Take a photo of a barcode or cover
stubbornlybookish 's review for:
The Doors of Eden
by Adrian Tchaikovsky
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.
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.