Take a photo of a barcode or cover
susssu 's review for:
The Doors of Eden
by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Tchaikovsky is my favorite author, so I don't know how objective I can truly be about his books at this point. This one isn't one of my favorites, though, while I do think this explores some really interesting topics, too.
The story revolves around parallel universes (which alongside time travel is one of my least favorite sci-fi tropes) and at points the plot edges on to get a little convoluted. It all wraps up in a neat little package, though, but it takes a little to get there.
Tchaikovsky has studied both psychology and zoology at university, and this is something that shines through basically everything he writes. His books discuss some truly fascinating concepts, his world-building is masterful, and his characters tend to feel very real and human (whatever species they may be). One reason for the disconnect I felt with this book might be the abundance of characters and different worlds here; I didn't really feel like I had enough time with any of them.
There's also a lot of social commentary in this book, specifically surrounding discrimination and bigotry. The lead scientist at the heart of the story is a trans woman, and two other main characters are in a sapphic relationship. So naturally the villain of the story is a stuffy Old Englishman who hates everything about that. Now, as an asexual cis woman I'm probably not the right person to comment on the representation here, but at least for me it felt pretty organic and respectful. There was blatant trans phobia (misgendering and dead naming) and homo phobia on page, but it was clearly there to underline a character's bigotry, and it was also addressed. Not a central theme or a recurring event, but still something that occurs.
Overall I did like the book as a whole, but so far I've preferred Tchaikovsky's other longer works to this one.
The story revolves around parallel universes (which alongside time travel is one of my least favorite sci-fi tropes) and at points the plot edges on to get a little convoluted. It all wraps up in a neat little package, though, but it takes a little to get there.
Tchaikovsky has studied both psychology and zoology at university, and this is something that shines through basically everything he writes. His books discuss some truly fascinating concepts, his world-building is masterful, and his characters tend to feel very real and human (whatever species they may be). One reason for the disconnect I felt with this book might be the abundance of characters and different worlds here; I didn't really feel like I had enough time with any of them.
There's also a lot of social commentary in this book, specifically surrounding discrimination and bigotry. The lead scientist at the heart of the story is a trans woman, and two other main characters are in a sapphic relationship. So naturally the villain of the story is a stuffy Old Englishman who hates everything about that. Now, as an asexual cis woman I'm probably not the right person to comment on the representation here, but at least for me it felt pretty organic and respectful. There was blatant trans phobia (misgendering and dead naming) and homo phobia on page, but it was clearly there to underline a character's bigotry, and it was also addressed. Not a central theme or a recurring event, but still something that occurs.
Overall I did like the book as a whole, but so far I've preferred Tchaikovsky's other longer works to this one.