he Doors of Eden is a tome at over 600 pages, but is written so beautifully that is doesn’t feel like 600 pages. It was a delight to read.

I had a really difficult time writing this review. I wrote and rewrote my review before taking a break and then make this final attempt. My review doesn’t do this book justice and some aspects of the book I found had my opinion waffling over whether this was a Very Good Book or just A Goo Book. In the end, regardless of my struggles, the crux of this review is: Its a worthy read and you wont be sorry you read it!

This is my first Tchaikovsky book, so going in I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Sure, Tchaikovsky is known as a brilliant voice in fantastical literature, but sometimes an author everyone loves can, frankly, be a slog or often over-hyped. I recently read the Book of Koli by M.G. Carey which had rave reviews on Goodreads, but undoubtedly was one of my least favourite novels of the year thus far. Unpopular opinion? Yes. But a very good example of how a really popular and beloved novel may not work for everyone. Fortunately, this was not the case for The Doors of Eden and I think I found a new favourite author.

The Doors of Eden is an extremely expansive story that tries to tie in science, fantasy and politics in a cohesive but fun package. It was a pleasure to read and captured my attention from the start. The novel also explores the many parallel earths theory without getting too complex or ungainly.

What if cockroaches become sentient long before humanity, or dinosaurs or even plants? What would such a world look like? I loved the “intermissions” between chapters where the history of each parallel earth is outlined and further develops the reader’s understanding of the different parallel universes and how a slight change in Earth’s history lead to divergent evolution.

I also loved that Tchaikovsky captured the feeling of being a government spook. The main characters Julian and Allison work for an intelligence agency and felt surprisingly authentic (or so i imagine) given the fantastical nature of the story overall. I think Tchaikovsky tried to develop a cast of characters who are the modern day “every man” in a diverse set of circumstances: a cryptologist, a set of spies, a touch of LGBTQ and even a CEO with nazi-esque leanings. All of the characters have a part to play at the end of time – some of their roles surprising, some not.

The characters themselves made this review so difficult for me to write: near the end, many of the characters became politicized or unlikable making the story a little less enjoyable. Also, with all the diversity represented in this book, the lack or respect for certain minor characters soured me on the ending somewhat. Regardless, the story itself was fun and filled with so many interesting things and unexpected plot twists, that the characters became secondary to the story itself.

In addition, the end felt a little rushed and could have used some more TLC – but it wasn’t a deal breaker. I’d immediately TBR and pre-order a follow up novel in this universe because I loved Tchaikovsky the uniqueness of The Doors of Eden and am incredibly curious what other creatures exist in this really complex and ODDLY realistic world.

This book just isn’t for me. I have tried reading it on a number of occasions but I just couldn’t get past the first couple of chapters.

Mezmerizing! Mind-blowing! Stunning! I don't know which word is strong enough to describe this book! An unique and strong work of science-fiction that every readers of this genre should read. I can't recommend it enough!

An alternate history that delves into unfollowed evolutionary paths, Adrian Tchaikovsky’s latest novel The Doors Of Eden is a complex and perplexing book that is ultimately more than the sum of its parts.

The book follows four disconnected people in London: young Fortean cryptid hunter Lee whose girlfriend Mal mysteriously vanishes; a mathematician Dr. Kay Amal Khan who is targeted by terrorists; a ruthless criminal enforcer Lucas May whose employer seems to be involved in the paranormal; MI5 agent Julian and his colleague Alison.

Each of these characters spends the first half of the novel investigating disparate mysteries, all of which eventually are revealed to have a common cause: the impending collapse of the universe.

Between character-based chapters, non-diegetic inserts offer vignettes about how evolution progressed in different timelines. The relevance of these passages to the narrative unfolds as the beings in these worlds become part of a larger effort to preserve the multiverse.

It’s a lot to fit into one book, and sometimes it feels like Tchaikovsky is juggling too many narratives. But somehow, for the most part it all ends up fitting together nicely. And, as is often the case, it’s more satisfying to have an author resolve a story in one book instead of three.

A recurring theme in Adrian Tchaikovsky’s science fiction is an ever-expanding definition of who and what deserves to have rights. The Doors Of Eden might be the most definitive thesis statement he has offered on this point: myriad types of intelligence are introduced throughout the book, and their neurodiversity has value. The villains of the book are those who strive for a narrow-minded definition of a “pure” race, and those who believe there is one correct way to be, to think, or to perceive the world. Diversity of thought, diversity of experience, diversity of form, are all overtly shown to be strengths.

One character’s attempt to create an England for English people drives this point home, as Tchaikovsky draws a direct line between intolerance for differing ways of being and thinking, and a rigid authoritarianism that is incapable of dealing with global challenges.

We appreciated the fact that the book’s celebration of diversity included representation of non-cis-gendered people (though we would be interested to hear the thoughts of someone from the trans community about what they thought of this depiction). There were moments in the novel in which an alt-right villain deliberately misgenders a protagonist who is trans, and this made some of us uncomfortable.

In previous novels, Tchaikovsky seems to have taken inspiration from his degree in zoology, and his knowledge of ethology and evolution are again on full display here.While reading The Doors Of Eden’s speculations on various evolutionary paths, we were repeatedly reminded of Richard Dawkins’ The Ancestor’s Tale, and that book’s detailed dive into the diversity and beauty of evolutionary biology. The Doors Of Eden is a joyful celebration of the natural world’s endless potential, and an appeal to our shared empathy.

Tchaikovsky’s latest is among his best novels, and among the top-tier of 2020.

E-ARC provided through the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

CW: misgendering, discrimination based on gender/sexuality, racism, murder, gun violence, loss of a limb, kidnapping

I did not like this book, at all. When requesting the book I recognized the authors name and remembered some distant chatter about sapphics and parallel Earths. Needless to say I was super dissatisfied with the delivery and I am pretty bummed out. To be completely frank I would have dnfed this with a swiftness if I hadn't been approved for the arc.

From the beginning I immediately struggled with the writing. It was incredibly dense and dry from the start. Any time there seemed to be any sort of flow to the story, the author made awkward perspective changes and input the most stale, overly written chunks of info-dumping I have ever come across. These long-winded passages did not even need to exist! It was definitely supplementary information that could have existed in some sort of appendices (or footnotes if super paired down). This resulted in a terribly stilted and ill-paced story that was deeply tedious to get through.

Let's talk about the characters shall we? Because WOW they were a hot mess. From both a representation and development standing Adrian Tchaikovsky fumbles the bag. The trans woc character in particular I believe was ill-handled and could cause harm to trans readers. When introduced to the reader, her appearance and behaviour is describe pre-transition at great length. This then begins a pattern of misgendering from certain characters-some through their perspective and some via minor characters. At one point in the text she is made to wear men's clothing and is constantly dehumanized from our mustache twirling villain. The text never condemns these actions, which I think is just flagrantly irresponsible. I would like to note I read the uncorrected arc and that things could be changed with the final copy.

In terms of general character development (looks from side to side), where the hell was it? Every single character was flatter than a single sheet of paper. No one had any motivations in particular. Other than (maybe?) wanting the world to not end. We learn not a single thing about any of the six (?!) perspective characters and they are severely disconnected from the narrative. We hardly ever see any one of the characters simply emoting. We have characters (WHO ARE SUPPOSEDLY IN LOVE) separated for four years, with one presumed to be dead have the same emotional output as when I run into someone I vaguely liked in high school.

The plot could have been interesting. The concepts were super cool and had the opportunity to explore some pretty cool ideas/themes However, it simply gets lost with all of the poorly done elements that it never stood a fighting chance. It also happened to be terribly boring. I do think that could have been symptomatic of the bad writing/characters but I am too close (and annoyed) at the moment to make that distinction.

This felt like the worlds longest prequel in which the interesting parts are yet to come. It is not often I actually regret picking up a book, but this may be one of those cases. Obviously I do not personally recommend this story but I do think certain audiences could enjoy this.

The Doors Of Eden starts as a portal fantasy, shifts to trying to be a James Bond-esque spy story, before and ending up as a try to fix a multiverse adventure.

The characters never felt fully fleshed out, and it felt like the author instead was just ticking off LGBT/BIPOC check boxes by including certain characters as there was no other defining characteristics about these people other than they were lesbians, or a transgendered person there to be constantly misgendered by the "bad guys". Even the villains in this story came off flat, with only the most minor of motivations for why they wanted to destroy everything.

Though there were times while reading this book that I did find myself thinking about how fun some plot points were, overall the defining storylines never ended up working for me.

The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

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.