Now imagine this mantis shrimp in a spacesuit, with a taste for weaponry Shutterstock/Samy Kassem The fourth novel in Adrian Tchaikovsky’s much fêted Children of Time series is nearly with us. And Children of Strife is terrific. Before we get to it in detail, let me say that I will do my best to avoid spoilers for all four books. Science fiction about “uplifted” species isn’t an original idea, but Tchaikovsky tackles it in an entirely original way. As fans will know, the first book in the series (Children of Time) involved an ark ship finally reaching a terraformed planet. In theory, the world should have been ready to receive the settlers, but, oh dear… has something gone horribly wrong? Has a different species been elevated into the top spot intended for humans? I think it is OK to mention spiders here. In the also-brilliant follow-up, Children of Ruin, a different planet is featured, and here I will just drop in the word “octopuses“. Tchaikovsky is a prolific writer, with many wonderful books, but this …