Epic hard sci-fi. If you don't like spiders, this one is definitely not for you as it features large super-intelligent arachnids together with plenty of gruesome details on their feeding and mating habits.
Health warning aside though, this is lengthy pacy read covering millions of miles, thousands of years and the rise/fall of two civilisations. The arachnid evolution is highly imaginative and particularly well told. So much so, that it could well force you to consider them in a new light.
There are fascinating ideas here, e.g. the possibility of inheriting knowledge as new instincts or understandings as well as how a civilisation would work in the absence of certain inventions like the wheel, but with strong knowledge of biochemistry. Finally, there are also ethical dilemmas like can you really take a planet where a sentient species already has a home - even if you can't understand what they are saying?
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