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The Doors of Eden
From the Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning Adrian Tchaikovsky, The Doors of Eden is an extraordinary feat of the imagination and a page-turning adventure about parallel universes and the monsters that they hide.They thought we were safe. They were wrong.Four years ago, two girls went looking for monsters on Bodmin Moor. Only one came back.Lee thought she'd lost Mal, but now she's miraculously returned. But what happened that day on the moors? And where has she been all this time? Mal's reappearance hasn't gone unnoticed by MI5 officers either, and Lee isn't the only one with questions.Julian Sabreur is investigating an attack on top physicist Kay Amal Khan. This leads Julian to clash with agents of an unknown power - and they may or may not be human. His only clue is grainy footage, showing a woman who supposedly died on Bodmin Moor.Dr Khan's research was theoretical; then she found cracks between our world and parallel Earths. Now these cracks are widening, revealing extraordinary creatures. And as the doors crash open, anything could come through."Tchaikovsky weaves a masterful tale... a suspenseful joyride through the multiverse." (Booklist)
608 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 20, 2020
About the author
Adrian Tchaikovsky
171 books13.5k followersADRIAN TCHAIKOVSKY was born in Lincolnshire and studied zoology and psychology at Reading, before practising law in Leeds. He is a keen live role-player and occasional amateur actor and is trained in stage-fighting. His literary influences include Gene Wolfe, Mervyn Peake, China Miéville, Mary Gently, Steven Erikson, Naomi Novak, Scott Lynch and Alan Campbell.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,188 reviews
May 22, 2020
ARC provided by the publisher—Tor UK—in exchange for an honest review.
4.5/5 stars
Children of Time has won the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 2016, and Children of Ruin won the “best novel of the year” in The British Science Fiction Association Award a few days ago. Tchaikovsky’s newest work, The Doors of Eden, will definitely continue to win him more prestigious SFF awards in the future.
Tchaikovsky has written a LOT of books, and I’ve read only Children of Time and Children of Ruin prior to reading this book. This upcoming statement may not mean too much, but The Doors of Eden triumphed over both Children of Time and Children of Ruin; this novel is, to me, undoubtedly the best book by Tchaikovsky that I’ve read so far.
Four years ago, Lee and Mal—lovers, and young cryptid hunters—went looking for the Birdmen on Bodmin Moor. Only Lee came back from this hunt; Mal vanished. But four years later, in the present timeline, Lee suddenly receives a phone call from someone that sounded exactly like Mal. What exactly happened that day on the moors that caused Mal’s disappearance? Where has she been for the past four years? These are a very small set of questions that teases the large-scale adventures contained within this standalone. When I first started The Doors of Eden, I didn’t expect that the story would end up reaching the grand scale of events it conceived. What started as a simple disappearance story, eventually leads to parallel worlds, timelines, and worlds-changing conflicts. I guess this shouldn’t have come as a surprise; this is Tchaikovsky, after all. And Tchaikovsky did give us hints and information about in the prologue and interludes that the story would end up becoming this big. But wow, the story executions were really well done.
Evolution, biology, diversity, time, science, history, are some of the central themes of The Doors of Eden. I’m not a scientist, but I got the sense that the novel was very well-researched, and most importantly, this book isn’t only about science; it also has heart and emotions. Tchaikovsky uses six—and one interlude narrator—POV to tell this story of exploration, spectacle, and danger. Although half of the main characters took longer than I preferred for me to click with, all the main characters—three of them are LGBT characters, for those who want to know—were fleshed out characters; I found Lee and Mal to be the fastest for me to feel invested in, but I grew to care for the other characters as well the more I progressed through the book. In a way, The Doors of Eden is a large-scale standalone adventure about the fascination with time, worlds, science, cooperation, and saving the world. However, if you’ve read Children of Time or Children of Ruin, you’ll notice that both of those books focus on cooperation as its utmost significance of topic; this applies to The Doors of Eden, too, and I loved it.
The book also felt very well-researched; every “what if” scenario displayed in this book showed that Tchaikovsky took a lot of care to make sure that he gets his world-building right. He kinda has to, the story he’s trying to tell here would be filled with plot holes. The ending—specifically the last 100 pages— was insane and quite frankly superbly written. That’s all I’m gonna say on this; read and find out for yourself. There’s no stopping Tchaikovsky. At the rate and quality of storytelling he produces, he’s guaranteed to win awards annually. The Doors of Eden is an imaginative, wonderful, and cracking adventure filled with hope and excitement. Need to hear more? I’ll close this review with what Tchaikovsky himself has to say about this book:
Lastly, do remember that this is Tchaikovsky’s book, you might as well prepare yourself to meet terrifying creatures. And spiders.
Official release date: 4th August 2020
You can order the book from: Amazon UK | Amazon US | Book Depository (Free shipping)
The quotes in this review were taken from an ARC and are subject to change upon publication.
You can find this and the rest of my reviews at Novel Notions
Special thanks to my Patrons on Patreon for giving me extra support towards my passion for reading and reviewing!
My Patrons: Alfred, Devin, Hamad, Joie, Mike, Miracle, Nicholas.
4.5/5 stars
Children of Time has won the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 2016, and Children of Ruin won the “best novel of the year” in The British Science Fiction Association Award a few days ago. Tchaikovsky’s newest work, The Doors of Eden, will definitely continue to win him more prestigious SFF awards in the future.
Tchaikovsky has written a LOT of books, and I’ve read only Children of Time and Children of Ruin prior to reading this book. This upcoming statement may not mean too much, but The Doors of Eden triumphed over both Children of Time and Children of Ruin; this novel is, to me, undoubtedly the best book by Tchaikovsky that I’ve read so far.
“We’re here and they trust us.” Mal chuckled. “It’s a million-to-one long shot, and these two desperate lesbians can save the world. Perfect action movie material.”
Four years ago, Lee and Mal—lovers, and young cryptid hunters—went looking for the Birdmen on Bodmin Moor. Only Lee came back from this hunt; Mal vanished. But four years later, in the present timeline, Lee suddenly receives a phone call from someone that sounded exactly like Mal. What exactly happened that day on the moors that caused Mal’s disappearance? Where has she been for the past four years? These are a very small set of questions that teases the large-scale adventures contained within this standalone. When I first started The Doors of Eden, I didn’t expect that the story would end up reaching the grand scale of events it conceived. What started as a simple disappearance story, eventually leads to parallel worlds, timelines, and worlds-changing conflicts. I guess this shouldn’t have come as a surprise; this is Tchaikovsky, after all. And Tchaikovsky did give us hints and information about in the prologue and interludes that the story would end up becoming this big. But wow, the story executions were really well done.
Evolution, biology, diversity, time, science, history, are some of the central themes of The Doors of Eden. I’m not a scientist, but I got the sense that the novel was very well-researched, and most importantly, this book isn’t only about science; it also has heart and emotions. Tchaikovsky uses six—and one interlude narrator—POV to tell this story of exploration, spectacle, and danger. Although half of the main characters took longer than I preferred for me to click with, all the main characters—three of them are LGBT characters, for those who want to know—were fleshed out characters; I found Lee and Mal to be the fastest for me to feel invested in, but I grew to care for the other characters as well the more I progressed through the book. In a way, The Doors of Eden is a large-scale standalone adventure about the fascination with time, worlds, science, cooperation, and saving the world. However, if you’ve read Children of Time or Children of Ruin, you’ll notice that both of those books focus on cooperation as its utmost significance of topic; this applies to The Doors of Eden, too, and I loved it.
“When you told people they were the inheritors of the world, none of them imagined sharing.”
The book also felt very well-researched; every “what if” scenario displayed in this book showed that Tchaikovsky took a lot of care to make sure that he gets his world-building right. He kinda has to, the story he’s trying to tell here would be filled with plot holes. The ending—specifically the last 100 pages— was insane and quite frankly superbly written. That’s all I’m gonna say on this; read and find out for yourself. There’s no stopping Tchaikovsky. At the rate and quality of storytelling he produces, he’s guaranteed to win awards annually. The Doors of Eden is an imaginative, wonderful, and cracking adventure filled with hope and excitement. Need to hear more? I’ll close this review with what Tchaikovsky himself has to say about this book:
“From a young age I’ve been fascinated by the idea of deep time, the millions of years of life that passed before ever a human eye opened to examine the world. I’ve been fascinated, too, by all the many ‘What if?’ scenarios inherent in that span of time. I’ve been inspired by books like Stephen J. Gould’s Wonderful Life and Dougal Dixon’s After Man, looking at the process of evolution and asking ‘Did it have to go this way?’—Adrian Tchaikovsky on The Doors of Eden
The Doors of Eden takes the evolutionary world-building I used for Children of Time and Children of Ruin and applies it to all the ‘What ifs’ of the past. It’s a book that feeds on a lot of my personal obsessions (not just spiders*). The universe-building is perhaps the broadest in scope of anything I’ve ever written. At the same time, The Doors of Eden is a book set in the here and now, and even though there’s more than one ‘here and now’ in the book, I spent most of a summer trekking around researching locations like a film producer to try and get things as right as possible. Sometimes, when you plan a journey into the very strange, it works best if you start somewhere familiar.
Writing the book turned into a very personal journey, for me. It’s the culmination of a lot of ideas that have been brewing away at the back of my mind, and a lot of obsessions that have had hold of me for decades. I have quite the trip in store for readers, I hope.”
Lastly, do remember that this is Tchaikovsky’s book, you might as well prepare yourself to meet terrifying creatures. And spiders.
Official release date: 4th August 2020
You can order the book from: Amazon UK | Amazon US | Book Depository (Free shipping)
The quotes in this review were taken from an ARC and are subject to change upon publication.
You can find this and the rest of my reviews at Novel Notions
Special thanks to my Patrons on Patreon for giving me extra support towards my passion for reading and reviewing!
My Patrons: Alfred, Devin, Hamad, Joie, Mike, Miracle, Nicholas.
September 16, 2021
“How many times can you watch the world end, after all, even if it’s not your world?”It’s only natural - and very conceitedly tempting - to think of humanity as if not the pinnacle of evolution then at least the inevitable and logical result of its natural progression. From the unicellular organisms deciding that strength is in numbers to the ill-fated trilobites of the Cambrian explosion, to Devonian Age of Fishes, to the devastation of the Great Dying of the Permian extinction, to the ill-fated dinosaurs side-eyeing that mercilessly approaching asteroid, to mammalian dominance until finally, elbowing out of the way our less fortunate Neanderthal cousins we, humans, emerge onto the global scene as the ultimate lottery winners.
“The Earth tried to kill us in our cradle, but the timelines you have seen survived it, or at least bequeathed a relic of themselves to the future.
[…]
The lesson here is that the Earth doesn’t care; that bad things happen; that it could so easily have been us.”
But imagine - just imagine that this was only one possibility out of multitude of others. Imagine that life took different forms and shapes and paths. Imagine sentience awakening over and over and over again - but in different creatures altogether, on the Earths that are not ours (and don’t tell Peter Watts of Blindsight fame about that). And these parallel timelines sometimes bleed into each other, to the delight of cryptid hunters and derision of the scientific minds — at least for a while. “You ever get the feeling there are cracks in the world?”
“What if—bear with me—a civilization of gigantic immortal spacefaring trilobites didn’t evolve? I know, it seems hardly credible, but imagine, if you will.”
And for every beginning there also usually is an ending. Seems natural — but a bit chilling when what you talking about is the universe.
“I mean, this is affecting the whole universe. There isn’t exactly a safe place to watch from.”
—————
Adrian Tchaikovsky is among my favorite science fiction writers, a prolific writer maintaining brainy inventive quality in all of his works, not afraid of venturing out into difficult concepts and making them fascinating. And his exceptional forte seems to be exploration of sentient life different from what we are used to, going past the humanoid bipedal relatable lifeforms and venturing into the worlds of spacefaring spiders and technologically advanced octopuses — and why not the worlds of spacefaring trilobites and frozen fish computers? Apparently, the man studied (not “read”, but studied ) Zoology for a reason.
“In this world, long ago, something awoke.”
His story here starts small and quickly works up to dizzying stakes. The more straightforward present-day Earth plot - weaved in itself out of many parallel story threads that eventually coalesce to create a very satisfying whole - are punctuated with interconnected stories of parallel evolution on Earths that are not ours, and all together it creates a truly epic tapestry that is just a pleasure to read. There is a sprinkle of hard science concepts, but Tchaikovsky still makes it a very accessible and easy read without dumbing it down much. He’s just got the skill for making stories flow while encompassing within all that stuff about evolution, science and psychology as well as a suspenseful adventure (partially playing out within a spacefaring trilobite. Seriously).
“When you told people they were the inheritors of the world, none of them imagined sharing.”
And cooperation. That is Tchaikovsky’s common theme, and it is done well. His societies tend to do better when stark individualism is put aside and a hand (or a tentacle, or a claw) is extended across the Us-Them divide, not holding a weapon but an offer of help, the acknowledgment of something common in us rather than what divides us. Because there are things much worse than a bit of an existential crisis at the whole “We’d lost our place at the centre of the universe” bit, that whole fear of the “other” overtaking the self-proclaimed great power of the universe.
“You are gullible. Surrounded by people you don’t know, with your leaders even less knowable, and you are gullible. Someone says a thing to you strongly enough, you believe them. You take confidence for truth.”
4.5 stars (docking half a star for a couple of very annoying humans out of a very large cast of characters), rounding up to 5 (because wonderful story makes up for that many times over). A science fiction classic, indeed.
“Everywhere, a garden of life arises—the very first Eden. But it doesn’t support life like ours, or even our ancestors’. This is life of another caste entirely. A world of quilt-bodied things that lie supine upon the sea floor, or inch slowly across the bacterial mats without limbs or muscles, feeding upon them without mouths. They are a global community of organisms alien to us, and they live without tooth or claw, without eyes, without organs.
Our world was like this once. Go back six hundred million years and you wouldn’t know the difference. But this is not our world.
In this world, something awoke.”
————
Buddy read with carol and Phil.
————
My reviews of other books by Adrian Tchaikovsky:
Children of Time
Children of Ruin
The Expert System’s Brother
Firewalkers
Walking to Aldebaran
One Day All This Will Be Yours
Shards of Earth
July 27, 2022
I've been told, by a mostly reliable source, that as long as your ending is satisfying, you just can't complain too much. As much as my instinct is to argue, I've mulled it over and find myself unable to substantially disagree. Perhaps it all comes down to preferences: is it the lure of a story that arouses emotion through admiration and joy, or one that uses the frisson of aggravation as a road to pleasure? The Doors of Eden most definitely chose frustration as it followed a group of mostly exasperating humans as they attempt to decipher strange incursions into their lives.
Structured with a dual narrative, it alternates more 'academic' pieces with a third-person limited viewpoint from one of a handful of characters. Although multiple narratives are a technique that often annoy me, Tchaikovsky uses it to good effect. The academic pieces are usually short, while the character narratives are full of action and conflict. He's also kind enough to avoid leaving the reader on a cliff-hanger with each section. The academic writings are taken from an imaginary book, 'Other Edens: Speculative Evolution and Intelligence,' and while they have a drier, more academic tone, each explores a world where what humanity understands as evolution followed a more divergent path.
"To win the arms race of this Cambrian is to have the strongest shell. It is to be hauled up from the sediment by the the anomalocarids' fearsome arms, ground between their spines, gnamed at by their toothed ring of a mouth, then abandoned for flimsier prey. From such a forge, here is what will fight its way to dominance... When at last they take to the land, their shells fend off the killer radiation of the sun and their respiratory surfaces hold enough water for brief seaside strolls. Their articulated legs are initially only strong enough to drag their jointed bellies in the sand, but that will change."
It is an extraordinarily long book that doesn't feel long at all, which says something for Tchaikovsky's ability to balance those edges with plotting. I found myself remembering the sympathetic spiders and irritating humans in Children of Time and wondered if he was making a similar point here.
"He lost most of the journey to that familiar adult tension that was a mix of “I should be doing something” and “I have possibly screwed up” with a side order of 'I have just generated so much damn paperwork for someone, and that someone is probably me.'"
I'll be honest: there were parts where I was so very vexed with characterization. Part was Tchaikovsky's inconsistent and potentially sloppy characterization, while the other part was all me. There's one young woman, Lee, whose character did not feel consistant. She routines goes 'monster-hunting' experience with bestie and lover, continues after her lover disappears, and yet is absolutely flummoxed and overwhelmed when monsters turn out to be 'real.' Then there's ethics: our intrepid and supposedly moralistic intelligence agents have children, but literally give almost no thought to them. They have the kind of 'children' that harken back to imaginary, pre-social revolution times, where they are mentioned in books as a way of giving character 'background,' but seem to have absolutely no bearing on ethics or decision-making. There's a reason main characters are often childless--it's so we don't have to realize the characters are failing in being responsible to their progeny.
"She could feel herself teetering over a great well of despair. She had worked herself up for this; she had borrowed hope at a ruinous interest rate—one that she had no chance of paying back. She had, she forced herself to admit, been spectacularly stupid from start to finish."
The all-me part? Oh, that's because I like my characters to do a bit of learning, maybe have a bit of an arc. These people are largely static, despite great discoveries and supposed learning experiences, where horizons are, sometimes quite literally, opening around them. Lee is the only one who has any growth; Mal, Julian and Kay are all largely static, which is particularly frustrating as Tchaikovsky seems to take pleasure in showing us exactly where they could grow.
You're sensing my irritation, right? You should. At one point, I was actually reading for the academic interludes, which featured fascinating ideas on other evolutionary paths and tipping points. Creative and clever thought experiments that had their own drama, despite the faux-academic tone. I imagine if one had a whole book of these mini-epochal adventures, it might become dull (see Ursula LeGuin's Changing Planes), but cut between the action-filled human scenes, I found them intriguing. (mild spoilers)
I couldn't quite walk away: he'd tease me with an idea, so I'd read a little farther, become irritated, and then tickle my imagination again. He's good at stringing one along, that T. Then came the tipping point where I was hooked, and thoughts of leaving evaporated.
"This is a world where hard borders never existed: not between plant and animal, not between single and multicellular, not between species or individuals. It is a frontier town kind of world where the rules don’t apply. Something awoke when these creatures achieved a certain acreage, and what came to an awareness of itself was all of it. The world is a garden and the garden is a brain."
All that build up lead to an absolutely amazing final quarter. It looked to be heading one way, then he'd magician another possibility out of the sci-fi hat. What a pleasure it must have been for a writer, getting to play with all those possibilities! (spoiler!) Everything more I could say would be spoilers, so I won't. As an aside, if you thought Dark Matter failed to live up to the sci-fi premise, this is the book for you. I went from considering abandoning it, to a better mood, to wondering if it was another entry by T. into Sci-Fi Canon.
Because when he stops the teasing and it all comes together, it's just that good.
Many thanks to Phil and Nataliya for roles as wingmen
Structured with a dual narrative, it alternates more 'academic' pieces with a third-person limited viewpoint from one of a handful of characters. Although multiple narratives are a technique that often annoy me, Tchaikovsky uses it to good effect. The academic pieces are usually short, while the character narratives are full of action and conflict. He's also kind enough to avoid leaving the reader on a cliff-hanger with each section. The academic writings are taken from an imaginary book, 'Other Edens: Speculative Evolution and Intelligence,' and while they have a drier, more academic tone, each explores a world where what humanity understands as evolution followed a more divergent path.
"To win the arms race of this Cambrian is to have the strongest shell. It is to be hauled up from the sediment by the the anomalocarids' fearsome arms, ground between their spines, gnamed at by their toothed ring of a mouth, then abandoned for flimsier prey. From such a forge, here is what will fight its way to dominance... When at last they take to the land, their shells fend off the killer radiation of the sun and their respiratory surfaces hold enough water for brief seaside strolls. Their articulated legs are initially only strong enough to drag their jointed bellies in the sand, but that will change."
It is an extraordinarily long book that doesn't feel long at all, which says something for Tchaikovsky's ability to balance those edges with plotting. I found myself remembering the sympathetic spiders and irritating humans in Children of Time and wondered if he was making a similar point here.
"He lost most of the journey to that familiar adult tension that was a mix of “I should be doing something” and “I have possibly screwed up” with a side order of 'I have just generated so much damn paperwork for someone, and that someone is probably me.'"
I'll be honest: there were parts where I was so very vexed with characterization. Part was Tchaikovsky's inconsistent and potentially sloppy characterization, while the other part was all me. There's one young woman, Lee, whose character did not feel consistant. She routines goes 'monster-hunting' experience with bestie and lover, continues after her lover disappears, and yet is absolutely flummoxed and overwhelmed when monsters turn out to be 'real.' Then there's ethics: our intrepid and supposedly moralistic intelligence agents have children, but literally give almost no thought to them. They have the kind of 'children' that harken back to imaginary, pre-social revolution times, where they are mentioned in books as a way of giving character 'background,' but seem to have absolutely no bearing on ethics or decision-making. There's a reason main characters are often childless--it's so we don't have to realize the characters are failing in being responsible to their progeny.
"She could feel herself teetering over a great well of despair. She had worked herself up for this; she had borrowed hope at a ruinous interest rate—one that she had no chance of paying back. She had, she forced herself to admit, been spectacularly stupid from start to finish."
The all-me part? Oh, that's because I like my characters to do a bit of learning, maybe have a bit of an arc. These people are largely static, despite great discoveries and supposed learning experiences, where horizons are, sometimes quite literally, opening around them. Lee is the only one who has any growth; Mal, Julian and Kay are all largely static, which is particularly frustrating as Tchaikovsky seems to take pleasure in showing us exactly where they could grow.
You're sensing my irritation, right? You should. At one point, I was actually reading for the academic interludes, which featured fascinating ideas on other evolutionary paths and tipping points. Creative and clever thought experiments that had their own drama, despite the faux-academic tone. I imagine if one had a whole book of these mini-epochal adventures, it might become dull (see Ursula LeGuin's Changing Planes), but cut between the action-filled human scenes, I found them intriguing. (mild spoilers)
I couldn't quite walk away: he'd tease me with an idea, so I'd read a little farther, become irritated, and then tickle my imagination again. He's good at stringing one along, that T. Then came the tipping point where I was hooked, and thoughts of leaving evaporated.
"This is a world where hard borders never existed: not between plant and animal, not between single and multicellular, not between species or individuals. It is a frontier town kind of world where the rules don’t apply. Something awoke when these creatures achieved a certain acreage, and what came to an awareness of itself was all of it. The world is a garden and the garden is a brain."
All that build up lead to an absolutely amazing final quarter. It looked to be heading one way, then he'd magician another possibility out of the sci-fi hat. What a pleasure it must have been for a writer, getting to play with all those possibilities! (spoiler!) Everything more I could say would be spoilers, so I won't. As an aside, if you thought Dark Matter failed to live up to the sci-fi premise, this is the book for you. I went from considering abandoning it, to a better mood, to wondering if it was another entry by T. into Sci-Fi Canon.
Because when he stops the teasing and it all comes together, it's just that good.
Many thanks to Phil and Nataliya for roles as wingmen
May 15, 2021
Re-read 5/15/21:
Still love it! :) It's just as good the second time as the first.
And you know what? It's VERY good for the imagination. For us, as readers, to think through the implications and dream and dream about what all those others that might/could/should become a vast side-series.
You now, like Farscape on steroids. *sigh*
I WANT more of this book. I don't know how it'd be pulled off, but I still WANT more and more and more. :)
Original Review:
I just read one of my new favorites not just for this year... but perhaps for this entire decade.
Or rather, let's just scratch that and say it's one of my favorites.
Period.
Adrian Tchaikovsky himself said, about this book, "I have quite the trip in store for readers," and he wasn't joking around. The opening seems rather scientific and dry, and perhaps some people will appreciate the little primer on evolutionary science through deep time, the first building blocks of life through Earth's current cycle.
Hell, I was personally wondering what the hell it had to do with anything. Of course, with a little patience, it turns out to have EVERYTHING to do with EVERYTHING.
Adrian Tchaikovsky has repeatedly brought OTHER intelligent life to us in so many different forms and thought patterns. Just look at Children of Time (intelligent spiders butting heads with humans) or Children of Ruin (that includes intelligent squid) in a full space opera. Or let's look at his fantasy series with tons of animals (and insects) with their own societies in an epic fantasy! He has a thing for biology. And he takes it further in Doors of Eden than he's taken it anywhere else.
This book is simultaneously MORE accessible, more down-to-earth Modern Earth, than any other book (not including novellas) that he's ever written. But it is ALSO one of the hardest SF novels he's ever written.
Yeah. That tickles me to death, too. How can it be light and heavy at the same time? Because he pulls in real science, truly fantastically creative speculation on how Earth's own species could arise to intelligence if luck had JUST been on their side, and he wraps it all up with excellent modern technothriller sensibilities.
I can't even begin to count how many tropes Tchaikovsky brings in to stand on their head, change forms, and then come back out like a cyborg of its original form.
Or, I COULD, but then I'd be simply listing all the fantastic ideas and how he made them even more fantastic and how the novel kept growing and growing and growing in scope until I felt like it had forever ruined the best aspects of Sliders for me while also sticking a fork in the best First Contact novels I've ever read. :)
To sum up... this book should win all the awards. It's not only accessible, but it does all the Hard-SF ideas justice.
Still love it! :) It's just as good the second time as the first.
And you know what? It's VERY good for the imagination. For us, as readers, to think through the implications and dream and dream about what all those others that might/could/should become a vast side-series.
You now, like Farscape on steroids. *sigh*
I WANT more of this book. I don't know how it'd be pulled off, but I still WANT more and more and more. :)
Original Review:
I just read one of my new favorites not just for this year... but perhaps for this entire decade.
Or rather, let's just scratch that and say it's one of my favorites.
Period.
Adrian Tchaikovsky himself said, about this book, "I have quite the trip in store for readers," and he wasn't joking around. The opening seems rather scientific and dry, and perhaps some people will appreciate the little primer on evolutionary science through deep time, the first building blocks of life through Earth's current cycle.
Hell, I was personally wondering what the hell it had to do with anything. Of course, with a little patience, it turns out to have EVERYTHING to do with EVERYTHING.
Adrian Tchaikovsky has repeatedly brought OTHER intelligent life to us in so many different forms and thought patterns. Just look at Children of Time (intelligent spiders butting heads with humans) or Children of Ruin (that includes intelligent squid) in a full space opera. Or let's look at his fantasy series with tons of animals (and insects) with their own societies in an epic fantasy! He has a thing for biology. And he takes it further in Doors of Eden than he's taken it anywhere else.
This book is simultaneously MORE accessible, more down-to-earth Modern Earth, than any other book (not including novellas) that he's ever written. But it is ALSO one of the hardest SF novels he's ever written.
Yeah. That tickles me to death, too. How can it be light and heavy at the same time? Because he pulls in real science, truly fantastically creative speculation on how Earth's own species could arise to intelligence if luck had JUST been on their side, and he wraps it all up with excellent modern technothriller sensibilities.
I can't even begin to count how many tropes Tchaikovsky brings in to stand on their head, change forms, and then come back out like a cyborg of its original form.
Or, I COULD, but then I'd be simply listing all the fantastic ideas and how he made them even more fantastic and how the novel kept growing and growing and growing in scope until I felt like it had forever ruined the best aspects of Sliders for me while also sticking a fork in the best First Contact novels I've ever read. :)
To sum up... this book should win all the awards. It's not only accessible, but it does all the Hard-SF ideas justice.
March 4, 2020
I received an uncorrected proof copy of The Doors of Eden in exchange for an honest review. I would like to thank Adrian Tchaikovsky and Tor for the opportunity.
Four years ago, young lovers Lee and Mal went in search of the Birdman of Bodmin. The girls were cryptid hunters and they were fascinated by the unexplained including creatures such as the aforementioned Birdman, the Sasquatch and the Loch Ness Monster. During their hunt on the moors of Bodmin, events took a turn for the worse and only one of the girls returned from that holiday expedition. In current day London, Mal miraculously resurfaces yet Lee has no idea what transpired that day on the moors or where her girlfriend has been all this time. No contact. No phone calls. No messages.
"You ever get the feeling there are cracks in the world... my girlfriend fell into one somehow."
The back of the novel states that:
These strange disappearances have taken place since time began, as the unwary have fallen through the cracks between our worlds and others. But now these cracks are widening, and it's not just Mal who returned to Earth.
The Doors of Eden is truly epic is ambition and scale. The novel follows its main characters across many alternative Earths. Each world has changed - and creatures have evolved differently - across these multiple timelines. In Tchaikovsky's science fiction masterclass Children of Time, we were presented with highly intelligent spiders. Here, we're witness to extremely advanced rat-creatures, bird-like tribal dinosaurs, and science-savvy cavemen too. There are even village-sized insects that can act as flying vehicles. Tchaikovsky's imagination is bizarre, mindboggling yet at the same time is utterly brilliant.
The novel follows approximately six human point of view perspectives. These include the already mentioned Lee, MI5 agent Julian who is nothing like James Bond, transgender genius scientist Dr Kay Amal Khan, and ex-army type Lucas May. We, as readers, learn about the multiple different species, societies, advancements and Earths from very human perspectives. However, you could say that there is one viewpoint from a species that is not human but I will not go into any further details regarding this. The characters' stories cross over as the walls between Earths become thinner, meaning potential outcomes could be drastic and even Earth(s)-shattering. The majority of the characters are a pleasure to follow. They are likeable, well-developed and relatable. In addition to the main characters, I had a soft spot for the awesome Dr Rat and his translator, and also Mal's "cousin" friend Stig.
When reading Tchaikovsky's science fiction work I always get the feeling that I am reading something that is extremely special. The Doors of Eden come across as intelligent, well-researched, and incredibly detailed. Some of the science-specific language and the interludes written by the fictional Professor Ruth Emerson were a bit "over my head" at times yet this is possibly intentional because as a reader I learned to understand the complexities just as the characters themselves did. I'm afraid that I did skim-read a couple of the interludes to return to the main bulk of the story until I understood their importance and how they actually fit with the overall narrative. If I reread this novel I will not make this mistake again.
The imagery Tchaikovsky creates is sensational throughout, especially when depicting these alien worlds. Some of the set pieces are phenomenal. One moment springs to mind instantly which is when two Earths cross over when members of the ensemble are on the ninetieth floor of a skyscraper. The ending sequence(s) were intriguing and presented in a very clever way. Overall, The Doors of Eden was an outstanding and entertaining thriller that deserves to be Tchaikovsky's next science fiction megahit. Highly recommended.
"We're here because they trust us." Mal chuckled. "It's a million-to-one long shot, and only these two desperate lesbians can save the world. Perfect action movie material."
Four years ago, young lovers Lee and Mal went in search of the Birdman of Bodmin. The girls were cryptid hunters and they were fascinated by the unexplained including creatures such as the aforementioned Birdman, the Sasquatch and the Loch Ness Monster. During their hunt on the moors of Bodmin, events took a turn for the worse and only one of the girls returned from that holiday expedition. In current day London, Mal miraculously resurfaces yet Lee has no idea what transpired that day on the moors or where her girlfriend has been all this time. No contact. No phone calls. No messages.
"You ever get the feeling there are cracks in the world... my girlfriend fell into one somehow."
The back of the novel states that:
These strange disappearances have taken place since time began, as the unwary have fallen through the cracks between our worlds and others. But now these cracks are widening, and it's not just Mal who returned to Earth.
The Doors of Eden is truly epic is ambition and scale. The novel follows its main characters across many alternative Earths. Each world has changed - and creatures have evolved differently - across these multiple timelines. In Tchaikovsky's science fiction masterclass Children of Time, we were presented with highly intelligent spiders. Here, we're witness to extremely advanced rat-creatures, bird-like tribal dinosaurs, and science-savvy cavemen too. There are even village-sized insects that can act as flying vehicles. Tchaikovsky's imagination is bizarre, mindboggling yet at the same time is utterly brilliant.
The novel follows approximately six human point of view perspectives. These include the already mentioned Lee, MI5 agent Julian who is nothing like James Bond, transgender genius scientist Dr Kay Amal Khan, and ex-army type Lucas May. We, as readers, learn about the multiple different species, societies, advancements and Earths from very human perspectives. However, you could say that there is one viewpoint from a species that is not human but I will not go into any further details regarding this. The characters' stories cross over as the walls between Earths become thinner, meaning potential outcomes could be drastic and even Earth(s)-shattering. The majority of the characters are a pleasure to follow. They are likeable, well-developed and relatable. In addition to the main characters, I had a soft spot for the awesome Dr Rat and his translator, and also Mal's "cousin" friend Stig.
When reading Tchaikovsky's science fiction work I always get the feeling that I am reading something that is extremely special. The Doors of Eden come across as intelligent, well-researched, and incredibly detailed. Some of the science-specific language and the interludes written by the fictional Professor Ruth Emerson were a bit "over my head" at times yet this is possibly intentional because as a reader I learned to understand the complexities just as the characters themselves did. I'm afraid that I did skim-read a couple of the interludes to return to the main bulk of the story until I understood their importance and how they actually fit with the overall narrative. If I reread this novel I will not make this mistake again.
The imagery Tchaikovsky creates is sensational throughout, especially when depicting these alien worlds. Some of the set pieces are phenomenal. One moment springs to mind instantly which is when two Earths cross over when members of the ensemble are on the ninetieth floor of a skyscraper. The ending sequence(s) were intriguing and presented in a very clever way. Overall, The Doors of Eden was an outstanding and entertaining thriller that deserves to be Tchaikovsky's next science fiction megahit. Highly recommended.
"We're here because they trust us." Mal chuckled. "It's a million-to-one long shot, and only these two desperate lesbians can save the world. Perfect action movie material."
May 10, 2021
Thank heaven that’s over! It was so awful that I am afraid to pick up another book, lest I be put off reading all together. I look at the five star ratings and wonder what book that was, because surely anyone who has read more than five books in a lifetime can identify this as a lot of borrowed bollocks.
I accept that authors borrow from each other, to some extent. At least this one acknowledges as much, although the frequent mentions of Narnia eventually made want to scream and find a wardrobe to hide from this miserable story telling regardless of what world I might end up in.
The premise of multiple timeframes - multiple worlds - is familiar from other SF and actual science. Quantum physics could allow for such, if you want to stretch your mind that way and see how far you get before it breaks. However, the author makes no attempt to explain anything at all. We’re just supposed to buy into all of it anyway. Man I miss Crichton! He mixed science and science fiction so incredibly well! And yes, there are “Jurassic park” references in this book too.
“Good Girl”. [cringe]
If you like long, boring science fiction stories that mixes a lot of books and movies you are already familiar with, go ahead. You won’t find any interesting characters, only a happy lot of politically correctly diverse ones, without this bringing anything to the plot whatsoever. The author tries too hard here. Way too hard! If I got it correctly, they even tried to explain “transgender” to an alien entity. Oh, which reminds me, every alien creature from another earth with any kind of intelligence is smart enough to get human language and culture through fancy translation devices. Right.
You got this far, you know what’s coming: NOT recommended! Unless you are a masochist, in which case, go ahead and frolic in the misery.
I’m going to go look for a tooth paste I can brush my brain with to wipe this out permanently.
I accept that authors borrow from each other, to some extent. At least this one acknowledges as much, although the frequent mentions of Narnia eventually made want to scream and find a wardrobe to hide from this miserable story telling regardless of what world I might end up in.
The premise of multiple timeframes - multiple worlds - is familiar from other SF and actual science. Quantum physics could allow for such, if you want to stretch your mind that way and see how far you get before it breaks. However, the author makes no attempt to explain anything at all. We’re just supposed to buy into all of it anyway. Man I miss Crichton! He mixed science and science fiction so incredibly well! And yes, there are “Jurassic park” references in this book too.
“Good Girl”. [cringe]
If you like long, boring science fiction stories that mixes a lot of books and movies you are already familiar with, go ahead. You won’t find any interesting characters, only a happy lot of politically correctly diverse ones, without this bringing anything to the plot whatsoever. The author tries too hard here. Way too hard! If I got it correctly, they even tried to explain “transgender” to an alien entity. Oh, which reminds me, every alien creature from another earth with any kind of intelligence is smart enough to get human language and culture through fancy translation devices. Right.
You got this far, you know what’s coming: NOT recommended! Unless you are a masochist, in which case, go ahead and frolic in the misery.
I’m going to go look for a tooth paste I can brush my brain with to wipe this out permanently.
August 18, 2020
Adrian Tchaikovsky has always been one of my "must read" authors. Part of the reason why is that he is so incredibly adept at creating magnificent and compelling stories across multiple genres. Over the years he has written some excellent science-fiction, space opera, as well as epic fantasy. If you get a chance to check out some of his previous works, you will see exactly what I'm talking about.
I had no idea that Adrian had a brand new book coming out this Spring (May 28th to be precise) until it showed up one day on my doorstep. Thank you to publisher Tor for graciously sending me a copy of his latest, THE DOORS OF EDEN. As soon as I saw the stunning cover and read the summary on the back, I just couldn't wait to dig in.
THE DOORS OF EDEN begins as partners and best friends Lee and Mal are embarking on a bit of a road trip adventure to Bodmin Moor. You see the two, besides being very much in love, are are also very much cryptid enthusiasts and have been interested in legendary monsters like Nessie, Bigfoot, Yeti, etc... for as long as they can remember. One day while looking at some online cryptid videos, they come across one showing a farm not too far from their home. As the video is about to cut out, a creature appears in the background for just a few seconds. The image is somewhat difficult to make out and could very likely be a hoax, but it is so haunting and nags at them enough that they eventually decide to pay a visit to Bodmin Moor to see for themselves.
Something terrifying happens though when they investigate the farm and Mal inexplicably vanishes into thin air. There is no body found. It's as if she was there one second and gone the next. Lee struggles to understand exactly what happened on that night and after four years go by with no answers or clues as to Mal's whereabouts, she gives up any hope of ever seeing her again. That is until Mal calls her one day. Could it really be her after all these years? Or is it just a prankster playing some sick joke on Lee? It really sounds like Mal though, but that can't be possible. Can it?
Coupled with the story of Lee and Mal is that of MI5 government employee Julian Sabreur, former army grunt Lucas May, and physicist Kay Amal Khan. They have been aware for years of something otherworldly happening on the Moors as well as other locations around England. They believe that they may have discovered a crack in this world that allows people to travel to a parallel Earth where hideous monsters live. The problem is these cracks can also allow those monsters access to our world too. As these cracks keep getting bigger and greater in number the race to discover how to close them, if that is even possible, could ultimately determine the fate of humanity.
Wow, was that a thrill ride that kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time that I was reading it. It is kind of difficult to pinpoint what genre this book falls into. It's also what I loved about it quite frankly. Part science-fiction novel, part portal fiction, part bio-thriller, part mystery, all combining to make one heck of an epic story in the end. It delivers on every front. This was so refreshing and came at exactly the right time for me as I have been reading a lot of standard fantasy and SF lately. But THE DOORS OF EDEN simply defies convention as Adrian Tchaikovsky once again proves that he can't be pigeon-holed into any one genre category.
Being a bit of a cryptid fan myself, this book was the best of both worlds for me as it scratched that itch as well as gave me a fascinating SFF story to digest as well. The characters are so well done and each has their own motivation (some not exactly ethical) for discovering what happened on that fateful night on Bodmin Moor. This book is also creepy as hell in certain parts and it kept me completely engaged as I couldn't believe what I was reading sometimes. In my opinion this is one of the more brilliantly inventive SFF books to come along in a long time. It reminded me of some of my favorite Neal Stephenson books, but unlike Neal's novels, Adrian Tchaikovsky really knows how to ramp up the tension and always delivers a stunning conclusion that satisfies.
Be forewarned that there are a lot of big ideas within these pages and at times things can get pretty involved. So you very much have to pay attention to every detail as the story unfolds. Another thing I should mention is that there are some brief interludes that appear every few chapters. These interludes explain the biological evolution and history of a mysterious race of creature spanning thousands of years. This has an essential bearing on the story so you definitely do not want to skim through these. I just can't say enough about how awesome this book was and I hope that everyone decides to check out THE DOORS OF EDEN by Adrian Tchaikovsky. It is a wild journey that I highly recommend to everyone who loves a phenomenal story that you can really sink your teeth into!
I had no idea that Adrian had a brand new book coming out this Spring (May 28th to be precise) until it showed up one day on my doorstep. Thank you to publisher Tor for graciously sending me a copy of his latest, THE DOORS OF EDEN. As soon as I saw the stunning cover and read the summary on the back, I just couldn't wait to dig in.
THE DOORS OF EDEN begins as partners and best friends Lee and Mal are embarking on a bit of a road trip adventure to Bodmin Moor. You see the two, besides being very much in love, are are also very much cryptid enthusiasts and have been interested in legendary monsters like Nessie, Bigfoot, Yeti, etc... for as long as they can remember. One day while looking at some online cryptid videos, they come across one showing a farm not too far from their home. As the video is about to cut out, a creature appears in the background for just a few seconds. The image is somewhat difficult to make out and could very likely be a hoax, but it is so haunting and nags at them enough that they eventually decide to pay a visit to Bodmin Moor to see for themselves.
Something terrifying happens though when they investigate the farm and Mal inexplicably vanishes into thin air. There is no body found. It's as if she was there one second and gone the next. Lee struggles to understand exactly what happened on that night and after four years go by with no answers or clues as to Mal's whereabouts, she gives up any hope of ever seeing her again. That is until Mal calls her one day. Could it really be her after all these years? Or is it just a prankster playing some sick joke on Lee? It really sounds like Mal though, but that can't be possible. Can it?
Coupled with the story of Lee and Mal is that of MI5 government employee Julian Sabreur, former army grunt Lucas May, and physicist Kay Amal Khan. They have been aware for years of something otherworldly happening on the Moors as well as other locations around England. They believe that they may have discovered a crack in this world that allows people to travel to a parallel Earth where hideous monsters live. The problem is these cracks can also allow those monsters access to our world too. As these cracks keep getting bigger and greater in number the race to discover how to close them, if that is even possible, could ultimately determine the fate of humanity.
Wow, was that a thrill ride that kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time that I was reading it. It is kind of difficult to pinpoint what genre this book falls into. It's also what I loved about it quite frankly. Part science-fiction novel, part portal fiction, part bio-thriller, part mystery, all combining to make one heck of an epic story in the end. It delivers on every front. This was so refreshing and came at exactly the right time for me as I have been reading a lot of standard fantasy and SF lately. But THE DOORS OF EDEN simply defies convention as Adrian Tchaikovsky once again proves that he can't be pigeon-holed into any one genre category.
Being a bit of a cryptid fan myself, this book was the best of both worlds for me as it scratched that itch as well as gave me a fascinating SFF story to digest as well. The characters are so well done and each has their own motivation (some not exactly ethical) for discovering what happened on that fateful night on Bodmin Moor. This book is also creepy as hell in certain parts and it kept me completely engaged as I couldn't believe what I was reading sometimes. In my opinion this is one of the more brilliantly inventive SFF books to come along in a long time. It reminded me of some of my favorite Neal Stephenson books, but unlike Neal's novels, Adrian Tchaikovsky really knows how to ramp up the tension and always delivers a stunning conclusion that satisfies.
Be forewarned that there are a lot of big ideas within these pages and at times things can get pretty involved. So you very much have to pay attention to every detail as the story unfolds. Another thing I should mention is that there are some brief interludes that appear every few chapters. These interludes explain the biological evolution and history of a mysterious race of creature spanning thousands of years. This has an essential bearing on the story so you definitely do not want to skim through these. I just can't say enough about how awesome this book was and I hope that everyone decides to check out THE DOORS OF EDEN by Adrian Tchaikovsky. It is a wild journey that I highly recommend to everyone who loves a phenomenal story that you can really sink your teeth into!
Read
June 6, 2021Terrific. Parallel worlds SF based on "what if intelligent life had evolved at earlier points in the world's history" which plays about with how it would look in the case of, you know, mats of plankton, or squiddy things in an endless ice age, and so on. I've been doing a bit of non fiction reading about the various eras of the world which made this hugely enjoyable. The characters are interesting and engaging (and, not unrelated, majority female, some queer/trans, not all white), and the plot structure is ingenious and has some important things to say. A pleasure to read and very thoroughly up my street.
August 27, 2020
Netgalley.
Bullet points:
* Tchaikovsky is a “will read anything” author for me.
* This has parallel worlds and is mostly science fiction.
* Lots of evolutionary biology. If evolutionary speculation and analysis of how life on our world could have evolved differently isn’t your jam, this probably isn’t for you.
* If you always wanted to know what the world could look like if there were more lemurs or giant centipedes, this is for you.
* lesbians, trans characters and more diversity.
* Possibly a bit on the nose politically, but not more so than Children of Time.
Full review:
Adrian Tchaikovsky is one of my must-buy authors. He effortlessly moves between science fiction and fantasy, and he makes it look easy. His vast imagination is mindblowing, and his ideas always turn into fascinating thought experiments.
Unlike Children of Time, Doors of Eden probably isn't considered hard science fiction since it deals with parallel worlds and some of what slips through the cracks and into our world is beyond what we can possibly imagine.
Those familiar with Tchaikovsky's work won't be surprised to hear that there's an immense amount of evolutionary biology within these pages. And some of the creatures have far too many legs.
Let me be blunt: if evolutionary speculation and the analysis of how life on our world could have evolved differently isn't your jam, then this book is not for you. If, however, you enjoy evolutionary thought experiments and always wanted to know what the world would look like if there were more lemurs or giant centipedes, then pick Doors of Eden up right now!
Tchaikovsky delivers a very diverse cast. I always enjoy reading about lesbian and trans characters that feel fleshed out and three-dimensional.
I'd argue that Doors of Eden is possibly a bit on the nose politically. Tchaikovsky's worldviews basically drip from the pages, but I'd say the same is true for Children of Time and its sequel.
While the plot and especially the many parallel worlds are complex, Doors of Eden never feels overwhelming. My knowledge of science is a tad lacking to say the least, yet Tchaikovsky never lost me. It's a compelling read and despite its size I read it in two days because I simply didn't want to put it down.
I recommend this book to everyone who has an interest in parallel worlds and sometimes stands in front of the mirror wondering how different the world might look today if evolution had gone a different way. (Yes, yes, I do that. Poor mirror probably thinks I'm a bit...odd.)
I mean the New Scientist reviewed it and that is not the place I usually look for my next read.
Basically: read this! It's one hell of a ride!
Bullet points:
* Tchaikovsky is a “will read anything” author for me.
* This has parallel worlds and is mostly science fiction.
* Lots of evolutionary biology. If evolutionary speculation and analysis of how life on our world could have evolved differently isn’t your jam, this probably isn’t for you.
* If you always wanted to know what the world could look like if there were more lemurs or giant centipedes, this is for you.
* lesbians, trans characters and more diversity.
* Possibly a bit on the nose politically, but not more so than Children of Time.
Full review:
Adrian Tchaikovsky is one of my must-buy authors. He effortlessly moves between science fiction and fantasy, and he makes it look easy. His vast imagination is mindblowing, and his ideas always turn into fascinating thought experiments.
Unlike Children of Time, Doors of Eden probably isn't considered hard science fiction since it deals with parallel worlds and some of what slips through the cracks and into our world is beyond what we can possibly imagine.
Those familiar with Tchaikovsky's work won't be surprised to hear that there's an immense amount of evolutionary biology within these pages. And some of the creatures have far too many legs.
Let me be blunt: if evolutionary speculation and the analysis of how life on our world could have evolved differently isn't your jam, then this book is not for you. If, however, you enjoy evolutionary thought experiments and always wanted to know what the world would look like if there were more lemurs or giant centipedes, then pick Doors of Eden up right now!
Tchaikovsky delivers a very diverse cast. I always enjoy reading about lesbian and trans characters that feel fleshed out and three-dimensional.
I'd argue that Doors of Eden is possibly a bit on the nose politically. Tchaikovsky's worldviews basically drip from the pages, but I'd say the same is true for Children of Time and its sequel.
While the plot and especially the many parallel worlds are complex, Doors of Eden never feels overwhelming. My knowledge of science is a tad lacking to say the least, yet Tchaikovsky never lost me. It's a compelling read and despite its size I read it in two days because I simply didn't want to put it down.
I recommend this book to everyone who has an interest in parallel worlds and sometimes stands in front of the mirror wondering how different the world might look today if evolution had gone a different way. (Yes, yes, I do that. Poor mirror probably thinks I'm a bit...odd.)
I mean the New Scientist reviewed it and that is not the place I usually look for my next read.
Basically: read this! It's one hell of a ride!
Want to read
January 15, 2021UPDATE: $2.99 on Kindle US today 1/14/20
December 13, 2022
I never thought I would rate an Adrian Tchaikovsky book so low but here I am doing it! Frankly I found this one way too long and way too explanatory with very little happening. At first I thought "wow this is clever" but that soon changed into "really, do we have to have more of this?"
Some of the characters could have been great. I had high hopes for Mal and Lee, and for Julian and Alison, but neither couple had enough page time to really grab me. Khan could have been superb but again she had to share the pages with so many people and alien characters that she did not achieve her potential.
By the end I was left in a daze wondering what it was all really about. Probably my own fault that I lost concentration from time to time, but then is it not the author's job to maintain his reader's interest? Oh well, I usually hand out five stars to this author's books so one failure (for me - many other people loved it) is not so bad.
Some of the characters could have been great. I had high hopes for Mal and Lee, and for Julian and Alison, but neither couple had enough page time to really grab me. Khan could have been superb but again she had to share the pages with so many people and alien characters that she did not achieve her potential.
By the end I was left in a daze wondering what it was all really about. Probably my own fault that I lost concentration from time to time, but then is it not the author's job to maintain his reader's interest? Oh well, I usually hand out five stars to this author's books so one failure (for me - many other people loved it) is not so bad.
May 22, 2020
‘If it was Narnia, it was a Narnia where the White Witch had won. Always winter, forever and forever, in a world that had died a hundred million years before lions might have evolved.’
I’ve heard it said that Adrian Tchaikovsky is an incredible writer. I’ve heard The Doors of Eden hailed on Goodreads as ‘an extraordinary feat of the imagination’. Well, I’m here to say I wholeheartedly agree.
This is a multiple of firsts for me, as not only was this my first novel by Tchaikovsky, but this was also the first contemporary sci-fi I have read. I must note, I had some reservations to begin with - I’ll freely admit to not really being a fan of contemporary settings as I like to escape into worlds that have very little connection to our present. Yet I found Tchaikovsky’s prose to have a captivating quality to it, one that slowly drew me in and allowed me to vividly visualise the scene and the characters. There was also an underlying atmosphere of creepiness, a sort of haunted feeling, which held my curiosity.
The Doors of Eden begins with two best friends and secret lovers - Lee and Mal, deciding to take an expedition to Bodmin Moor. You see, Lee and Mal had an unusual passion, they were both Cryptid fanatics, who loved going in search of legendary fantastical monsters. You know the sort, BigFoot, Loch Ness, Abominable Snowmen, that kind of thing. So naturally, when they discover a YouTube video of a farm where a mysterious creature appears, their need to investigate could not be held back. Without giving away too much, I’ll say that their investigation goes direly wrong when one of the young girls disappears without a trace. What follows from that is the passing of four years, at which point the girl unexpectedly returns. But where has she been? And why is she eerily not like herself?
As we meet more characters along the way we see that Tchaikovsky creates a tapestry of interwoven plots, and that the scope is far grander than it once appeared to be. Our world is in peril, but it is not just our world, but every world; every earth that exists, spanning many timelines, is on the brink of destruction, and it lies upon humans, aliens and monsters to save the day. Tchaikovsky deftly brings in themes of evolution, prejudice, he explores the Many Universe Theory, and he blends together multiple genres seamlessly. Part sci-fi, part portal fantasy, even part thriller, Tchaikovsky brings these elements all together to deliver quite an epic, thought-provoking novel indeed, and it is one which entirely awed me.
Although at first glance all these notions may feel overwhelming, or overly complex - I personally never found myself lost. My knowledge of physics and maths is lacking to say the least, and yes there is a lot of those ideas and technical terminology flying around here, but Tchaikovsky handles it with skill. For example, Dr Khan is a renowned physicist, and she is a fundamental character in the cause for saving the multiverse, so naturally she would explain her theories in a very technical way. Yet there were characters like our two young girls, Lee and Mal, who would either have Khan explain things in terms they understood, or they would explain in their own, more accessible words, relaying essentially what Khan was meaning. My point is, I felt compelled to read on as it is a fascinating journey, and everything does eventually become clarified. There is also much humour peppered throughout, which made even the more complex scenes highly entertaining.
‘Eclipsing the sky like a sign of the end times was a... goddamn gigantic woodlouse thing. Lucas stared and found that it didn’t matter. Things were already so sincerely fucked up that adding extra impossible monsters couldn’t ruin his day any more than it already was.
I mean, why the hell not?’
Yet despite this immense narrative arc, Tchaikovsky doesn’t compromise on his characterisation. Throughout the book, I gained the impression that he is adept at writing characters in a realistic, and emotive manner. They each are diverse, have flaws and vulnerabilities, and we grow to understand their motivations - even the villains. I feel that with multiple POV’s we were given enough space to really get under the skin of each character, to feel for them, and learn what makes them tick. However, it is the monsters which stole my heart. And I use the term ‘monster’ very lightly here because a lot of these alien creatures were less monstrous, and less deadly, than some of the humans were!
Hold onto your butts, I’m about to get a little gushy here!
I cannot express enough how amazing, creepy and crazy the world-building was in this novel! I was told that Tchaikovsky has a love for bugs, and yes a giant woodlouse and cockroaches and centipedes do appear, and also yes, they most definitely are gross, but my god, he makes them so cool! Then as we discover other earths, the reader is treated to an array of birdmen, dinosaurs, colonies of super enhanced rats, aliens, monsters, even killer cats and highly developed lemurs. Sure at times things got pretty bizarre, but frankly, I loved it because of its weirdness. For a reader who adores monsters and outlandish creatures, this was simply phenomenal.
‘These creatures could meet a thing as alien as a human on their home turf and be curious, not murderous.’
When I began reaching the end of The Doors of Eden, I realised that this ending could possibly be a complete hit or a miss for me, as I’m not usually fond of open endings. You can imagine my relief then, when I actually felt satisfied by the turn of events, even though I was left with many questions. I do believe that the ending was actually quite fitting, I admired its boldness, and it left a myriad of ideas which Tchaikovsky could possibly return to in the future, and so I was content. In fact you could call me mindblown, because well... I was and still am!
ARC provided by UK Tor in exchange for an honest review. All quotes used are taken from an ARC and are subject to change upon publication. The Doors of Eden will be released on 20th August 2020 - you can pre-order your copy here; https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doors-Eden-A...
I’ve heard it said that Adrian Tchaikovsky is an incredible writer. I’ve heard The Doors of Eden hailed on Goodreads as ‘an extraordinary feat of the imagination’. Well, I’m here to say I wholeheartedly agree.
This is a multiple of firsts for me, as not only was this my first novel by Tchaikovsky, but this was also the first contemporary sci-fi I have read. I must note, I had some reservations to begin with - I’ll freely admit to not really being a fan of contemporary settings as I like to escape into worlds that have very little connection to our present. Yet I found Tchaikovsky’s prose to have a captivating quality to it, one that slowly drew me in and allowed me to vividly visualise the scene and the characters. There was also an underlying atmosphere of creepiness, a sort of haunted feeling, which held my curiosity.
The Doors of Eden begins with two best friends and secret lovers - Lee and Mal, deciding to take an expedition to Bodmin Moor. You see, Lee and Mal had an unusual passion, they were both Cryptid fanatics, who loved going in search of legendary fantastical monsters. You know the sort, BigFoot, Loch Ness, Abominable Snowmen, that kind of thing. So naturally, when they discover a YouTube video of a farm where a mysterious creature appears, their need to investigate could not be held back. Without giving away too much, I’ll say that their investigation goes direly wrong when one of the young girls disappears without a trace. What follows from that is the passing of four years, at which point the girl unexpectedly returns. But where has she been? And why is she eerily not like herself?
As we meet more characters along the way we see that Tchaikovsky creates a tapestry of interwoven plots, and that the scope is far grander than it once appeared to be. Our world is in peril, but it is not just our world, but every world; every earth that exists, spanning many timelines, is on the brink of destruction, and it lies upon humans, aliens and monsters to save the day. Tchaikovsky deftly brings in themes of evolution, prejudice, he explores the Many Universe Theory, and he blends together multiple genres seamlessly. Part sci-fi, part portal fantasy, even part thriller, Tchaikovsky brings these elements all together to deliver quite an epic, thought-provoking novel indeed, and it is one which entirely awed me.
Although at first glance all these notions may feel overwhelming, or overly complex - I personally never found myself lost. My knowledge of physics and maths is lacking to say the least, and yes there is a lot of those ideas and technical terminology flying around here, but Tchaikovsky handles it with skill. For example, Dr Khan is a renowned physicist, and she is a fundamental character in the cause for saving the multiverse, so naturally she would explain her theories in a very technical way. Yet there were characters like our two young girls, Lee and Mal, who would either have Khan explain things in terms they understood, or they would explain in their own, more accessible words, relaying essentially what Khan was meaning. My point is, I felt compelled to read on as it is a fascinating journey, and everything does eventually become clarified. There is also much humour peppered throughout, which made even the more complex scenes highly entertaining.
‘Eclipsing the sky like a sign of the end times was a... goddamn gigantic woodlouse thing. Lucas stared and found that it didn’t matter. Things were already so sincerely fucked up that adding extra impossible monsters couldn’t ruin his day any more than it already was.
I mean, why the hell not?’
Yet despite this immense narrative arc, Tchaikovsky doesn’t compromise on his characterisation. Throughout the book, I gained the impression that he is adept at writing characters in a realistic, and emotive manner. They each are diverse, have flaws and vulnerabilities, and we grow to understand their motivations - even the villains. I feel that with multiple POV’s we were given enough space to really get under the skin of each character, to feel for them, and learn what makes them tick. However, it is the monsters which stole my heart. And I use the term ‘monster’ very lightly here because a lot of these alien creatures were less monstrous, and less deadly, than some of the humans were!
Hold onto your butts, I’m about to get a little gushy here!
I cannot express enough how amazing, creepy and crazy the world-building was in this novel! I was told that Tchaikovsky has a love for bugs, and yes a giant woodlouse and cockroaches and centipedes do appear, and also yes, they most definitely are gross, but my god, he makes them so cool! Then as we discover other earths, the reader is treated to an array of birdmen, dinosaurs, colonies of super enhanced rats, aliens, monsters, even killer cats and highly developed lemurs. Sure at times things got pretty bizarre, but frankly, I loved it because of its weirdness. For a reader who adores monsters and outlandish creatures, this was simply phenomenal.
‘These creatures could meet a thing as alien as a human on their home turf and be curious, not murderous.’
When I began reaching the end of The Doors of Eden, I realised that this ending could possibly be a complete hit or a miss for me, as I’m not usually fond of open endings. You can imagine my relief then, when I actually felt satisfied by the turn of events, even though I was left with many questions. I do believe that the ending was actually quite fitting, I admired its boldness, and it left a myriad of ideas which Tchaikovsky could possibly return to in the future, and so I was content. In fact you could call me mindblown, because well... I was and still am!
ARC provided by UK Tor in exchange for an honest review. All quotes used are taken from an ARC and are subject to change upon publication. The Doors of Eden will be released on 20th August 2020 - you can pre-order your copy here; https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doors-Eden-A...
September 7, 2021
...
🖤
In my wildest moments, I did not, never ever contemplate Tchaikovsky could write a book as shitty as this.
I don't know if it's some weird proud thing for some scifi writers to write a book that only serious science people can maybe appreciate but this whole "book" belonged in a science publication.
Dude wasn't even trying to make an engaging plot and God forbid he took time out to write characters that would even try to be engaging.
2 lesbian saving the world? Please. Do authors just put in non heterosexual characters to meet some sort of quota?
Like hey, look at me I've got lesbians here and wait for it 🥁🥁 a trans woman too.
The Holy grails of inclusion in literature.
Then I'm going to throw in some bigot character just for the hell of it because why not. Does it really do anything for the plot? Nah. But doesn't your blood just boil when bigots do/say/ act (in) disgustingly bigot ways?
Other characters? 🤔....Yes, I'm going to add in this special agent, Julian, that's going to be crippled with guilt every time he hangs out with his female colleague because he maybe likes her 🤷🏾♀️ & I'm going to introduce his wife as this silent character that keeps giving him disapproving looks (she also writes erotic fiction), because why the hell not.
👽 characters...interlude interlude interlude even more interlude.
Really should have clued in on the trajectory this book was aiming for, when the endorsement on it was from a science publication.
Just because you wrote a bunch of science jargon, doesn't mean this is a good science fiction novel.
Also it just hit me that it really must be nice to be an established popular author cos how did they even manage to market this book as a good one? Must be nice.
All in all, not opposed to anyone binning this book.
All the characters had the emotional range of a dead fish conveniently explained away by them being British. Because, you know Brits have that stiff upper lip thing stereotype going for them.
You're better off reading a science journal instead if you're really into evolution.
Miss me with this book.
May 16, 2021
A fucking reality grenade! *lol*
Imagine a universe in which there are myriad Earths. Every parallel Earth is different with different dominant species. Imagine all these branching timelines being done on purpose to find what works best. You know, evolution but on a whole new level. This is the universe of this book.
In the beginning, two English girls are in love and love hunting monsters (think Nessie or Big Foot). One day, they go to Bodmin Moor and one of them, Mal, disappears. But she‘s not dead as everyone had feared. However, when she resurfaces 4 years later, she‘s changed and she hasn‘t come alone.
Suddenly, „agents“ walk our Earth and there appear to be more and more cracks between the different Edens/Earths resulting in different dominant species clashing with each other. Because something is coming and it will end every single Eden/Earth if not stopped. But for anyone to be able to stop it, one must first know what „it“ is. You know, knowledge being power.
Kidnapped scientists, „wayfarers“ between the Edens, mysterious lectures as interludes between the chapters - this book was full of great scientific concepts and fascinating what-ifs.
It‘s really hard trying to sum up this book, especially since I don‘t want to give away too much. Suffice it to say that there is an interesting group of characters of different species all trying to untangle timelines and figuring out the respective evolution for each Eden/Earth. Their interactions are indeed interesting but nothing compared to the discoveries. I seriously loved all the what-ifs, such as a global ice sheet being a supercomputer on one Earth or communist cavemen or one dominant species not actually being the big bad hunter but the big bad hunter being used by a sort of symbiont/parasite.
The truly big question, though, is: is there a plan behind it all? Is there an original Earth? A Universe #0? Is there a sort of creator (don‘t think God, think scientists with a lab experiment or think accident)?
Following the discoveries, the breadcrumbs so to speak, was seriously cool and I adore the author for how he handled the alternate-Earth-trope.
It is noteworthy, however, that on top of all of this the author also managed to include his typical examination of different human psychologies (mostly thanks to Rov). No matter where you look, the story is deep and rich.
Add to that a wonderful array of literary references that always please this little bookworm‘s heart as well as a fast-paced plot that had me hooked from start to finish and you have one of the best scifi books I‘ve read. This should be right up there with the big names, honestly! How this hasn‘t won more than just the one award is a mystery to me but maybe intelligent scifi is out of style right now. I can only hope that will change again and that this book will not have been forgotten until then. It would be a great loss.
Imagine a universe in which there are myriad Earths. Every parallel Earth is different with different dominant species. Imagine all these branching timelines being done on purpose to find what works best. You know, evolution but on a whole new level. This is the universe of this book.
In the beginning, two English girls are in love and love hunting monsters (think Nessie or Big Foot). One day, they go to Bodmin Moor and one of them, Mal, disappears. But she‘s not dead as everyone had feared. However, when she resurfaces 4 years later, she‘s changed and she hasn‘t come alone.
Suddenly, „agents“ walk our Earth and there appear to be more and more cracks between the different Edens/Earths resulting in different dominant species clashing with each other. Because something is coming and it will end every single Eden/Earth if not stopped. But for anyone to be able to stop it, one must first know what „it“ is. You know, knowledge being power.
Kidnapped scientists, „wayfarers“ between the Edens, mysterious lectures as interludes between the chapters - this book was full of great scientific concepts and fascinating what-ifs.
It‘s really hard trying to sum up this book, especially since I don‘t want to give away too much. Suffice it to say that there is an interesting group of characters of different species all trying to untangle timelines and figuring out the respective evolution for each Eden/Earth. Their interactions are indeed interesting but nothing compared to the discoveries. I seriously loved all the what-ifs, such as a global ice sheet being a supercomputer on one Earth or communist cavemen or one dominant species not actually being the big bad hunter but the big bad hunter being used by a sort of symbiont/parasite.
The truly big question, though, is: is there a plan behind it all? Is there an original Earth? A Universe #0? Is there a sort of creator (don‘t think God, think scientists with a lab experiment or think accident)?
Following the discoveries, the breadcrumbs so to speak, was seriously cool and I adore the author for how he handled the alternate-Earth-trope.
It is noteworthy, however, that on top of all of this the author also managed to include his typical examination of different human psychologies (mostly thanks to Rov). No matter where you look, the story is deep and rich.
Add to that a wonderful array of literary references that always please this little bookworm‘s heart as well as a fast-paced plot that had me hooked from start to finish and you have one of the best scifi books I‘ve read. This should be right up there with the big names, honestly! How this hasn‘t won more than just the one award is a mystery to me but maybe intelligent scifi is out of style right now. I can only hope that will change again and that this book will not have been forgotten until then. It would be a great loss.
August 26, 2020
Stories involving multiple timelines, i.e. the multiverse, are a well worn sci-fi trope by now, going back decades. For me they always bring to mind the Star Trek mirror universe episodes where the crew meets evil versions of themselves, easily discernible by their sinister goatees. These stories generally riff on our reality in fairly minor ways, though sometimes with interesting and profound implications. Adrian Tchaikovsky, however, takes this concept to the next level, and in a completely original dimension. Ever so deftly, he introduces the notion of timelines divergent not from the point of view of an individual or some historical event, but rather on the much grander and more profound scale of the evolution of life and emergence of sentience on Earth.
They were all living in what was simply a possibility. All of reality, which had seemed so robust and enduring, was merely the fevered dream of a dying god. In much the same way, a single-celled creature might see its drop of water as a vast and eternal ocean even as the sun came out of the clouds to dry it up.
The Doors to Eden is essentially a by-the-seat-of-your-pants hard sci-fi thriller, balanced with mind blowing scientific theory on evolutionary biology and Tchaikovsky's wild imagination. It will make you question your understanding of the history of the Earth, our universe and our place in it, as well as the meaning and significance of sentience. The story is not only thrilling, but endearing and humorous, masterfully written with exceptional balance and pacing. A central driving theme, also shared with Star Trek, is the notion of IDIC - Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations - the idea that we are all made better, stronger and smarter, by combining the diverse talents and perspectives of everyone.
Along with Children of Time and Children of Ruin, The Doors to Eden really establishes Adrian Tchaikovsky, in my mind, among the true giants of contemporary science fiction.
They were all living in what was simply a possibility. All of reality, which had seemed so robust and enduring, was merely the fevered dream of a dying god. In much the same way, a single-celled creature might see its drop of water as a vast and eternal ocean even as the sun came out of the clouds to dry it up.
The Doors to Eden is essentially a by-the-seat-of-your-pants hard sci-fi thriller, balanced with mind blowing scientific theory on evolutionary biology and Tchaikovsky's wild imagination. It will make you question your understanding of the history of the Earth, our universe and our place in it, as well as the meaning and significance of sentience. The story is not only thrilling, but endearing and humorous, masterfully written with exceptional balance and pacing. A central driving theme, also shared with Star Trek, is the notion of IDIC - Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations - the idea that we are all made better, stronger and smarter, by combining the diverse talents and perspectives of everyone.
Along with Children of Time and Children of Ruin, The Doors to Eden really establishes Adrian Tchaikovsky, in my mind, among the true giants of contemporary science fiction.
October 14, 2020
THIS. WAS. GLORIOUS! SO DAMN GLORIOUS!
I'll need some time with my English dictionary to get a decent review together. This is definitely one of those books where I wished I could have a category above 5 stars, for the really outstanding, mindboggling works I've read.
I'll need some time with my English dictionary to get a decent review together. This is definitely one of those books where I wished I could have a category above 5 stars, for the really outstanding, mindboggling works I've read.
August 25, 2020
* I received this free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review *
This was a book I was really looking forward to as soon as I heard that Adrian Tchaikovsky had written a new SF novel (a.k.a doorstop) and after I had the privilege to hear him and Christopher Paolini discussing their new novels and the research and ideas that went into them. The book did not disappoint, and I ended up doing a combination of reading and also audiobooking it.
The story is a big one, but it starts off fairly small with Mal and Lee who are a lesbian couple who love to hunt for cryptic/supernatural or weird things. They're the best of friends as well as lovers, and every time they have a chance they go together to explore somewhere that weird things could be, like the Bodmin Moor where they are hinting Birdmen. Once there, things are immediately weird and Lee ends up doubting all her memories, whilst Mal is missing for more than 4 years...
The plot which starts as a mystery, grows in the telling with additional characters and plots being brought in. We have a government Physicist, Kay, an MI5 agent, Julien and his friend and co-worker Alison. They all get brought into the story when some sort of veiled threats or maybe alien threats are being brought against Kay, and then weird, weird things start to link them to the disappearance of Mal and the footage they have of that.
Eventually, the plot is spanning all sorts of times and beyond, and it's quite an epic conclusion. I think this is certainly a story which builds in the telling and I really enjoyed the journey through the science and beyond.
There's also dinosaurs, evolution, biology and more. The interludes of the book tell us about all sorts of changing cultures and creatures throughout the ages, and eventually we see how these research interludes connect into the overall plot too.
Having read Tchaikovsky's Children of Time I am confident that if you like one you will like the other, and I definitely recommend this. I ended up giving it 4*s overall, and I think that it's a solid SF standalone which was hard to put down :)
This was a book I was really looking forward to as soon as I heard that Adrian Tchaikovsky had written a new SF novel (a.k.a doorstop) and after I had the privilege to hear him and Christopher Paolini discussing their new novels and the research and ideas that went into them. The book did not disappoint, and I ended up doing a combination of reading and also audiobooking it.
The story is a big one, but it starts off fairly small with Mal and Lee who are a lesbian couple who love to hunt for cryptic/supernatural or weird things. They're the best of friends as well as lovers, and every time they have a chance they go together to explore somewhere that weird things could be, like the Bodmin Moor where they are hinting Birdmen. Once there, things are immediately weird and Lee ends up doubting all her memories, whilst Mal is missing for more than 4 years...
The plot which starts as a mystery, grows in the telling with additional characters and plots being brought in. We have a government Physicist, Kay, an MI5 agent, Julien and his friend and co-worker Alison. They all get brought into the story when some sort of veiled threats or maybe alien threats are being brought against Kay, and then weird, weird things start to link them to the disappearance of Mal and the footage they have of that.
Eventually, the plot is spanning all sorts of times and beyond, and it's quite an epic conclusion. I think this is certainly a story which builds in the telling and I really enjoyed the journey through the science and beyond.
There's also dinosaurs, evolution, biology and more. The interludes of the book tell us about all sorts of changing cultures and creatures throughout the ages, and eventually we see how these research interludes connect into the overall plot too.
Having read Tchaikovsky's Children of Time I am confident that if you like one you will like the other, and I definitely recommend this. I ended up giving it 4*s overall, and I think that it's a solid SF standalone which was hard to put down :)
August 28, 2020
Not gonna lie, Adrian Tchaikovsky is one of my favorite authors, and yet I was unfortunately disappointed in this novel.
Apparently the world was ending because the fabric between different realities, alternate Earths, was crumbling, though why this was happening or exactly how was never made clear. How any of the people from the various realities were able to travel between these worlds is not explained either. One of our human protagonists explains that she just sort of thinks of doing it and then it happens. Okay, then. Not very sciency.
On the whole I never felt that anyone was in any real peril, so there wasn’t any urgency to see how the assembly of people fixed the problem, because fixing it I was sure they would, though again, the how is left vague and unexplained.
In fact I didn’t even understand what roles Lee and Mal had in this, I mean what they contributed to the group in terms of knowledge or skill. They were main characters but... why?
I enjoy Tchaikovsky’s writing a lot, though, and I sympathize with the novel’s overall message.
ETA: I completely forgot to mention that I listened to Sophie Aldred narrating this and she does a brilliant job!
Apparently the world was ending because the fabric between different realities, alternate Earths, was crumbling, though why this was happening or exactly how was never made clear. How any of the people from the various realities were able to travel between these worlds is not explained either. One of our human protagonists explains that she just sort of thinks of doing it and then it happens. Okay, then. Not very sciency.
On the whole I never felt that anyone was in any real peril, so there wasn’t any urgency to see how the assembly of people fixed the problem, because fixing it I was sure they would, though again, the how is left vague and unexplained.
In fact I didn’t even understand what roles Lee and Mal had in this, I mean what they contributed to the group in terms of knowledge or skill. They were main characters but... why?
I enjoy Tchaikovsky’s writing a lot, though, and I sympathize with the novel’s overall message.
ETA: I completely forgot to mention that I listened to Sophie Aldred narrating this and she does a brilliant job!
January 14, 2021
[7/10]
Imagine a tree trunk with many branches – and all the branches, wherever they arise on the stem, all reach up to the same height. That’s because they’re timelines and that height is the present moment, and that’s how time works.
I find geological diagrams fascinating even without the added thrill of alternative histories. I also collect pretty polished pebbles with crazy lace patterns and sparkly colours that look like frozen liquid time. This new novel by Adrian Tchaikovsky seemed to tick all the right buttons before I started. After admiring his tour-de-force in ‘Children of Time’ I thought he could do no wrong, but I must admit: I struggled with the present story. I’m still one of his biggest fans, yet the writing here felt clunky, awkward, rushed. There are a lot of grand ideas that are mostly contained in dry, pseudo-scientific articles about evolution intercalated between the regular chapters of a standard big conspiracy theory thriller.
Here’s another divergence point, budding away and writing its own timeline. This is another Earth we never knew, which gave rise to something that could know itself.
It all makes sense, in an allegorical way, for the patient reader who plods on to the final chapters, but I found the journey to get there alternatively annoying and boring. Annoying for the way the interesting bits were delivered over a couple of pages, while the thriller parts were both long-winded and predictable, with lacklustre lead characters. The fact that I was reading two other very good novels in parallel with this one may have also played a part in becoming more critical of the style of presentation.
On the plus side, Tchaikovsky is still fascinating when he engages in his favorite game : anthropomorphic presentation of our evolutionary partners. Whether you believe in spacefaring trilobites the size of aircraft carriers or not has little relevance to the actual story. Early science-fiction had a similar cavalier attitude to rigorous scientific arguments, being more concerned with the BIG ideas and with the fate of humanity as a whole [they were also often sketchy about character development]. By those early standards, mr. Tchaikovsky has written a classic of the genre, a daring feat of imagination and an engaging call to arms to save our own Eden while we still can.
Their brains become more convoluted, shaped by memory creation and decision-making.
The key element in speculative fiction of this sort is the reader’s suspension of disbelief. The more credible the theory, the easier it is to accept the variations from standard. Super-intelligent bugs should not have presented any problems for me, especially after the excellent fantasy series ‘Shadow of the Apt’ and the epic spider’s web adventures of ‘Children of Time’ . I blame my reader’s block partly on the sheer scope of the novel: trying to fit in the limited format millions of years of intelligent evolution, condensed in short essays. I felt like each alternative timeline deserved more exposure, better arguments for the rise of self-awareness, more details about cultural interactions.
Big brains are expensive, and species must cut their evolutionary cloth to suit their purse.
The author is well aware of the shortcuts he has taken, of the sleigh-of-hand arguments he makes in support of his alternative evolutionary paths. As a trained biologist, he is aware of the infinitesimal probabilities of high intelligence in invertebrate or lizard species. Probably this is another reason why those articles on alternative evolution are kept so short.
As explanations went, it wasn’t much better than magic, but it was something she could accept.
Why not? If this is the road we are offered, I am willing to walk down it and curious to find out where it leads. Most of the book takes place in contemporary London though, dealing with increasing interference in current affairs from those alternative evolutionary universes. And that was the part that left me less than thrilled. A combination of ghostbusters hunting for the Loch Ness monster or BigFoot and of government agencies engaged in high stakes spy games didn’t bring anything new in terms of plot or characterization. The author seemed more interested in playing gender politics and in feeding conspiracy theories than in advancing the story.
He was now looking forward to a few centuries of hale heartiness with which to dominate the multiverse.
A main adversary that seemed built wholesale from internet memes of an evil overlord didn’t help much either, but even here there are some redemptive considerations to be made, once we reach the final pages. That Rove character is also a sort of allegorical figure, a composite of all those people who can only think of their own narrow benefits and still choose to believe that the Earth is flat and that the sun revolves around the sky.
For them, the true catastrophe is the realization that “we’d lost our place at the centre of the universe.” . The novel offers us numerous glimpses of what the future of our planet might look like. Most of these alternative Edens are wastelands, grim monuments of hubris and self-destructive cultures. If there’s a lesson to be drawn from the speculative exercise offered here, it’s this one:
The time to start working on these future problems is today. I can’t stress this strongly enough.
Recommended!
Imagine a tree trunk with many branches – and all the branches, wherever they arise on the stem, all reach up to the same height. That’s because they’re timelines and that height is the present moment, and that’s how time works.
I find geological diagrams fascinating even without the added thrill of alternative histories. I also collect pretty polished pebbles with crazy lace patterns and sparkly colours that look like frozen liquid time. This new novel by Adrian Tchaikovsky seemed to tick all the right buttons before I started. After admiring his tour-de-force in ‘Children of Time’ I thought he could do no wrong, but I must admit: I struggled with the present story. I’m still one of his biggest fans, yet the writing here felt clunky, awkward, rushed. There are a lot of grand ideas that are mostly contained in dry, pseudo-scientific articles about evolution intercalated between the regular chapters of a standard big conspiracy theory thriller.
Here’s another divergence point, budding away and writing its own timeline. This is another Earth we never knew, which gave rise to something that could know itself.
It all makes sense, in an allegorical way, for the patient reader who plods on to the final chapters, but I found the journey to get there alternatively annoying and boring. Annoying for the way the interesting bits were delivered over a couple of pages, while the thriller parts were both long-winded and predictable, with lacklustre lead characters. The fact that I was reading two other very good novels in parallel with this one may have also played a part in becoming more critical of the style of presentation.
On the plus side, Tchaikovsky is still fascinating when he engages in his favorite game : anthropomorphic presentation of our evolutionary partners. Whether you believe in spacefaring trilobites the size of aircraft carriers or not has little relevance to the actual story. Early science-fiction had a similar cavalier attitude to rigorous scientific arguments, being more concerned with the BIG ideas and with the fate of humanity as a whole [they were also often sketchy about character development]. By those early standards, mr. Tchaikovsky has written a classic of the genre, a daring feat of imagination and an engaging call to arms to save our own Eden while we still can.
Their brains become more convoluted, shaped by memory creation and decision-making.
The key element in speculative fiction of this sort is the reader’s suspension of disbelief. The more credible the theory, the easier it is to accept the variations from standard. Super-intelligent bugs should not have presented any problems for me, especially after the excellent fantasy series ‘Shadow of the Apt’ and the epic spider’s web adventures of ‘Children of Time’ . I blame my reader’s block partly on the sheer scope of the novel: trying to fit in the limited format millions of years of intelligent evolution, condensed in short essays. I felt like each alternative timeline deserved more exposure, better arguments for the rise of self-awareness, more details about cultural interactions.
Big brains are expensive, and species must cut their evolutionary cloth to suit their purse.
The author is well aware of the shortcuts he has taken, of the sleigh-of-hand arguments he makes in support of his alternative evolutionary paths. As a trained biologist, he is aware of the infinitesimal probabilities of high intelligence in invertebrate or lizard species. Probably this is another reason why those articles on alternative evolution are kept so short.
As explanations went, it wasn’t much better than magic, but it was something she could accept.
Why not? If this is the road we are offered, I am willing to walk down it and curious to find out where it leads. Most of the book takes place in contemporary London though, dealing with increasing interference in current affairs from those alternative evolutionary universes. And that was the part that left me less than thrilled. A combination of ghostbusters hunting for the Loch Ness monster or BigFoot and of government agencies engaged in high stakes spy games didn’t bring anything new in terms of plot or characterization. The author seemed more interested in playing gender politics and in feeding conspiracy theories than in advancing the story.
He was now looking forward to a few centuries of hale heartiness with which to dominate the multiverse.
A main adversary that seemed built wholesale from internet memes of an evil overlord didn’t help much either, but even here there are some redemptive considerations to be made, once we reach the final pages. That Rove character is also a sort of allegorical figure, a composite of all those people who can only think of their own narrow benefits and still choose to believe that the Earth is flat and that the sun revolves around the sky.
For them, the true catastrophe is the realization that “we’d lost our place at the centre of the universe.” . The novel offers us numerous glimpses of what the future of our planet might look like. Most of these alternative Edens are wastelands, grim monuments of hubris and self-destructive cultures. If there’s a lesson to be drawn from the speculative exercise offered here, it’s this one:
The time to start working on these future problems is today. I can’t stress this strongly enough.
Recommended!
June 8, 2022
3.5 stars
An inventive story populated by interesting characters. It's really well written and executed. Just what one expects from Tchaikovsky.
I liked this one, but didn't love it, and that is 100% on me and not the book. While I appreciated everything the story had to offer, it just wasn't to my taste at the moment. Another time I might love it, just not right now.
An inventive story populated by interesting characters. It's really well written and executed. Just what one expects from Tchaikovsky.
I liked this one, but didn't love it, and that is 100% on me and not the book. While I appreciated everything the story had to offer, it just wasn't to my taste at the moment. Another time I might love it, just not right now.
October 8, 2020
“The Doors of Eden”
Book by Adrian Tchaikovsky
@macmillan 2020
⠀
Do you believe in God? In aliens? In parallel universe?
⠀
Do you want to have that experience?
Imaginary walk with dinosaurs?
Words creation or apocalypse experience?
⠀
You can!
⠀
For a day or two, while enjoying this fabulous book!
⠀
Sometimes you are loosing the feeling of reality, and starting to guess:
is this still reality or author’s imagination?
⠀
Great reading experience full of new thoughts and ideas!
⠀
Quote:
⠀
“You’are quiet, now, subdued by what we’ve shown you. How many times can you watch the world end, after all, even if it’s not your world?
⠀
Perhaps a happy ending now. But I cannot guarantee you’ll take much joy in it.
⠀
How long, after all, does it take for life to generate sentience, for sentience to generate a civilization that can command its world enough to be proof against disaster? Each branching timeline that we’ve followed is set into motion later than the last. In each new timeline, the previous lords of Earth are suppressed in favour of a new might-have-been, for otherwise the new hopes would be precluded by the old rulers’ presence.”
⠀
Book description:
⠀
“They thought we were safe. They were wrong.
⠀
Four years ago, two girls went looking for monsters on Bodmin Moor. Only one came back.
⠀
Lee thought she'd lost Mal, but now she's miraculously returned. But what happened that day on the moors? And where has she been all this time? Mal's reappearance hasn't gone unnoticed by MI5 officers either, and Lee isn't the only one with questions.
⠀
Julian Sabreur is investigating an attack on top physicist Kay Amal Khan. This leads Julian to clash with agents of an unknown power - and they may or may not be human. His only clue is grainy footage, showing a woman who supposedly died on Bodmin Moor.
⠀
Dr Khan's research was theoretical; then she found cracks between our world and parallel Earths. Now these cracks are widening, revealing extraordinary creatures. And as the doors crash open, anything could come through.”
⠀
#примхливачитака
Book by Adrian Tchaikovsky
@macmillan 2020
⠀
Do you believe in God? In aliens? In parallel universe?
⠀
Do you want to have that experience?
Imaginary walk with dinosaurs?
Words creation or apocalypse experience?
⠀
You can!
⠀
For a day or two, while enjoying this fabulous book!
⠀
Sometimes you are loosing the feeling of reality, and starting to guess:
is this still reality or author’s imagination?
⠀
Great reading experience full of new thoughts and ideas!
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Quote:
⠀
“You’are quiet, now, subdued by what we’ve shown you. How many times can you watch the world end, after all, even if it’s not your world?
⠀
Perhaps a happy ending now. But I cannot guarantee you’ll take much joy in it.
⠀
How long, after all, does it take for life to generate sentience, for sentience to generate a civilization that can command its world enough to be proof against disaster? Each branching timeline that we’ve followed is set into motion later than the last. In each new timeline, the previous lords of Earth are suppressed in favour of a new might-have-been, for otherwise the new hopes would be precluded by the old rulers’ presence.”
⠀
Book description:
⠀
“They thought we were safe. They were wrong.
⠀
Four years ago, two girls went looking for monsters on Bodmin Moor. Only one came back.
⠀
Lee thought she'd lost Mal, but now she's miraculously returned. But what happened that day on the moors? And where has she been all this time? Mal's reappearance hasn't gone unnoticed by MI5 officers either, and Lee isn't the only one with questions.
⠀
Julian Sabreur is investigating an attack on top physicist Kay Amal Khan. This leads Julian to clash with agents of an unknown power - and they may or may not be human. His only clue is grainy footage, showing a woman who supposedly died on Bodmin Moor.
⠀
Dr Khan's research was theoretical; then she found cracks between our world and parallel Earths. Now these cracks are widening, revealing extraordinary creatures. And as the doors crash open, anything could come through.”
⠀
#примхливачитака
October 19, 2020
3.5 of 5 stars at The BiblioSanctum https://bibliosanctum.com/2020/10/15/...
Let me just start by saying that I don’t think Adrian Tchaikovsky is actually capable of writing a bad book, but some are definitely better than others. When it comes to The Doors of Eden, I would probably place it somewhere in the middle as I quite enjoyed it, but I also didn’t think it was his best. Once again, we may have high expectations to blame here.
The Doors of Eden is told through multiple perspectives which are all kind of jumbled and layered on top of each other, because this is a novel involving parallel worlds and alternate timelines. We begin with childhood-friends-turned-lovers Lee and Mal, two young women who’d bonded over a lifelong interest in cryptozoology, heading off into the Bodmin Moor to investigate rumors of a creature known as the Birdman. But something strange happened to them out there in the wilderness, something Lee knows she can’t explain without coming across like she’s completely lost her mind. All that mattered was that at the end of the day, only she emerged from the moorlands while Mal was gone, vanished without a trace.
Next, we meet M15 agent Julian Sabreur, who in his more private moments likes to compare himself to James Bond. He has been placed in charge of providing security and protection for government physicist Kay Amal Khan, a foul-mouthed chain-smoking trans woman who has become the target of a racist hate group. But when the attack comes, it is not Julian’s team who ends up stopping it. While no one actually witnessed the massacre, the attackers appeared to have been ripped apart by someone or something very big and very strong, judging by the grisly bloodbath left behind in Dr. Khan’s living room.
Tasked with finding out what happened, Julian finds himself going down a rabbit hole of conspiracy, mystery, and the unexplained. Meanwhile, it has been four years since Mal’s disappearance, but the grief has not abated for Lee. Incredibly, one day she gets a phone call from Mal, who simply tells her she wants to meet—like she hasn’t been gone this entire time. Even more confounding is when Lee finally does see Mal again, her girlfriend does not appear to be the same person. Everything eventually comes to a head as Julian shows up on Lee’s doorstep, led there by a grainy image taken of a woman who was believed to be dead.
First off, I’m a big fan of sci-fi stories about alternate universes and parallel worlds. I love the endless possibilities they offer, and the mind-warping questions they always seem to leave behind. But on the flip side, these kinds of books often have a lot going on in them, and sometimes, the intricate web of plotlines and character lives can get a tad overwhelming. Tchaikovsky did a great job organizing multiple threads and streamlining the overall narrative, but I think even he stumbled at times and lost control of the story because it occasionally felt like things got away from him. This was especially the case as we delved further into the middle sections of the book, where the storytelling didn’t feel as tightly plotted or well-paced.
Case in point, I knew something was up when I realized I found more pleasure in reading the interludes from the point of view of Professor Ruth Emerson discussing the evolutionary trajectory of various alternate Earths and what they might look like. I mean, granted I’m a biology nerd, but also, the truth is, for most of the book, I just didn’t find the main storyline or any of the main POVs to be all that interesting. In focusing his attention on developing the science and the world-building, it almost felt as if the author neglected to develop his characters with the same amount of care and detail. For a long time, they were mostly defined by their diversity labels, and only later on did the deeper aspects of character-building come in, like personality, interests, and values. Perhaps that was why I never really felt too connected or sympathetic towards the characters.
Still, The Doors of Eden was by no means a bad book—it kept me turning the pages, after all. That said, I thought it could have been better—more entertaining and engaging at least, if the characters had been better developed right off the bat, and if the pacing had been a bit more even. Admittedly, I also expected a lot going into this novel, so that might have played a part in how I ultimately felt too. But is the disappointment going to make me any less excited to read the author’s books after this? Heck no. Like I said, you’re pretty much guaranteed a good read whenever you pick up something by Adrian Tchaikovsky, especially if you enjoy original and clever ideas in SFF. Children of Time remains my go-to recommendation when it comes to his work, but if the sound of The Doors of Eden captures your interest, I would check it out.
Let me just start by saying that I don’t think Adrian Tchaikovsky is actually capable of writing a bad book, but some are definitely better than others. When it comes to The Doors of Eden, I would probably place it somewhere in the middle as I quite enjoyed it, but I also didn’t think it was his best. Once again, we may have high expectations to blame here.
The Doors of Eden is told through multiple perspectives which are all kind of jumbled and layered on top of each other, because this is a novel involving parallel worlds and alternate timelines. We begin with childhood-friends-turned-lovers Lee and Mal, two young women who’d bonded over a lifelong interest in cryptozoology, heading off into the Bodmin Moor to investigate rumors of a creature known as the Birdman. But something strange happened to them out there in the wilderness, something Lee knows she can’t explain without coming across like she’s completely lost her mind. All that mattered was that at the end of the day, only she emerged from the moorlands while Mal was gone, vanished without a trace.
Next, we meet M15 agent Julian Sabreur, who in his more private moments likes to compare himself to James Bond. He has been placed in charge of providing security and protection for government physicist Kay Amal Khan, a foul-mouthed chain-smoking trans woman who has become the target of a racist hate group. But when the attack comes, it is not Julian’s team who ends up stopping it. While no one actually witnessed the massacre, the attackers appeared to have been ripped apart by someone or something very big and very strong, judging by the grisly bloodbath left behind in Dr. Khan’s living room.
Tasked with finding out what happened, Julian finds himself going down a rabbit hole of conspiracy, mystery, and the unexplained. Meanwhile, it has been four years since Mal’s disappearance, but the grief has not abated for Lee. Incredibly, one day she gets a phone call from Mal, who simply tells her she wants to meet—like she hasn’t been gone this entire time. Even more confounding is when Lee finally does see Mal again, her girlfriend does not appear to be the same person. Everything eventually comes to a head as Julian shows up on Lee’s doorstep, led there by a grainy image taken of a woman who was believed to be dead.
First off, I’m a big fan of sci-fi stories about alternate universes and parallel worlds. I love the endless possibilities they offer, and the mind-warping questions they always seem to leave behind. But on the flip side, these kinds of books often have a lot going on in them, and sometimes, the intricate web of plotlines and character lives can get a tad overwhelming. Tchaikovsky did a great job organizing multiple threads and streamlining the overall narrative, but I think even he stumbled at times and lost control of the story because it occasionally felt like things got away from him. This was especially the case as we delved further into the middle sections of the book, where the storytelling didn’t feel as tightly plotted or well-paced.
Case in point, I knew something was up when I realized I found more pleasure in reading the interludes from the point of view of Professor Ruth Emerson discussing the evolutionary trajectory of various alternate Earths and what they might look like. I mean, granted I’m a biology nerd, but also, the truth is, for most of the book, I just didn’t find the main storyline or any of the main POVs to be all that interesting. In focusing his attention on developing the science and the world-building, it almost felt as if the author neglected to develop his characters with the same amount of care and detail. For a long time, they were mostly defined by their diversity labels, and only later on did the deeper aspects of character-building come in, like personality, interests, and values. Perhaps that was why I never really felt too connected or sympathetic towards the characters.
Still, The Doors of Eden was by no means a bad book—it kept me turning the pages, after all. That said, I thought it could have been better—more entertaining and engaging at least, if the characters had been better developed right off the bat, and if the pacing had been a bit more even. Admittedly, I also expected a lot going into this novel, so that might have played a part in how I ultimately felt too. But is the disappointment going to make me any less excited to read the author’s books after this? Heck no. Like I said, you’re pretty much guaranteed a good read whenever you pick up something by Adrian Tchaikovsky, especially if you enjoy original and clever ideas in SFF. Children of Time remains my go-to recommendation when it comes to his work, but if the sound of The Doors of Eden captures your interest, I would check it out.
October 7, 2020
While cryptid hunting on Bodwin Moor, young friends and lovers Mal and Lee get separated after an encounter where three standing stones become six and midsummer Cornwall suddenly becomes a much colder scarier place. Mal goes missing, presumably wherever the cold other three stones are and with the monstrous inhabitants of that place. Lee manages to go on with her life until four years later, out of the blue, she gets a call from Mal who has some strange new friends.
MI5 analyst Julian Sabreur and his friend and colleague Alison Matchell have discovered an imminent attack on theoretical physicist Kay Amal Khan. Only the attack is stopped, brutally so, in ways that don't appear entirely human and have nothing to do with MI5.
To explain what's happening here is to spoil most of the delight of this book. It starts off in various disparate corners and is punctuated with readings from a very odd textbook (which I would love to read) called "Other Edens" and speculates about possible intelligences on Earth that arise during various historic ages. It does all come together, delightfully so, and ends on a note that might be familiar from some of this author's other works.
And as usual, my main complaint with this author's work is I just want more. I'd love to see where the story goes next.
MI5 analyst Julian Sabreur and his friend and colleague Alison Matchell have discovered an imminent attack on theoretical physicist Kay Amal Khan. Only the attack is stopped, brutally so, in ways that don't appear entirely human and have nothing to do with MI5.
To explain what's happening here is to spoil most of the delight of this book. It starts off in various disparate corners and is punctuated with readings from a very odd textbook (which I would love to read) called "Other Edens" and speculates about possible intelligences on Earth that arise during various historic ages. It does all come together, delightfully so, and ends on a note that might be familiar from some of this author's other works.
And as usual, my main complaint with this author's work is I just want more. I'd love to see where the story goes next.
January 30, 2024
Are not we all so lucky that Adrian has so many books?! I am so happy there are about 30 left on my list!
Just like the characters in this book, I've always wanted more world than there is, another possibility, less fucked up reality...
Do you think 150 million years ago with dinosaurs is less screwed?
Just like the characters in this book, I've always wanted more world than there is, another possibility, less fucked up reality...
Do you think 150 million years ago with dinosaurs is less screwed?
December 4, 2022
4.5 stars.
Incredibly fascinating and thought-provoking. The Doors of Eden was an excellent stand-alone scifi novel that just shows how well Tchaikovsky understands evolution. While the story was totally different from Children of Time similar themes of evolution and cooperation are present. This one takes the concept of being better together through diversity and inclusion to a whole new and unfathomable level. The only thing that made this less than 5 stars was that I wasn't that invested in the characters until way past the midway point of the book. The application of the themes of evolution, however, was the highlight of the book by far. It's so imaginative in stretching the boundaries of what is plausible, it made for a most fascinating and engaging read.
Incredibly fascinating and thought-provoking. The Doors of Eden was an excellent stand-alone scifi novel that just shows how well Tchaikovsky understands evolution. While the story was totally different from Children of Time similar themes of evolution and cooperation are present. This one takes the concept of being better together through diversity and inclusion to a whole new and unfathomable level. The only thing that made this less than 5 stars was that I wasn't that invested in the characters until way past the midway point of the book. The application of the themes of evolution, however, was the highlight of the book by far. It's so imaginative in stretching the boundaries of what is plausible, it made for a most fascinating and engaging read.
January 30, 2020
Children of Time is one of my very favourite novels and so I read The Doors of Eden the moment I could. It's thoroughly entertaining as it immerses us in its fractured worlds. Some intriguing and extremely varied main characters! Gorgeous descriptions, some moments to make you shiver and others to make you laugh, plus an important message. Review to follow closer to publication on For Winter Nights.
December 29, 2020
Every other Tchaikovsky fan seems to love this book so I guess I'm the voice of dissent. Very mild spoilers outside of spoiler tags.
The good thing first. The parallel earths were incredibly compelling. Every one was fascinating and felt organic. Each felt like there was a Children of Time hidden within the details, that we could have spent a whole book exploring the depths of divergent evolution and the stories only hinted at. I devoured the interludes, and the brief chapters we spent in the other worlds were fascinating.
Now the bad.
First of all, I didn't find any of the characters interesting, or care in the slightest what happened to them. None of them felt real. They felt like characters in bad Golden Age sci-fi who ostensibly exist with internal motivation and are supposed to be subtextually indicative of a worldview or point the author is trying to make but in reality are transparent plot devices whose feelings and motivations are inconsistent and entirely dependent on plot necessity.
Then we have the enormous amount of padding in the book. A lot of it was like the worst of Lost. Weird things are happening. The reader, and viewpoint character, don’t know what’s going on and desperately want answers. There are people around them who have these answers, and the means, motive and opportunity to share that information. But since the mystery needs to be maintained for the reader and answers slowly dribbled out there are absurd contrivances or an inexplicable reluctance for the people with the answers to share them with the viewpoint character. Vague things are implied, but no concrete information when there is no motivating reason for the characters in the know not to share concrete information, and it would in fact make their lives a lot easier to do so. The number of times characters take a long journey somewhere, or rest for an extended period of time, and obstinately provide oblique explanations was frustrating.
Further padding is by the author’s weird fixation on having all six viewpoint characters be briefed on the exact same information in lengthy separate sections in ways that contribute nothing to the readers understanding of the information, or modify the characters motivation in any interesting or important way. It’s like the worst filler anime episodes, where 15 minutes of each episode are spent explaining the events of the last episode in a slightly different way that adds nothing.
As a fake example, the book would have a few pages on Character 1 finding out the sun is exploding. Typical reactions ensue.
“Oh no, the sun is exploding!”
“If the sun explodes the world I live on that revolves around the sun would not have a sun!”
“How do we stop the sun from exploding so the world I live on will have a sun?” Then a few pages later we switch to Character 2
“But if the sun explodes my garden won’t have sunshine!”
“My garden is very important to me so we need to stop the sun from exploding!” Then we switch to Character 3,
“What do you mean the sun is exploding?” etc. Almost all of the time it could be an aside that the character learned offscreen that the sun is exploding, and their reaction is exactly what you would expect.
Finally there’s the inane non-science. I’m not a scientist. Hell, I’m not even good at science. I know enough to make me think science fiction solutions sound reasonable even when they’re probably not. And I don’t expect strong science in science fiction. Science fiction, to me, is all about exploring about how big changes would affect the world that people live in. Small changes can lead to butterfly effects that might not occur to you but seem natural once you think about it. But this book is nothing but tautologies. One character is the multiverse’s greatest mathematician and she’s doing science and math fix problems. That’s not a summary, that’s the complete extent of the information we’re provided. When other characters talk to her she says things like “Well I used math to talk to the aliens.” “I’m trying to fix the problem of the sun exploding with math, but the math of science is very hard math.” I tried doing a search for “math” in my Kindle Web Reader so I could pull some direct quotes but it’s not enabled for searching yet. Might update this later. Most of the time it’s as bad as a character saying “The problem with space travel is you can’t go faster than light. But we did math on some light and found out with math we could mathematically go faster than light.” None of this is helped by the fact that literally every time the mathematician is in a scene they, or someone else, use the word “math” at least once. Usually in conjunction with “science.” I don’t know if that’s true earlier in the book, but I got the suspicion late into the novel and it held true. It’s especially baffling since the author clearly knows more about science than I do. The sections on the parallel earths had science I didn’t know before, and I felt like I learned some things. It’s just that there are vast sections that are just “doing the science!”
If you stuck with me until now, thanks. This book really bugged me because I know the author is capable of so much more. And there were some good ideas in here, just horribly executed. In a lot of ways it felt like a first book crammed with too many ideas, no focus, and no authorial voice.
The good thing first. The parallel earths were incredibly compelling. Every one was fascinating and felt organic. Each felt like there was a Children of Time hidden within the details, that we could have spent a whole book exploring the depths of divergent evolution and the stories only hinted at. I devoured the interludes, and the brief chapters we spent in the other worlds were fascinating.
Now the bad.
First of all, I didn't find any of the characters interesting, or care in the slightest what happened to them. None of them felt real. They felt like characters in bad Golden Age sci-fi who ostensibly exist with internal motivation and are supposed to be subtextually indicative of a worldview or point the author is trying to make but in reality are transparent plot devices whose feelings and motivations are inconsistent and entirely dependent on plot necessity.
Then we have the enormous amount of padding in the book. A lot of it was like the worst of Lost. Weird things are happening. The reader, and viewpoint character, don’t know what’s going on and desperately want answers. There are people around them who have these answers, and the means, motive and opportunity to share that information. But since the mystery needs to be maintained for the reader and answers slowly dribbled out there are absurd contrivances or an inexplicable reluctance for the people with the answers to share them with the viewpoint character. Vague things are implied, but no concrete information when there is no motivating reason for the characters in the know not to share concrete information, and it would in fact make their lives a lot easier to do so. The number of times characters take a long journey somewhere, or rest for an extended period of time, and obstinately provide oblique explanations was frustrating.
Further padding is by the author’s weird fixation on having all six viewpoint characters be briefed on the exact same information in lengthy separate sections in ways that contribute nothing to the readers understanding of the information, or modify the characters motivation in any interesting or important way. It’s like the worst filler anime episodes, where 15 minutes of each episode are spent explaining the events of the last episode in a slightly different way that adds nothing.
As a fake example, the book would have a few pages on Character 1 finding out the sun is exploding. Typical reactions ensue.
“Oh no, the sun is exploding!”
“If the sun explodes the world I live on that revolves around the sun would not have a sun!”
“How do we stop the sun from exploding so the world I live on will have a sun?” Then a few pages later we switch to Character 2
“But if the sun explodes my garden won’t have sunshine!”
“My garden is very important to me so we need to stop the sun from exploding!” Then we switch to Character 3,
“What do you mean the sun is exploding?” etc. Almost all of the time it could be an aside that the character learned offscreen that the sun is exploding, and their reaction is exactly what you would expect.
Finally there’s the inane non-science. I’m not a scientist. Hell, I’m not even good at science. I know enough to make me think science fiction solutions sound reasonable even when they’re probably not. And I don’t expect strong science in science fiction. Science fiction, to me, is all about exploring about how big changes would affect the world that people live in. Small changes can lead to butterfly effects that might not occur to you but seem natural once you think about it. But this book is nothing but tautologies. One character is the multiverse’s greatest mathematician and she’s doing science and math fix problems. That’s not a summary, that’s the complete extent of the information we’re provided. When other characters talk to her she says things like “Well I used math to talk to the aliens.” “I’m trying to fix the problem of the sun exploding with math, but the math of science is very hard math.” I tried doing a search for “math” in my Kindle Web Reader so I could pull some direct quotes but it’s not enabled for searching yet. Might update this later. Most of the time it’s as bad as a character saying “The problem with space travel is you can’t go faster than light. But we did math on some light and found out with math we could mathematically go faster than light.” None of this is helped by the fact that literally every time the mathematician is in a scene they, or someone else, use the word “math” at least once. Usually in conjunction with “science.” I don’t know if that’s true earlier in the book, but I got the suspicion late into the novel and it held true. It’s especially baffling since the author clearly knows more about science than I do. The sections on the parallel earths had science I didn’t know before, and I felt like I learned some things. It’s just that there are vast sections that are just “doing the science!”
If you stuck with me until now, thanks. This book really bugged me because I know the author is capable of so much more. And there were some good ideas in here, just horribly executed. In a lot of ways it felt like a first book crammed with too many ideas, no focus, and no authorial voice.
September 6, 2021
This was a buddy read with Nataliya and Carol and I found it up to Mr. Tchaikovsky's high standards. Tchaikovsky must be one of the most prolific authors in the biz today but thankfully, the quality of his work, and the diversity of it, continues to amaze me. Call me a fanboy!
TDOE is yet again something very different from your 'typical' SFF; for lack of better words, I will call it evolutionary science fiction. That being stated, this is a very hard book to review without giving lots away. TDOE has a host of characters, but we start off with Lee and Mal-- two young women (and lovers) who like to go 'creature hunting'. They publish articles on strange findings and creatures on line and spend lots of time hunting youtube for similar material. After finding a video (uploaded from a security camera) of what appears to be some strange, bird-like creature in the British moors, they set out to find the scoop-- only it finds them instead!
Tchaikovsky takes us on a wild romp here, going back in time to the origins of life on Earth. He has a handy chart at the beginning of the book naming the various eras of life (Jurassic, Permian, etc.) for reference. Each section of the text starts off with an 'excerpt' from Other Edens: Speculative Evolution and Intelligence by the mysterious Ruth Emerson of the University of California, which briefly depicts the various life forms that arose to intelligence and dominated the various eras (starting with gigantic space faring trilobites from 500 million years ago!).
It is not much of a spoiler to say that TDOE comprises a parallel dimension/universe tale, but like no other that I have read. Parallel universes and 'portal' worlds have a long history in SFF, but Tchaikovsky gives them a unique new twist here. It seems every era preceding the modern gave rise to a species that dominated the Earth-- from the aforementioned trilobites to rodents to lobster-like beings to neanderthals. I could go on. Each of these parallel Earths still exist, but something is changing; 'cracks' are occurring, allowing beings to move between/among the worlds. Now, we learn early on that such 'cracks' have been around for a long time, but they now are multiplying rapidly...
Besides the lovely Mal and Lee, we have a rich host of other main characters: Julian, a M15 agent and his 'partner' Allison, who does in depth research into 'patterns'; Rove, a 'typical' sociopathic CEO of some shady corporation and his minions; Kay Amal Khan, a high level maths philosopher who works with the government doing some sort of exotic maths to help prevent hacking (among other things); and finally, a variety of 'aliens' (neanderthals, bird-men and rodents among others). While I would hesitate to call this a character driven novel, Tchaikovsky does not simply trot out various tropes/cardboard characters to fill up the pages; they all are developed in some detail and bring the novel to life.
In Children of Time Tchaikovsky dazzled us with a complex tale of spider evolution (albeit with some inadvertent help from humanity), weaving a rich tale involving spider society's transformation along a similar linear path as humanity- dark ages, enlightenment, industrial revolution and so forth. He does something similar here (albeit much less fleshed out) of each of the dominant species that populated various Earths. I guess the Zoology reading he did at Reading really paid off in the end! He really does make evolution interesting!
Tchaikovsky's subtle humor graces these pages as well; over and over he had me grinning along as the pages kept turning. He managed to shift POVs effortlessly along the way (along with numerous painful cliffhangers). TDOE starts off a bit slow, however; it takes about 100 pages or so until you have some sense of where he is going with this, and he keeps you guessing right up to the end as to how it will finally turn out. The last chapter was amazing, but I will not say more about it due to spoilers. Once you strap in for this ride, it is really hard to get off.
Looking for some novel science fiction? Want to be blown away by one of the upcoming masters of the genre? If you like Children of Time, you should really like this as well. If this is your first Tchaikovsky, no worries; you are in for a treat. 5 evolutionary stars!!
TDOE is yet again something very different from your 'typical' SFF; for lack of better words, I will call it evolutionary science fiction. That being stated, this is a very hard book to review without giving lots away. TDOE has a host of characters, but we start off with Lee and Mal-- two young women (and lovers) who like to go 'creature hunting'. They publish articles on strange findings and creatures on line and spend lots of time hunting youtube for similar material. After finding a video (uploaded from a security camera) of what appears to be some strange, bird-like creature in the British moors, they set out to find the scoop-- only it finds them instead!
Tchaikovsky takes us on a wild romp here, going back in time to the origins of life on Earth. He has a handy chart at the beginning of the book naming the various eras of life (Jurassic, Permian, etc.) for reference. Each section of the text starts off with an 'excerpt' from Other Edens: Speculative Evolution and Intelligence by the mysterious Ruth Emerson of the University of California, which briefly depicts the various life forms that arose to intelligence and dominated the various eras (starting with gigantic space faring trilobites from 500 million years ago!).
It is not much of a spoiler to say that TDOE comprises a parallel dimension/universe tale, but like no other that I have read. Parallel universes and 'portal' worlds have a long history in SFF, but Tchaikovsky gives them a unique new twist here. It seems every era preceding the modern gave rise to a species that dominated the Earth-- from the aforementioned trilobites to rodents to lobster-like beings to neanderthals. I could go on. Each of these parallel Earths still exist, but something is changing; 'cracks' are occurring, allowing beings to move between/among the worlds. Now, we learn early on that such 'cracks' have been around for a long time, but they now are multiplying rapidly...
Besides the lovely Mal and Lee, we have a rich host of other main characters: Julian, a M15 agent and his 'partner' Allison, who does in depth research into 'patterns'; Rove, a 'typical' sociopathic CEO of some shady corporation and his minions; Kay Amal Khan, a high level maths philosopher who works with the government doing some sort of exotic maths to help prevent hacking (among other things); and finally, a variety of 'aliens' (neanderthals, bird-men and rodents among others). While I would hesitate to call this a character driven novel, Tchaikovsky does not simply trot out various tropes/cardboard characters to fill up the pages; they all are developed in some detail and bring the novel to life.
In Children of Time Tchaikovsky dazzled us with a complex tale of spider evolution (albeit with some inadvertent help from humanity), weaving a rich tale involving spider society's transformation along a similar linear path as humanity- dark ages, enlightenment, industrial revolution and so forth. He does something similar here (albeit much less fleshed out) of each of the dominant species that populated various Earths. I guess the Zoology reading he did at Reading really paid off in the end! He really does make evolution interesting!
Tchaikovsky's subtle humor graces these pages as well; over and over he had me grinning along as the pages kept turning. He managed to shift POVs effortlessly along the way (along with numerous painful cliffhangers). TDOE starts off a bit slow, however; it takes about 100 pages or so until you have some sense of where he is going with this, and he keeps you guessing right up to the end as to how it will finally turn out. The last chapter was amazing, but I will not say more about it due to spoilers. Once you strap in for this ride, it is really hard to get off.
Looking for some novel science fiction? Want to be blown away by one of the upcoming masters of the genre? If you like Children of Time, you should really like this as well. If this is your first Tchaikovsky, no worries; you are in for a treat. 5 evolutionary stars!!
January 17, 2022
4.5 Well damn. I just accidentally deleted my review and I was on a real roll. Damn iPad! Damn pinky finger!
Anyways, as I had been saying, The Doors of Eden had some elements of both Children of Time and Children of Ruin that I loved. Tchaikovsky has a way of extrapolating a species evolution based on some of its chief characteristics and manages to create a whole world from those extrapolations in a way that is highly engaging. In tDoE, he does this for several worlds, creating diverging species, timelines and worlds in a way that is astonishingly imaginative. The whole story is like a piece of wool art on a loom, with many different strands brought together to create a cohesive whole. Amazing.
This didn’t quite hit the sweet spot for me though, as some of his other work like Children of Time and Ruin and Elder Race did and I think it comes down to characters. I think that as well as being a rollicking good sci-fi, Tchaikovsky is also addressing the issues of immigration and certain societies lack of inclusivity, in this case England. This leaves the character work a little weak with some of the English characters being very bland and stiff upper lip and all that. It’s done to serve the story but it also weakened it a little for me. The exception of course is Khan, a kick ass trans woman, scientist who was my favourite. However, given the complexity and sheer magnitude of the world building and how very satisfying it was when it all coalesced into a whole working story, that’s a small criticism and overall this was a pretty good read. I may dare to read another since I’m on a roll. Perhaps Shards of Earth will be next.
Anyways, as I had been saying, The Doors of Eden had some elements of both Children of Time and Children of Ruin that I loved. Tchaikovsky has a way of extrapolating a species evolution based on some of its chief characteristics and manages to create a whole world from those extrapolations in a way that is highly engaging. In tDoE, he does this for several worlds, creating diverging species, timelines and worlds in a way that is astonishingly imaginative. The whole story is like a piece of wool art on a loom, with many different strands brought together to create a cohesive whole. Amazing.
This didn’t quite hit the sweet spot for me though, as some of his other work like Children of Time and Ruin and Elder Race did and I think it comes down to characters. I think that as well as being a rollicking good sci-fi, Tchaikovsky is also addressing the issues of immigration and certain societies lack of inclusivity, in this case England. This leaves the character work a little weak with some of the English characters being very bland and stiff upper lip and all that. It’s done to serve the story but it also weakened it a little for me. The exception of course is Khan, a kick ass trans woman, scientist who was my favourite. However, given the complexity and sheer magnitude of the world building and how very satisfying it was when it all coalesced into a whole working story, that’s a small criticism and overall this was a pretty good read. I may dare to read another since I’m on a roll. Perhaps Shards of Earth will be next.
August 20, 2020
Originally posted to I Should Read That
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This review is spoiler-free.
A new book from Adrian Tchaikovsky, one of my favourite authors, is always an exciting event. The Doors of Eden was a book that immediately caught my attention with its stunning cover and intriguing concept. I had sky-high expectations for this book, and I am so pleased to say thatthey were absolutely met! The Doors of Eden is an incredibly accessible, fun, and thought-provoking science fiction story with Tchaikovsky's signature twist.
If you haven't read any of his books before, or are newer to reading sci-fi, I think this would be a great place to start with Tchaikovsky's science fiction work due in part to the fact that it is mostly set in the real world. Not only does the familiarity of London streets and modern life help set the scene for readers, the characters are totally relatable and face real issues. This real-world setting is something new for him, I believe, and it works incredibly well! Don't worry though, there are plenty of trilobites, rat people, and other strange terrestrial and alien beings to fill the pages as well as humans!
While the plot and world are excellent, the characters are what really drive this story. We have multiple points of view across the book, and they intertwine together so effectively. This is one of the rare books where I enjoyed every POV, rather than preferring one over others because each voice was used so intentionally and added their own flavour to the story -- I can't think of a single one that should be cut. I absolutely loved Lee and Mal, our lesbian cryptid hunters and introduction to the book, as well as Alison, the MI5 analyst who sees a little more than the rest of us. However, my absolute favourite was Dr Kay Amal Khan, the fabulously smart-mouthed, cigarette smoking genius who will save us all. The chemistry between these human characters and the relationships they form (or are forced into) with the non-humans they encounter are just fantastic. The audiobook narrator does a great job of bringing these characters to life -- although I did have to speed it up to nearly 2x as she speaks quite slowly -- and she masters the sharp dialogue. If you're going to pick this one up, I'd highly recommend the audiobook!
The Doors of Eden is an incredibly pacey, otherworldly, and fun science fiction adventure -- who would have thought the end of the world would be so delightful? A must-read for fans of Tchaikovsky's work and newcomers alike -- you'll absolutely tear through it!
Note (plus marked spoiler): It would be disingenuous for me to not mention the treatment of Kay by other characters in the story, as I worry it may make some readers, especially trans readers, uncomfortable. She's a trans woman and while I thought Tchaikovsky did a great job of making her a complex and fabulous character, some of the side characters misgender and deadname her throughout the book in passing. This is meant to show the ignorance of these characters, but I wanted to give a heads up about these moments.
*Minor spoilers below*
There is also a Very Bad Villain who refuses to accept her identity and forces her to masculinise in a small part of the book.
4.5 out of 5 stars
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This review is spoiler-free.
A new book from Adrian Tchaikovsky, one of my favourite authors, is always an exciting event. The Doors of Eden was a book that immediately caught my attention with its stunning cover and intriguing concept. I had sky-high expectations for this book, and I am so pleased to say thatthey were absolutely met! The Doors of Eden is an incredibly accessible, fun, and thought-provoking science fiction story with Tchaikovsky's signature twist.
If you haven't read any of his books before, or are newer to reading sci-fi, I think this would be a great place to start with Tchaikovsky's science fiction work due in part to the fact that it is mostly set in the real world. Not only does the familiarity of London streets and modern life help set the scene for readers, the characters are totally relatable and face real issues. This real-world setting is something new for him, I believe, and it works incredibly well! Don't worry though, there are plenty of trilobites, rat people, and other strange terrestrial and alien beings to fill the pages as well as humans!
While the plot and world are excellent, the characters are what really drive this story. We have multiple points of view across the book, and they intertwine together so effectively. This is one of the rare books where I enjoyed every POV, rather than preferring one over others because each voice was used so intentionally and added their own flavour to the story -- I can't think of a single one that should be cut. I absolutely loved Lee and Mal, our lesbian cryptid hunters and introduction to the book, as well as Alison, the MI5 analyst who sees a little more than the rest of us. However, my absolute favourite was Dr Kay Amal Khan, the fabulously smart-mouthed, cigarette smoking genius who will save us all. The chemistry between these human characters and the relationships they form (or are forced into) with the non-humans they encounter are just fantastic. The audiobook narrator does a great job of bringing these characters to life -- although I did have to speed it up to nearly 2x as she speaks quite slowly -- and she masters the sharp dialogue. If you're going to pick this one up, I'd highly recommend the audiobook!
The Doors of Eden is an incredibly pacey, otherworldly, and fun science fiction adventure -- who would have thought the end of the world would be so delightful? A must-read for fans of Tchaikovsky's work and newcomers alike -- you'll absolutely tear through it!
Note (plus marked spoiler): It would be disingenuous for me to not mention the treatment of Kay by other characters in the story, as I worry it may make some readers, especially trans readers, uncomfortable. She's a trans woman and while I thought Tchaikovsky did a great job of making her a complex and fabulous character, some of the side characters misgender and deadname her throughout the book in passing. This is meant to show the ignorance of these characters, but I wanted to give a heads up about these moments.
*Minor spoilers below*
There is also a Very Bad Villain who refuses to accept her identity and forces her to masculinise in a small part of the book.
4.5 out of 5 stars
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