Adrian Tchaikovsky

Adrian Tchaikovsky brought us far-future adventure with Children of Time. Now The Doors of Eden takes us from Bodmin Moor to London and alternate versions of earth. This is an extraordinary feat of the imagination and a page-turning adventure. They thought we were safe. They were wrong. Lee and Mal went looking for monsters on Bodmin Moor four years ago, and only Lee came back. She thought she’d lost Mal forever, now miraculously returned. But what happened that day on the moors? And where has Mal been all this time? Mal's reappearance hasn’t gone unnoticed by MI5 either, and their officers also have 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 come crashing open, anything could come through. 'Inventive, funny and engrossing, this book lingers long after you close it' - Tade Thompson, Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author of Rosewater Adrian Tchaikovsky is the author of Children of Time, Children of Ruin and many other novels, novellas and short stories. Children of Time won the Arthur C. Clarke award in its 30th anniversary year.

The Doors of Eden

Cena

Love AT, but this one fell a little flat for me. Favorite character: DR. RAT.

Prashanth Srivatsa

A unique feat of scientific imagination. I'd read anything by Tchaikovsky.

This is a breathtaking novel from Adrian Tchaikovsky, Arthur C. Clarke award winning author. The walls between many worlds are collapsing and only a handful of people are in on this secret. But how can they stop the end of the universe?

Sade A

...
🖤
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.

Janice Hopper

Boy howdy, you can't do better than these Adrian Tchaikowsky books for Big-Ass Ideas! I've found the books I've read by him fascinating. 

This one covers alternate worlds. There have been many, many alternate universes. And we hear a little about many of them. But there's a problem: they're all gonna collapse into some kind of historical singularity if Our Intrepid Heroes can't figure out how to stop it.

For me, it took a little while to figure out exactly what was going on. The storytelling has lots of interludes/asides where we find out about those alternate earths, and which species predominated in it. And there's a (figuratively) mustache-twirling villain, embodying the worst of 2020's bad cultural viewpoints. He was almost a little OTT for me.

The diverse characters are just presented as... characters. This is so welcome. And there are Neanderthal characters.

I just thought it was a lot of fun, with a lot of cool ideas. That's my kind of SF. Recommended, if you like that sort of thing.

Ben Nathan

I LOVED this. Brilliant idea told extremely well. I never knew where it was going unless he wanted me to. Great ideas, great characters, highly suggest this to all.

Spaceghost 

Captivating beginning and a story that expands in surprising ways. Somewhat reminded me of The Laundry Files. The ending is cleverly done.

Bryan Alexander

The Doors of Eden is an example of science fiction being based on a single idea. In this case, what if we discover passageways between our world and other, parallel Earths? Tchaikovsky devotes the novel to exploring such a possibility, doing some hefty world-building and weaving in a number of characters whose plots eventually coincide, in addition to some framing lectures.

I enjoyed the process in that classic sf novel-of-idea way. It might be the academic in me, but I especially liked the historical lectures, each of which traced out an alternate Earth. Without spoiling anything I can say that they start with geology and biology; this isn't a classic alternate history, which tends to be based on human choices. The characters and plots sufficed for purpose, and I couldn't keep many in mind after, except for the (SPOILERS) (view spoiler)[Neanderthals and cosmic trilobites (hide spoiler)].

The Doors of Eden is also a political book. We see that in the representation among characters. Our point of view people are led by a young lesbian couple, and a transwoman is the leading thinker. There isn't any successful heterosexual relationship. Women tend to play leading roles. The villain is an almost cartoonish list of reaction: white, male, rich, creepy around women, nationalist, xenophobic, transphobic, homophobic, fascistic, and violent. In this sense the novel fits smoothly into contemporary politics.

This representational politics ties into a pro-difference politics, which might be the novel's overarching theme. The villains are for forms of purity, while the heroes are for diversity and multiplicity. A friendly, long-suffering Neanderthal character gives a passionate speech on the best way to handle a crisis, and the novel bears it out as an ideology: "...difference is strength. To save everything, we need as much difference as possible." (364) We see several examples in the end where undifferentiated, monistic, purist organizations fail.

One more point: I enjoyed a sequence towards the end where the narrative gets formally creative. Again with the spoilers: (view spoiler)[the multi-Earth branching mechanism starts spitting out multiple narratives. Tchaikovsky signifies this by having a repeating header, the Roman "I" leading each one, and without any explanation. I appreciated this formal game as well as the respect shown the reader. (540ff) (hide spoiler)]

Overall, an engaging novel. I liked the author's Children books and will look for more.

Stephen James

Floris Verloop

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)

The Doors of Eden

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