The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky
I would like to thank Jaime-Lee Nardone for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review
Publisher - Tor
Published - Out Now
Price - £18.99 Hardback £9.99 Kindle eBook
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.
What if…. these are probably the key words for science fiction. What if Mars has life on it; what if I could download myself into the internet; and what happens if I could recreate dinosaurs? Science fiction deals with possibilities we as yet cannot see in our reality. Reading Adrian Tchaikovsky’s latest novel The Doors of Eden I was struck by how many possibilities were being presented to us and I also recalled another familiar phrase ‘life finds a way’ as I was delivered an excellent thriller, science fiction novel and altogether damn good read!
Mal and Lee are two young would-be crypto-zoologists fascinated with tales of creatures that shouldn’t exist travel to Bodmin Moor not to see the legendary Beast but the source of a new video showing bizarre huge Birdmen. They encounter something truly bizarre and Lee loses Mal in a summer snowstorm having no future contact with her for four years. In the meantime a company uses a spookily accurate way of recasting stock outcomes finally goes bust and its remnants are snapped up by the enigmatic billionaire Denton Rove. In the U.K. the govt assigns an agent Julian Sabreure (only Janes Bond in his imagination) to prevent harm coming to an important asset - the incredibly bright physicist Dr Kay Amal Khan from a group of right wing thugs, but he find although too late her attackers were still brutally stopped. Lee though finally finds Mal near the crime scene in the company of a powerful stranger. All these groups are becoming aware that the worlds are ending but not everyone thinks this is a bad idea….
On the one hand this is a huge epic story but it’s curiously fast on its feet. Tchaikovsky gives each thread of the story a mystery be it a missing lover, a spy mission or a physicist who really would like to be left alone and smoke while they work. Intermixed with these though are snippets of an academic text exploring alternate earths where evolution went in many different directions.
The former appear certainly in the early stages as a standard SF thriller - secrets, government agents and a clearly marked evil billionaire who even gloats but Tchaikovsky adds in a lot more refreshing elements. Lee and Mal are a young lesbian couple and they add the heart to the story - people who’ve always wanted to believe there is more to life. Dr Kay is sarcastic, funny and down to earth rather than Oxbridge tweed jacket professor happy to poke a finger at reactionaries. Interestingly this key character to saving the world is also a trans woman, an element that her right wing enemies can’t stand on top of her ethnicity. The govt agents are more the standard leads you expect in such thrillers Julian likes to cut corners but perhaps still a little too focused on keeping life bordered while his best friend Alison is an obsessive analyst looking for patterns. I really liked the juxtaposition of these finding the world is way more weirder than they expected and it’s this new generation helping us find a way out of our problems. Watching them learn to accept the forces of change was heartwarming.
What is stunning though is the huge web of worlds Tchaikovsky throws at us. When you consider how many options over billions of years that life could have followed to find a dominant species on Earth then these almost short story snapshots of alternative evolutions and civilisations are each almost a novel in themselves. From one where huge trilobites reach space to another where cats rules the world; just don’t think about the cockroaches….. this is the type of SF that makes you take a deep breath and just consider on a huge planetary scale what eventually makes us and also that what we class as humanity isn’t already going to be ape-related.
There is however a key theme here of diversity leading to progression. The enemy are we find truly narrow minded they cannot accept Dr Kay as a woman and continually use her dead name and when they meet try to re-impose her former identity. They cannot think of a world where mutual co-operation is worthwhile and perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised a capitalist billionaire wants to use all their wealth just to make things suit them. The ultimate master plan once unveiled is both amazingly dull but a huge insight into how such people think. What I really liked delivered was when the other characters meet a mysterious group of tall, large powerful humanoids the government initially calls ‘Pug Uglies’. When we discover more about this group; their aims and abilities it’s a strong reminder that we shouldn’t think of ourselves as the centre of the universe. Their own origin story is well worth a consideration of our own.
The story moves along at a pace from avoiding attacks; escapes from danger and quests for answers across a multiverse before in its latter half becoming a final mission to stop the end of everything with a team of uneasy characters who don’t fully trust each other. It’s treads a line between playful action and intelligent speculation on life, evolution and the origins of the universe - at no time does it feel like coasting and the finale is wonderfully inventive and hammers that final message home.
It feels a full standalone tale but opens up possible ideas for future adventures that was I not expecting. A host of interesting characters; wonderful alternative universes and yes there are some insects of incredible size as always to be expected. But this was a read that once I settled in to it I did not want to let go of. A strongly recommended science fiction tale for 2020: we need some hope in this day and age that things can get better - go find it!
