I haven't read Children of Time (thanks for the rec), but personally, Blake Crouch fills the Michael Crichton-shaped hole in my heart - i.e. smart, page-turning thrillers, based on high-concept (but digestible) premises. I loved both Dark Matter and Recursion (the latter a bit more than the former), but confess I was underwhelmed/disappointed by Upgrade.

What I love about those aforementioned novels is that they root their sci-fi high concepts squarely in the human experience - to the degree that the science working is actually dependent on human experience. I mean, the premise of Recursion is essentially >!time travel based on human memory!<. It can feel a little hand-waivey, but Crouch makes it just plausible enough to accept, and it keeps the reader engaged.

All of this to say, if you're looking for a particularly cerebral read that explores the far-reaching social/economic/cultural repercussions of technology, and holds a dark mirror to our current society, you're looking in the wrong place.