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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
If the crunchy sci-fi were not enough for me, which it totally is, the fascinating characters and intense interpersonal relationships would be more than enough enough to keep my interest. Particularly love Doctor Khan as a character - great to see a transgender character with such complexity and for whom being transgender is not just a token, throwaway trait.
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
2.75 stars.
The Doors of Eden was a pretty deceptive book going into it. I was won over by the interludes by Professor Ruth Emerson and was really expecting some hard science on evolutionary biology. Sadly, a lot of the book wasn't like that.
There's perhaps three overarching stories that you're going to get from this novel. The first is the story of Mal and Lee, their cryptid hobby and how that unwittingly leads to the inciting incident at the beginning of the novel with Mal's disappearance; the second, and my least favourite, is the M15 espionage storyline that follows a James Bond-wannabe, Julian Sabreur, and a whole cast of other "agents" (this really ends up being the bulk load of the novel and I really wasn't a fan of it); and the third is the epic scope this novel ends up taking towards the end where the heavier sci-fi elements begin to weld the storylines and strange species together.
The first thing I'd like to admit is that The Doors of Eden does have a fascinating concept (arguably, a few) embedded in it. Specifically, in the interlude titled The Humans, the ending literally made my hair stand on end and gave me intense goosebumps. I haven't really had a reaction from reading a book like this this year.
Next, Tchaikovsky's writing clearly comes from someone who knows his stuff. He is deep in the subculture of sci-fi. Albeit his references to Narnia were very quickly overdone, I personally enjoyed the small nods to Flatland, Doctor Who, Star Trek etc.
Yet, in spite of these plus points, there were just too many other weak aspects of The Doors of Eden that I just couldn't look past. The characters, for instance, really didn't have much room to develop enough agency. The LGBT reps did feel like checklists in a cast of characters that aspired to be diverse. The "villain" of the entire story, for me, felt too much like a caricature or representation of nationalistic ideals. And especially in the middle, characters felt like pawns being moved from place to place rather than characters with clear motives and pursuits. I believe there was even a part in the middle where one of the characters just stated outright, "What is going on?" And it resonated with me deeply.
This isn't to say that the sci-fi elements were difficult to understand. If anything, I felt it was the exact opposite. The multiverse aspects were eventually explained (personally, a little too late) but, for the most part, quantum physics and anthropology should have been integrated more to scaffold the wooliness of the entire plot in the middle. It just got really bizarre in a not good way. Some of the explorations of other civilisations, personally, were a little too bland and somehow not alien enough.
Part of it, I think, is that this book suffered from being situated too much in the United Kingdom which seemed a bit incongruent to the message it ultimately aimed to achieve at the end of the novel.
Because of the messy middle, I was dangerously close to getting in a reading slump and had to speed-read the rest of the book. Again, not a good sign.
I'm willing to read more from Tchaikovsky (partially 'cause I have to for my buddy reads this month). But this was just not the book for me. Interesting general concept, but I really really didn't like the execution. So it's a really really low three stars from me.
The Doors of Eden was a pretty deceptive book going into it. I was won over by the interludes by Professor Ruth Emerson and was really expecting some hard science on evolutionary biology. Sadly, a lot of the book wasn't like that.
There's perhaps three overarching stories that you're going to get from this novel. The first is the story of Mal and Lee, their cryptid hobby and how that unwittingly leads to the inciting incident at the beginning of the novel with Mal's disappearance; the second, and my least favourite, is the M15 espionage storyline that follows a James Bond-wannabe, Julian Sabreur, and a whole cast of other "agents" (this really ends up being the bulk load of the novel and I really wasn't a fan of it); and the third is the epic scope this novel ends up taking towards the end where the heavier sci-fi elements begin to weld the storylines and strange species together.
The first thing I'd like to admit is that The Doors of Eden does have a fascinating concept (arguably, a few) embedded in it. Specifically, in the interlude titled The Humans, the ending literally made my hair stand on end and gave me intense goosebumps. I haven't really had a reaction from reading a book like this this year.
Next, Tchaikovsky's writing clearly comes from someone who knows his stuff. He is deep in the subculture of sci-fi. Albeit his references to Narnia were very quickly overdone, I personally enjoyed the small nods to Flatland, Doctor Who, Star Trek etc.
Yet, in spite of these plus points, there were just too many other weak aspects of The Doors of Eden that I just couldn't look past. The characters, for instance, really didn't have much room to develop enough agency. The LGBT reps did feel like checklists in a cast of characters that aspired to be diverse. The "villain" of the entire story, for me, felt too much like a caricature or representation of nationalistic ideals. And especially in the middle, characters felt like pawns being moved from place to place rather than characters with clear motives and pursuits. I believe there was even a part in the middle where one of the characters just stated outright, "What is going on?" And it resonated with me deeply.
This isn't to say that the sci-fi elements were difficult to understand. If anything, I felt it was the exact opposite. The multiverse aspects were eventually explained (personally, a little too late) but, for the most part, quantum physics and anthropology should have been integrated more to scaffold the wooliness of the entire plot in the middle. It just got really bizarre in a not good way. Some of the explorations of other civilisations, personally, were a little too bland and somehow not alien enough.
Part of it, I think, is that this book suffered from being situated too much in the United Kingdom which seemed a bit incongruent to the message it ultimately aimed to achieve at the end of the novel.
Because of the messy middle, I was dangerously close to getting in a reading slump and had to speed-read the rest of the book. Again, not a good sign.
I'm willing to read more from Tchaikovsky (partially 'cause I have to for my buddy reads this month). But this was just not the book for me. Interesting general concept, but I really really didn't like the execution. So it's a really really low three stars from me.
adventurous
challenging
funny
hopeful
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
funny
hopeful
inspiring
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
X-files plus Doctor Who + Darwin's evolution lectures.
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Not my genre
As always Adrian brings some incredibly unique and interesting concepts to the Sci-Fi, with a cast of great characters such as the miraculous and wonderful Dr Kahn. The overall plot is interesting with some nice turns here and there BUT! There is a major shortcoming in my eyes, one that made this a bit of a drag to keep reading. It took me ages to get around to finish this book, so I questioned myself why? What made this book so hard to continue reading? As I mentioned earlier, its got some great things going for it! But still, it was hard for me to keep going to the end of the book. This came to my conclusion that the culprit was the writing, one of the core components of a book. Its just that the writing is subpar from Adrian which affects the book massively. Overall I would still say its worth a read, but if you've got your mind on another book, pick that one instead, and come back to this after.
Overall id say strong 2.5 to a lite 3.
Overall id say strong 2.5 to a lite 3.
3.75/5
Overall this was an enjoyable read with some exceptions.
The world building and plot idea was interesting and well developed. The characters were diverse if not dynamic. The pacing and writing was good and kept me engaged for the most part. I enjoyed experiencing the world overall.
What I wasn't keen on was the handling of lesbian, trans, and poly identities. While I wouldn't call it problematic by any means, I felt that these representations were somewhat heavy handed and textbook based rather than feeling organic or like actual representations of people of those identities. It kind of felt forced like he was checking off an inclusion box. Not offensive, just not as representational as I like for those identities. Overall some of the characters were heavy handed, especially the villain.
...And soft spoiler follows....
And I did not love what he did with the ending. The structure kind of annoyed me, despite making logical sense for the story and world.
Overall this was an enjoyable read with some exceptions.
The world building and plot idea was interesting and well developed. The characters were diverse if not dynamic. The pacing and writing was good and kept me engaged for the most part. I enjoyed experiencing the world overall.
What I wasn't keen on was the handling of lesbian, trans, and poly identities. While I wouldn't call it problematic by any means, I felt that these representations were somewhat heavy handed and textbook based rather than feeling organic or like actual representations of people of those identities. It kind of felt forced like he was checking off an inclusion box. Not offensive, just not as representational as I like for those identities. Overall some of the characters were heavy handed, especially the villain.
...And soft spoiler follows....
And I did not love what he did with the ending. The structure kind of annoyed me, despite making logical sense for the story and world.
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
A good sci-fi concept, bad action sequences, average execution of the concept.