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A review by thetome
The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky
3.0
The Short Answer
A supremely fascinating idea backed by some excellent world building. While the final half doesn't quite live up to the intro, it's still a solid sci-fi entry. If you've never read Adrian Tchaikovsky before start with [b:Children of Time|25499718|Children of Time (Children of Time, #1)|Adrian Tchaikovsky|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1431014197l/25499718._SY75_.jpg|45276208] first, but if you liked his previous work this is a good, but non-essential book to read.
The Long Answer
This is my third book by Adrian Tchaikovsky. I previously read [b:Children of Time|25499718|Children of Time (Children of Time, #1)|Adrian Tchaikovsky|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1431014197l/25499718._SY75_.jpg|45276208] and [b:Children of Ruin|40376072|Children of Ruin (Children of Time, #2)|Adrian Tchaikovsky|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1548701599l/40376072._SX50_.jpg|62663185] and enjoyed them immensely. He has in incredible ability to create alternate evolutionary paths that are both alien, fascinating, and believable. That tradition continued to good effect in this book as he gets the opportunity to flex his muscles and make as many alternate evolutionary paths as he wants, all of which are fascinating.
The ideas behind this book are fascinating which makes figuring them out a lot of fun. The whole first half of the book is a mystery told from multiple perspectives. Watching different people figure out different parts is excellent, and it really helps flesh out the characters and make them engaging. To make it better, the mystery elements all resolve in unexpected ways that are both earned and interesting.
However once the mystery is solved and the final crisis revealed, the book slows down to a crawl and never fully recovers. characters that were once engaging become flat and uninteresting, the main crisis, once it's revealed, is dragged out long enough to lose most of it's tension. There is a very cool narrative device employed at one part near the end that helps shake things up, but it also ends up going on a bit too long. Thankfully the reader won't figure out the solution long before the characters, that helps justify the length, but I struggled to stay engaged for the last couple hundred pages.
There is also a main villain. He suffered from the same problem of being fascinating and convoluted at the start, but much less interesting in the end. That makes sense given what we learn of the character, and with a stronger ending probably would have been a powerful point. In the end Tchaikovsky makes a welcome statement against bigotry and xenophobia, but it never truly feels earned.
I liked this book, which is a shame because I started out loving it, but it was still a worthwhile read. Worth checking out if you've read some of Tchaikovsky's other work and need more, but a terrible starting point for anyone new to the author.
A supremely fascinating idea backed by some excellent world building. While the final half doesn't quite live up to the intro, it's still a solid sci-fi entry. If you've never read Adrian Tchaikovsky before start with [b:Children of Time|25499718|Children of Time (Children of Time, #1)|Adrian Tchaikovsky|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1431014197l/25499718._SY75_.jpg|45276208] first, but if you liked his previous work this is a good, but non-essential book to read.
The Long Answer
This is my third book by Adrian Tchaikovsky. I previously read [b:Children of Time|25499718|Children of Time (Children of Time, #1)|Adrian Tchaikovsky|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1431014197l/25499718._SY75_.jpg|45276208] and [b:Children of Ruin|40376072|Children of Ruin (Children of Time, #2)|Adrian Tchaikovsky|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1548701599l/40376072._SX50_.jpg|62663185] and enjoyed them immensely. He has in incredible ability to create alternate evolutionary paths that are both alien, fascinating, and believable. That tradition continued to good effect in this book as he gets the opportunity to flex his muscles and make as many alternate evolutionary paths as he wants, all of which are fascinating.
The ideas behind this book are fascinating which makes figuring them out a lot of fun. The whole first half of the book is a mystery told from multiple perspectives. Watching different people figure out different parts is excellent, and it really helps flesh out the characters and make them engaging. To make it better, the mystery elements all resolve in unexpected ways that are both earned and interesting.
However once the mystery is solved and the final crisis revealed, the book slows down to a crawl and never fully recovers. characters that were once engaging become flat and uninteresting, the main crisis, once it's revealed, is dragged out long enough to lose most of it's tension. There is a very cool narrative device employed at one part near the end that helps shake things up, but it also ends up going on a bit too long. Thankfully the reader won't figure out the solution long before the characters, that helps justify the length, but I struggled to stay engaged for the last couple hundred pages.
There is also a main villain. He suffered from the same problem of being fascinating and convoluted at the start, but much less interesting in the end. That makes sense given what we learn of the character, and with a stronger ending probably would have been a powerful point. In the end Tchaikovsky makes a welcome statement against bigotry and xenophobia, but it never truly feels earned.
I liked this book, which is a shame because I started out loving it, but it was still a worthwhile read. Worth checking out if you've read some of Tchaikovsky's other work and need more, but a terrible starting point for anyone new to the author.