I've also read both books. It's a good exploration into the minds of spiders and octopuses, if given "uplift".
A recent study I read about shows that spider intelligence is ill-studied but actually holds a wealth of interesting facets. Jumping spiders plan, such as when hunting, and can be surprised. They are also doing elaborate planning when building webs, and make adjustments to strength/stickiness in webs based on failed catches. It's sophisticated tool use. And yet their brains are teeny weeny puny things.
Another novel that you might enjoy if you haven't read is "A Deepness in the Sky", it's similar to Children of Time (and predates it), but told in a different way. Both are highly enjoyable and packed with ideas.
Anecdote : I had a mate who was a paramedic; called to a junkies house he noted a tarantula in a tank and felt terribly sorry for it - so bought it for £10. It lived for many years in it's flat, and it hid from people who it didn't know - but if you were calm and waited for it to try its courage, the after a while it would come and inspect you . Should you act kindly to it, well then for ever afterwards it would come out and greet you when you entered the room. I got the idea that it was a "personal" organism - it had an idea of others, and itself.
If you're recommending A Deepness in the Sky, you should also recommend A Fire Upon the Deep by the same author (Vernor Vinge). A very different take on alien intelligence, and possibly more relevant to the octopus model in that it covers distributed selves, albeit over individuals rather than limbs.
A recent study I read about shows that spider intelligence is ill-studied but actually holds a wealth of interesting facets. Jumping spiders plan, such as when hunting, and can be surprised. They are also doing elaborate planning when building webs, and make adjustments to strength/stickiness in webs based on failed catches. It's sophisticated tool use. And yet their brains are teeny weeny puny things.
Another novel that you might enjoy if you haven't read is "A Deepness in the Sky", it's similar to Children of Time (and predates it), but told in a different way. Both are highly enjoyable and packed with ideas.