The Doors of Eden

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The lesson here is that the Earth doesn’t care; that bad things happen; that it could so easily have been us.” 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.

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! 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. 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. 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. The fabric between multiple earths is weakening allowing multiple portals to open between various timelines. Four years before the events in the story take place two young women, Lee and Mal, cryptid, or monster, hunters, went out searching for a mysterious ‘bird-man’ who had been caught on a farmer’s CCT cameras. Unfortunately not only did they find them, Mal disappeared.I was well-impressed from the very start; the prose is lively, its tone thoroughly modern, its message one of inclusion and acceptance. No one to illustrate this better than Kay Amal Khan, the star physicist of a theoretical branch of physics so alien and new to the science that no more than three scientists in all the world can wrap their heads around it. Kay is trans, and her representation is on point throughout – her portrayal has inspired me, in fact, to write an essay on identity in the book, on the attempt of certain characters to muzzle who Kay is through force, and her retaking it. This is the kind of book The Doors of Eden is, a novel that inspires you to deconstruct and analyse in search of deeper understanding. 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.

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. 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. 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. At the climax the author attempts to obfuscate some of this by relying on the multiverse and the idea that there's SOME version of this character out there who would behave in this way, but at times the character acts so contrary to their nature it breaks credulity. 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. And for every beginning there also usually is an ending. Seems natural — but a bit chilling when what you talking about is the universe.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. 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! This book was provided for free by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for the opportunity to review this book. These creatures could meet a thing as alien as a human on their home turf and be curious, not murderous.’

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. 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 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. 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.Tomio, Jay (26 September 2008). "Bug Out with Adrian Tchaikovsky Before Children of Time". Nekoplz . Retrieved 11 March 2010. This is a lengthy novel with far-fetched events taking place. It needed strong writing, and it delivered.

We start hunting monsters. We end up deep in space with three different species trying to save the world by stopping dimensions crashing into each other. 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.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? As The Doors of Eden is a science-heavy book, specifically physics, there is a lot of mathematics and jargon in the book. I have dyscalculia so I fully understand if that sentence has just made anyone reading this think ‘uh, no this one isn’t for me’. I don’t just dislike numbers; they terrify me. They’re completely alien and unyielding. With that in mind, I still stand by my 5 star rating of The Doors of Eden because while it is a book about calculations, it’s not only about calculations. They are a fundamental part of the plot, and if you finish the book you’ll understand exactly what I mean, but this is still very much a book about life and people. 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. If you always wanted to know what the world could look like if there were more lemurs or giant centipedes, this is for you. 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.