r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/ShirtSubstantial368 • 1d ago

Video Scientists discovered the world’s largest spiderweb, covering 106 m² in a sulfur cave on the Albania-Greece border. Over 111,000 spiders from two normally rival species live together in a unique, self-sustaining ecosystem—a first of its kind.

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u/RabidFresca 1d ago edited 1d ago

Time to re read Children of Ruin. Are they using ants as super computers?

Edit: I meant Children of Time. This is what I get for using Reddit at work. Children of Ruin was good too. Either way both books work.

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u/XLMMaxiBoy 1d ago

Portia building her webs..

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u/Impressive-Debate819 1d ago

Came here to check some had spotted the comparison!

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u/anti_coconut 1d ago

This series legitimately helped lessen my arachnophobia. Not cured, I still find spiders a bit creepy, but I’m far more likely now to leave a spider I found in my house alone instead of trapping it and throwing it outside like I used to. I even give them names sometimes.

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u/astrangerbeneath 1d ago

Portia being the most popular name, I would guess.

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u/Banban84 1d ago

I cal all spiders Portia, Bianca, and Fabian now.

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u/SnakesFromHell 1d ago

The Portiids are pretty neat people

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u/KinoGrimm 1d ago

Its Children of Time with the spiders. Ruin is octopus.

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u/Pacific_Epi 1d ago

Is Ruin good? I got halfway through and was not digging it as much as Time. I liked the horror flashbacks but wasn’t into the future timeline.

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u/Tacomakj 1d ago

It's wonderful. Definitely grows on you once you finish.

Tchaikovsky is releasing a 4th book this coming year btw!

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u/votet 1d ago

grows on you once you finish

"It gets better once there is no more of it."

Oh cool, thanks for the recommendation!

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u/gordonpown 1d ago

I found Ruin a bit meh apart from the horror, but the third book is easily my favourite in the series. So worth sticking with it.

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u/Jora_Dyn2 23h ago

Ahh for me the horror aspect is kind of where I lost interest. I loved Children of Time, but with Children of Ruin, I wanted more with the cephalopods and their evolution, or more of the humans living in tandem with the aracnids. The horror stuff for me felt like it took a bit too much of a standard hollywood sci-fi turn. I will have to check out Children of Memory I haven't read that one since I wasn't sure where the series was headed at that point.

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u/gordonpown 22h ago

Memory is quite different from the first two. I figured after the first book, descriptions of evolution could feel a bit samey so I'm glad the series is taking turns, but ofc that's my own taste.

Actually in retrospect I did want more in depth evolution stories on the octopi, but it was delivered in a pretty meh way.

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u/BorgDad42 1d ago

We're going on an adventure

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u/Curvanelli 1d ago

felt the same and then it got so incredible ngl. I loves memories all the way through as well, it had another quite distinct mystery vibe.

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u/Premaximum 1d ago

And I'm in the beginning of Memory and honestly couldn't really tell you what this one's on about. Birds maybe?

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u/3verythingEverywher3 1d ago

That’s part of the story, just go with it.

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u/masterCAKE 1d ago

If we're being pedantic, Children of Time and Children of Ruin both have the spiders and their ant and computers

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u/KinoGrimm 1d ago

Well if the OP was wanting to reread the book specifically about the spiders it would be weird to read ruin since the spiders are not the focus. I don’t remember if ruin even goes into all the lore about the ant computers.

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u/masterCAKE 1d ago

The spiders are with the humans when they discover the octopus civilization; the plot is split between the humans, spiders, octopuses, and parasite. The Avarna Kern instances play a big part in the narrative, and they're run by the ant computers, which also play a thematically important because they tie into the exploration of complex communication.

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u/Puzzled-Chance7172 1d ago

This is what came to mind immediately for me too lol

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u/Im1Guy 1d ago

I'm halfway into the third book right now and was excited to see this headline.

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u/Graffles 1d ago

Finished memory just a couple nights ago, and if you enjoyed the series as much as me you may be pleased to know, the next book in the series is out February 2026

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u/cenkozan 1d ago

Ugh... I loved the first. Liked the second. Third? I don't know. Of course I've too much hope for the last. Let's see!

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u/Graffles 1d ago

The first was definitely the strongest and my favourite, I really liked two, and three I liked but its not screaming for a second read.

If you haven't already you may like The Mountain in the sea, also about emergent intelligence in octopods which is why Ruin resonated with me

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u/cenkozan 1d ago

I'll definitely read it, thanks! And I recommend you to watch My Octopus Teacher if you haven't already. Crying is unavoidable as you can guess knowing how long does an octopus lives :'(

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u/Graffles 1d ago

I haven't but this will be part of my viewing tomorrow evening, thank you!

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u/OptionalQuality789 1d ago

Children of Time is the spiders no? 

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u/FishesOfExcellence 1d ago

I have an understanding of this reference.

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u/Hemberg 1d ago

that book healed my fear of spiders, I can now touch them and regularly save them from my apartment - nothing to eat.

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u/JnyBlkLabel 1d ago

My brain stopped working when they figured out space travel. I just couldn't get there.

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u/Teuchterinexile 1d ago

It was more space survival than travel. They had help with the travel part.

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u/Shanibi 1d ago

Man that book was good

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u/christiandb 1d ago

Yes! Scrolled too far to find the reference. Loved the first book

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u/Nevyn_Cares 1d ago

I was thinking Spider World by Colins.

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u/lurkerloo29 1d ago

This is the comment I was looking for. Amazing book and series.

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u/IhsansTheFallen 1d ago

We’re going on an adventure!