This isn’t my usual genre but you’ve made it sound so intriguing, Lindsey. The end of worlds, wow, I think this would make my perfect summer beach (Cornwall!) read, I’ll have to add it to my shopping basket, thank you 🙂 The Doors of Eden is a journey that is rooted closer to home than most of his previous stories, set in the present day earth (pre covid 19), it imagines that the barrier between alternative realities is thin enough that it can, and does, have breaches - gaps that can be traversed. Lee and her partner Mal are crypoid fans, always looking to find evidence of elusive, mythical creatures whenever they can. They find themselves on Bodmin Moor after seeing a Youtube video surface that seems to show some mysterious bird-man type creature on a farm nearby. Things don't go as planned and Mal disappears, leaving Lee alone in the wilderness. Mal remains missing for four years and is presumed dead, until one day she just reappears, without any phone call, message or warning. But she isn't alone and other creatures, some not too friendly seem to have found the same path. Mal's return doesn't go unnoticed, with MI5 agents Julian and Alison on her trial, as is ex-army guyLucas May who seems to know a lot more about these events than he has any right to. All of them are trying to get to the gifted scientist DrKay Amal Khan - but even she doesn't really know why (other than the fact they are in a whole heap of trouble). It’s not necessarily the genre for everyone, but it just worked for me? The pacing, the characters, the settings… I really enjoyed it.

The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky - Ebook | Scribd The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky - Ebook | Scribd

Mal approached the nearest stone, which wasn’t much taller than she was, flat and irregular, nothing like the decent workmanship of Stonehenge. ‘Six brothers,’ she said derisively. On the inner faces of all three were lichen-clogged scratches that might have been local graffiti or Stone Age ritual magic. You are gullible. Surrounded by people you don’t know, with your leaders even less knowable, and you are gullible. Someone says a thing to you strongly enough, you believe them. You take confidence for truth.”This well-wrought second installment in Tchaikovsky’s Echoes of the Fall epic fantasy series (after The Tiger and the Wolf) focuses on two major threats to the realistically magical world Continue reading » Lee,’ Mal said. She was standing by the stone, not quite touching it, and she was very still. ‘You can see forever.’ In my wildest moments, I did not, never ever contemplate Tchaikovsky could write a book as shitty as this. Imagine a universe in which there are myriad Earths. Every parallel Earth is different with different dominant species. Imagine all these branching timelines being done on purpose to find what works best. You know, evolution but on a whole new level. This is the universe of this book. There’re too many characters to talk about! But the great cast makes you feel both hopeful for humanity, and fear for it.

The Doors Of Eden By Adrian Tchaikovsky • Just Geeking By The Doors Of Eden By Adrian Tchaikovsky • Just Geeking By

Up next we actually have an antagonist, sorta. The real antagonist of the story is the heat death of the universe, but Lucas is the right-hand man of another man who isn’t improving things. Lucas is a complicated character who falls into being a bad guy and doesn’t know how to stop. He doesn’t necessarily have a redemption arc, but his story does an amazing job exploring how the tiny choices we make build momentum into who we become, and in some ways how our circumstances–not our inherent nature– determines whether we are good or bad. His story is great; you will have to read the book to understand it better than I can reasonably explain here. Lots of evolutionary biology. If evolutionary speculation and analysis of how life on our world could have evolved differently isn’t your jam, this probably isn’t for you. Children of Time has won the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 2016, and Children of Ruin won the “best novel of the year” in The British Science Fiction Association Award a few days ago. Tchaikovsky’s newest work, The Doors of Eden, will definitely continue to win him more prestigious SFF awards in the future.

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When The Thing That Happened happened, Mal was still skinny, but you couldn’t see her bones quite as much. Lee’s worries about Mal meeting some Oxbridge wunderkind and running off with her had abated. More than that, Mal had been making plans.