would. 

As for the scientific setting, I’m somewhat skeptical about the feasibility of using an "entire ecosystem" as a biological computer to host uploaded consciousness. If one views evolution as a program and life as a computational process, microscopic RNA sequences are like logic gates, insects and fungi are the data buses, and predatory interactions weave into sub-systems. This architecture seems to have many flaws: the transmission of biological signals is extremely slow, and planetary weather is a massive variable—an accidental rainstorm could disrupt species interactions and abort the entire computational process. Personally, I feel that using a single species like ants as a computational base, as Kern did, would be much more stable and efficient.

IMO Rating: 91. Best sequel in the series after the first book. A masterpiece.

Core Theme: ★★★★★ (*5)

Plot Quality: ★★★★★ (*4)

Character Development: ★★★★★ (*3)

Science Elements: ★★★☆☆ (*3)

Ending Satisfaction: ★★★★☆ (*3)

Readability: ★★★★★ (*2)