Children of Time (Children of Time, #1) opens Goodreads in a new tab

A scientist who has extended her life creates her own world by dropping monkeys on a terraformed planet with a virus meant to uplift them, planning to introduce herself as their god. But something goes wrong, and evolution takes a very different direction than planned. Meanwhile, the last survivors of a dying Earth, cut off from support, search the stars for a new home, and generations later their ship arrives at the planet that was meant to be theirs. Winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award.