Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky is the first in a space opera trilogy.

One civilization of humanity has extended out into the universe to find other planets that maybe a replacement for earth. Some they will terraform, and on one likely candidate they will seed a new strain of humans. This involves transporting monkeys and putting them on this planet (cleansed of all other mammals) along with a nanovirus that will speed up their evolution. One person will be left in stasis in orbit, in a satellite cum lifeboat, to communicate with the new species. However, some members of this civilization think this is wrong and the operation is sabotaged, leading to the death of all the monkeys and the chief scientist and architect of the plan being the one that ends up in stasis.

The virus survives on the planet and, as it doesn’t have any monkeys to infect, lodges itself in whatever it can find. In one species of spider it finds a host that it can evolve and the novel traces this evolution over millennia from primitive hunting spiders through the development of farming and use of tools to a sophisticated society capable of leaving their planet.

In the meantime, the human civilization responsible collapses and new civilizations emerge. One of these, on an earth now dying, launches generation ships loaded with colonisers looking for new homes. They stumble on the spiders’ planet which seems perfect. But the scientist in orbit above the planet, now almost completely fused with the AI, mad with isolation, and unaware that the monkeys didn’t make it, drives them away. Centuries later, the generation ship returns in desperation: no other possible homes have been found. By this time, the spiders are space-going and have brought the scientist/AI down to live with them.

I really enjoyed Children of Time. I loved the evolution of the spiders and how that was determined by their methods of communication and what is available to them. They develop sophisticated technology based on bio-chemistry and not on metals. It’s marvellous – although probably not for those with even mild arachnophobia. I found it quite hard to put down. I’m looking forward to book two.