India, July 19 -- Tiny excerpt: [The mantis shrimp] came before the other species and made their request. Resources, technology, space. Most importantly, that last one. Somewhere among the stars... A star system where they could set up and be themselves, and live in a way their ancestors would recognize. Albeit with spaceships and orbitals, and all the benefits of Panspecific ingenuity. There was no central authority to apply to, of course, because the Portiids had never worked like that, the Octopuses still less so, while the Humans were trying not to. A dying Earth. Untameable space colonies. Uplifted spiders, octopi, giant crows and mantis shrimp (made sentient or more intelligent via technology). And the search for a place to call home. Adrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Time (2015-26) series is a sweeping, four-part space opera of strife, non-human intelligences, evolution, survival and the hubris of playing God. It comprises Children of Time (2015; winner of the Arthur C Clarke Award), Children of Ruin (2019), Children of Memory (2022) and Children of Strife (March; 2026). It begins with humanity's doomed bid to terraform a distant planet, and charts the rise of new civilisations in different star systems. This year's release, Children of Strife, follows a lost research vessel whose only surviving members include a mantis shrimp war hero, a tormented scientist, and the ship's AI. Together, they search the ruined planet of Marduk for their lost colleagues. What ties the books together are an emphasis on empathy and cooperation. Empathy is an increasingly endangered commodity in the world, Tchaikovsky has said. A good future, regardless of whether we live alongside humans or aliens or spiders, is one where it survives....