The Doors of Eden is a new standalone novel from Adrian Tchaikovsky, whose other books I’ve been known to talk about very highly. If I’m honest, I went into this excited, and with pretty high expectations. And you know what, it’s a great book. A sci-fi thriller, which mixes the author’s trademark grand scope and big ideas, with some gritty, kick-arse action, and some characters whose depth and heart gives the novel a strong, genuine sense of humanity.
This is a story that looks at the strange, at the unexplained. That wonders what happens when the mists rise up in a particular place at a particular time, taking people with them when they go. That has a sense of the wonder and mystery of the unexplained, the horror and excitement of breaching the boundaries of the unknowable. Because as the story begins, we’re looking at a pair of young idiots (Lee and Mal, two young women whose romance is heartstoppingly heartfelt, and fantastically real) stepping off the metaphorical edge of the world. The consequences are there, sure enough. And the characters themselves - more on them in a minute. But they’re living that deep breath of tension as they step over a line, from one moment, one life, into another. And that’s the soul of the book, for me. Discovery, connection, understanding – the best qualities of people are here, as they delve into things people were perhaps not meant to know. Because humanity is great at doing stupid things and seeing what happens later, and Lee and Mal are, in this case, even better than most of us.
That said, they’re definitely challenged by Julian Sabreur, MI5 desk jockey, and general management-level intelligence troublemaker. Julian and one of his colleagues have a penchant for getting dragged into the weirder aspects of some of their cases. Things that are shimmering at the edge of the map, while Lee and Mal stumble through that terra incognita. If the younger couple have their romance, Julian’s detachment, emotional repression, and self-awareness about himself, twinned with a sharp intelligence, is equally refreshing, a delight in precision character-crafting. A dry wit completes the deal, as does the gently bubbling care he shows for those whom he works with, and his genuine love and loyalty for the country he serves.
And then there’s Dr. Khan. She’s smart, driven, compassionate, and has a tendency to attract trouble Or at least, is prone to people knocking her door down in an effort to find out what she knows about mysterious disappearances, and asking awkward questions MI5 would also rather like the answers to. A fierce individual, and it’s great to see a scientist given room to show their vigour and passion. Personally, I found her struggle to deal with bigots, alongside the broader sweep of universe-shattering events in the story to be emotionally affecting, adding further emotional weight and gravitas to a story which already had a surfeit of wonderful characterisation.
Anyway, this motley bunch are all driving different agendas, all looking at strange disappearances, and indeed appearances. Trying to understand what’s happening, and why. In this they’re ably assisted by fantastic superscience, by their own wits and guile, and (though in this case perhaps assisted is the wrong word) by a sinister billionaire and associated henchmen, who, of course, have a mission of their own.
And it works. The story begins cloaked in mystery, sure. But it has a thread of tension, an edge running through it like a razor seeping through cloth. Each turn of the page opens up the characters, and us, to a little more of the truth, doses out revelation with swift assurance but slow doses, and ratchets up the stakes, the connection, the pace, just a little at the same time. This is one that will grab hold of you and refuse to let go, while you work with our protagonists to try and understand what’s going on, and what they should do about it, while they discover things about each other, and themselves, at the same time as they’re trying to put the world (or the universe?) to rights.
Speaking of the world. There’s some beautifully imaginative world building here. Mists that sink into your bones. A London that’s strangely familiar, or perhaps, not actually that familiar at all. And there are stranger places by far on the table – though for sake of spoilers, I shan’t go into detail. But know this. As ever for Tchaikovsky, those worlds are crafted to a soaring scale, but detailed with a care and attention that makes them feel lived in, feel real – the strange and the familiar mixed together to make something new, something it’s impossible to look away from.
So yes. This is a good story. A great one, even. It has a world that will capture your attention, and characters whose struggles will capture your heart, even as the story shoots it full of adrenaline. This is another fantastic tale from Tchaikovsky, and one I can recommend to you without reservation. Go and pick up a copy, as fast as you can. Just watch out for mists on your way to the shops....
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