The Doors of Eden

By: Adrian Tchaikovsky

Narrated by: Sophie Aldred

Length: 18 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's Summary

From the Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning Adrian Tchaikovsky, The Doors of Eden is an extraordinary feat of the imagination and an enthralling adventure about parallel universes and the monsters that they hide.

They thought we were safe. They were wrong.

Four years ago, two girls went looking for monsters on Bodmin Moor. Only one came back. 

Lee thought she'd lost Mal, but now she's miraculously returned. But what happened that day on the moors? And where has she been all this time? Mal's reappearance hasn't gone unnoticed by MI5 officers either, and Lee isn't the only one with questions. 

Julian Sabreur is investigating an attack on top physicist Kay Amal Khan. This leads Julian to clash with agents of an unknown power - and they may or may not be human. His only clue is grainy footage, showing a woman who supposedly died on Bodmin Moor. 

Dr. Khan's research was theoretical; then she found cracks between our world and parallel Earths. Now these cracks are widening, revealing extraordinary creatures. And as the doors crash open, anything could come through.

"Tchaikovsky weaves a masterful tale...a suspenseful joyride through the multiverse." (Booklist)

©2020 Adrian Tchaikovsky (P)2020 Hachette Audio

Boring

Is this even Tchaikovsky's writing? The story is boring, more like a alternate history lesson in a class room with all the students fallen asleep. Stick with his better work "Children of time" and "Children of Ruin"

also one disclaimer I did not finish the book so take my review with a grain of salt

rare miss by an outstanding author

I have read 9 books by AC, and I'll read whatever comes next. but skip this one.

Pretty Good, not his best work

I liked his other books "children of time" and "children of ri ruin". This one was good, but came up a little short of those in terms of story. I enjoyed the segments on speculative evolution; I thought those were very interesting and well-done. The story relied a bit too much on characters who were a little weak in terms of their development. The villain character is a little too cartoonishly evil, and some other characters felt like caricatures. Some parts of the story have a bit of a political subtext relating to contemporary issues like Brexit and lgbt rights. I was fine with those, but sometimes the message the author was trying to convey was kind of awkwardly shoehorned in.

Overall the narration was well-done and easy to follow. I would recommend the audiobook especially for those who enjoyed Tchaikovsky's previous books.

Magical

Within the first chapter I felt that rare magic like I was entering the world of Narnia again for the first time. Excellent narration and a story that that will illicit wonder.

Fascinating and brilliant!

I love reading a book that makes me think, "how does anyone even come up with these ideas and descriptions?". This story is compelling (not too preachy) and has a wonderfully diverse cast of characters. I LOVE Kay. I also want to punch her in the mouth - and she'd probably love it. Mal is bad-ass, too. I'm off to search for every other AT book available!

Creative, queer-positive, fun sci-fi

This story explores interesting questions about parallel evolution, with a number of queer multiracial women characters who are complex and well-written. The story is paced well and really enjoyable from start to finish.

The only aspect I slightly struggled with was the accent adopted by the British narrator for what I eventually realized was supposed to be an American character. Everything else was excellent!

The steak dinner of books

I loved every minute of this. It's so heavy and rich though, and I need to decompress for a while.

Great concepts

The intro is awesome. The bits in between the main story are also wonderful. However, the main characters never really come alive.

The pacing is very slow. Not an exciting story but lots of great concepts.

This is more like a Silmarillian then The Lord of the Rings, though it tries to do a little bit of both.

Great attempt! Wish it was a true story.

Giving me a headache

I am really trying to finish this book, but it's not looking good. The story is interesting enough; the speculative biology is quite impressive and well described.
Main gripes are with the narrator's just terrible American accent (otherwise she does a really good job,) and the rampant overuse of the term "plug ugly" to describe every character from a specific alternate world. I swear it's thrown out every other sentence in sections of this book.
I still have about 7 hrs left of listening, hope I make it...

Terrible

I’ve enjoyed the other writings of Tchaikovsky but this book reads as though he wrote it over the weekend while nursing a headache. The plot is completely and utterly lacking in depth and content.