samwardhaugh 's review for:

The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky

4.5

adventurous hopeful tense medium-paced

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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I really enjoyed this book - the world-building was absolutely phenomenal, I loved the way the ending played out, the characters felt real and human (I was legitimately surprised after finishing it to find out that the author was a dude - I assumed based on how well written the female characters were that the author was also a woman). My only gripe, which is fairly minor, is that the alternate chapters of the scientific paper detailing all the alternate earths got a little repetitive after a while, and I felt like they lingered a little too long on some of the alternates that didn't end up in the main plot.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Transphobia

Moderate: Gore, Transphobia

Minor: Death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Racism

In the first chapter there's a moderately graphic description of some dead sheep. There are a couple characters who are given non-consensual body modification offscreen or before the book starts.

There is a period towards the end where the main cast spends a significant period inside a giant trilobite who feeds and houses them by modifying parts of its body

One character introduced approximately half way through is revealed to be a neo-nazi. He is blatantly transphobic (dead-names a character, forces them to wear clothes inconsistent with their gender identity). He is also racist and homophobic but these are not expressed as obviously as the transphobia. He is condemned by the narrative

and dies at the end