The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky | Review

The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Published by Tor Publishing on August 20, 2020
ISBN: 9780316705783
Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Action & Adventure, Genetic Engineering, Military, Space Opera
Pages: 640
Format: ARC, eBook
Source: NetGalley, Publisher
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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 is just one of those books that will blow your mind to freaking shreds!  If I had one thought at the end of reading this tome, that was, that my teeny tiny brain just pales into comparison with some of the greatest minds in our world.  I was in awe; I was in heaven but most of all that science fiction itch was scratched to the bone!  If you haven’t read any of Adrian Tchaikovsky, have you been sitting underneath a freaking rock?  He has written an immense number of books but ashamedly I haven’t read any of the others, rectifying that immediately.     

Let it be known that I have never read anything like this!    

Science fiction is not a genre that I have dipped my toes into very often.  I guess I feel intimated by it.  The technical jargon, the character names, the trajectory of the plot.  I’ve DNF’d more than I’d care to admit.  I’ve never found my glue, that passion to read more in the genre…until I discovered The Doors of Eden.  Adrian Tchaikovsky is the living and breathing proof that the human imagination can span the galaxies.  He has pushed the boundaries both with research and a narrative that will imprint itself in our skies.   

Only one needs to find the answer, but difference is strength. To save everything, we need as much difference as possible

the doors of eden

The story introduces us to Lee and Mal, lovers and cryptid hunters.  Their current mission is to go searching for The Birdmen on Bodmin Moor.  How is it possible that only one girl can come back?  How can one girl just vanish into thin air?  Four years later, in the current timeline, Lee receives a call from Mal.  Why is she making contact now, when Lee has painstakingly brought herself to believe that Mal was dead?  If the Doors of Eden do one thing well, then that’s, teasing the reader into asking question after question, and really these questions are a drop in an excessively big ocean.     

I thought I knew what I was getting into before I started this story but really, in brilliant Jon Snow fashion – I knew nothing!  This story had me all in.  All the bets were off.  I did wonder if Tchaikovsky has the secret ingredient into making his stories into mind blowing works of art.  The narrative and the plot development were carried out with laser precision.  The author had an uncanny ability to tap into our deepest desires and lay them bare for all to see.  He knows how human nature evolves and he made us question why we are the way we are. 

Big doesn’t mean smart, of course; ask any sauropod.

the doors of eden

Tchaikovsky gave me everything that I didn’t know that I needed in a science fiction novel.  Parallel worlds.  Inter-dimensional creatures.  Cracks in the universe.  Power struggles.  The author isn’t frightened of throwing punch after punch and giving you one more just for good measure.  The emotion, the connections but above all the coming together to preserve this universe, good or bad.  The diversity of themes running through it only strengthened the story and gave us a multi-layered story, science and evolution being at its core. 

The Doors of Eden is at its centre a story but love and our need to preserve our history.  Each character, although different, are multi-faceted but strangely normal and that’s what I got onboard with instantaneously.  I fell in love with out much the author highlighted that nothing is black and white.  The author started with a blank canvas but ended up with Edvard Munch’s Scream masterpiece.  No apologies and no mercy. 

                                                                                    

ABOUT ADRIAN TCHAIKOVSKY

Adrian Tchaikovsky is the author of the acclaimed Shadows of the Apt fantasy series, from the first volume, Empire In Black and Gold in 2008 to the final book, Seal of the Worm, in 2014, with a new series and a standalone science fiction novel scheduled for 2015. He has been nominated for the David Gemmell Legend Award and a British Fantasy Society Award. In civilian life he is a lawyer, gamer and amateur entomologist.

Guns of the Dawn, his new fantasy novel, is out now.

A full bibliography of long and short fiction can be found here.

Find me on Facebook, Goodreads, or as @aptshadow on Twitter.

I am represented by Simon Kavanagh of the Mic Cheetham Literary Agency at 62 Grafton Way, London W1T 5DW, email to simon@miccheetham.com

Adrian Tchaikovsky