I know for a fact the audiobook didn't expire when I got it but when I tried listening to it, it would say that I had to download it. It didn't work. So I've decided to review it when I buy a physical copy.

I had to download the audiobook from my netgalley app multiple times and it still didn't work.

But I need to leave feedback to maintain my ration in the 80s

I had this as both a review copy and an audiobook from Netgalley. I usually listen to audiobooks on my phone. I'm not sure what the difference is between a Netgalley audio and an Audible audio, but while listening my phone got so hot that I had to switch it off. So I listened to the first half and read the second half. The audio was well read by Sophie Aldred, but I think I got more out of the text.

Two girls (lovers) went tramping over Dartmoor to hunt cryptoids, and only one came home. Despite investigations and search parties, Lee survived but Mal was never seen again… until four years later. Julian Sabreur, MI5 agent, is investigating an attack on top scientist Kay Amal Kahn – an attack dramatically and violently thwarted by strange-looking people who might be agents of an unknown power. And there in the grainy CCTV footage is an image of a girl, missing, presumed dead on Bodmin Moor.

Cracks between worlds are opening up and might be about to end all life in the universe. This book goes from a small-scale mystery to a major crisis involving parallel worlds. Sciency but still portraying interesting characters this is a book that delivers on many levels.

The Doors of Eden

- Multiple POV’s;
- Parallel worlds and Portals;
- Intrigue; and
- LGBT.

Firstly I would like to thank the published at xxx for proving my net galley request if this audiobook.

As I said above, I listened to this via audiobook so I feel it's only right to say a few things about that...

This is narrated by Sophie Aldred, and I am super thankful to her for providing me with not only my first ever audiobook but one I could actually listen to! I requested this on NetGalley thinking I wasn't going to lose out on my harder earned cash if I hated it and I would just look into getting the book, thankfully this wasn't needed as Aldred is a great narrator for first-time listeners. She isn't drab, isn't robotic and tells you the story quite nicely!

She also sounds good with the speed knocked up a wee bit, because let's be honest you can nearly always read a book quicker than the bloody audiobooks and that can be off putting sometimes because man they are loonnggggggg. So that helped and she still didn't sounds like an old school sat nav telling me to go left of dreary lane!

So, that's all I really know what to say in that respect. The audio is easy listening, the story is told in a great way and it's perfect for a newb to audiobooks.

So onto this pretty cracking book! The Doors of Eden is a stunning looking book and is an even better tale.

This is my first Adrian Tchaikovsky book and it won't be my last, in fact I recently picked up his ’Empire in Black and Gold’ which is on sale this month (here's my post with this months kindle deals).

This book had me from the start, it really didn't take me long to get into this. The beasts of Bodmin Moore have always been a love of mine, mainly due to the stupid tales my dad told me as a kid to scare me, so when Lee and Mal we're off to Bodmin Moore in search of a mysterious creature I was already eager to keep listening.

Now this story is a long one, and took quite a few sitting of listening to this monster but don't let that put you off it is really worth it. To the point that I'm going to try pick up a copy next payday! Which form I wish to purchase will be said later 🤫🤫

The Doors of Eden is such a thrilling and gripping read, it is one of those books you think about when your not reading and a book you are eager to return to. This book is very varied to say the least with a plethora of different elements beautifully incorporated into it's story and you can tell just how much research went into it. Each parallel universe is so well constructed, its amazing to see not one world being made with such skill but many! Each aspect from the biology to the evolutionary elements and dinosaurs is understandable despite some scientific and technical terminology. It's also seems to span quite a few genres due to this, though I would just bag it as sci-fi but believe me it can be broken down even further and across numerous subgenres and genres.

Adrian Tchaikovsky is supremely talented to have, one, thought up this book, and two, actually executed it brilliantly. This is a book rich in detail and one you have to pay attention to so it is definitely one you should take your time with but it is such a ride and has a fantastic conclusion.

All the characters in this story are great, but the poor mouth Kay has to be my favorite.

The Doors of Eden is the clever and compelling tale of two girls who looking for monsters on a remote moor. While there something strange happens and only one comes back. Reeling from the loss of her friend, Lee is shocked when she discovers that Mal has returned from where she disappeared too. Whilst Lee is attempting to understand what’s really going on, MI5 agent Julian Sabreur is working on discovering who is behind an attack on physicist Kay Amal Khan. He has very little clues except that whoever is behind it might not be human. As Julian begins to learn more about Khan’s research into parallel Earths, they soon learn that their Earth might not survive much longer.

This is my first time reading a full length novel from Adrian Tchaikovsky – I’ve read his novella Firewalkers and some of his short stories – and it was such a wild ride of a tale. This is a fast paced and complex tale, full of incredibly creatures and mind bending science. Tchaikovsky has such a brilliant writing style and the story is packed to the brim with action, adventure and humour – the story grips you from the very first chapter and doesn’t let you go till the very last page.

The story is told from the points of view of several different characters and each one was well developed. I really liked Lee and Mal, it was really interesting seeing them attempt to reconnect after all these years as well as deal with everything going on around them. My favourite character was definitely Kay Amal Khan though – she’s a brilliant scientist but she’s also an incredibly sarcastic and kick ass character.

The world building is well executed in this story and despite there being multiple threads to the story Tchaikovsky weaves them together seamlessly. There is quite a lot of science involved but it’s also really accessible for those that don’t read too much science fiction. The Doors of Eden is a gripping read and one that takes the reader on an adventure though many worlds, encountering many brilliant creatures. If you’ve been curious about this one I’d definitely recommend picking it up.

It is so long since I had a story read to me I had forgotten how enjoyable it is though, in all honesty, I have to say I love turning the pages of a real book but i did enjoy this one.
At first I thought it would leave me stone cold and then it gripped me, I'm glad it did. It covered so many areas that I think could easily be applicable on this earth we inhabit, who helps who, who should we help, should we fight anyone. Who, what is right. Are we alone? who is watching? All are applicable in our lives, none of the answers are easy. Wrong steps are easily taken ehere could they lead?
In parts the book was hard, especially a I do most of my reading, or in this case listening, at night, in the dark.
Thoughts and themes are useful in the volunteer work that I do and I can, and will use the ideas in an abstract way given that this is a very grown up story and most of the violunteer work I do is with very young children but food for thought ? there is plenty there, it just needs imagination and a little vision..
Enjoyed the narrator and change of tone for different themes and topics. A good listen.

Tchaikovsky is a name that has gained quite a following in the last few years. His sci-fi novels have imaginative and interesting concepts that really capture the audience, but after the amount of times I’ve tried to get into his books I never could get into them. When the audiobook was made available I thought I’d give it a go in case I was struggling because of my dyslexia, but sadly it’s a case of not liking the author. I’m probably going to give up on his books after this.

The Doors of Eden starts with a very intriguing first chapter that made me believe I would like this, but it got to the point where I was dreading opening up the audiobook because I was really struggling to plough through.

The biggest thing that puts me off is the writing. It’s so dense and heavy I felt like I was drowning in unnecessary descriptions and lifeless perspectives. How is that possible? It’s a book about parallel universes and an impending disaster. It should be impossible to be lifeless, but somehow it was. The shifting perspectives ruined it for me, which is one of my pet peeves. There were six perspectives and not all of them were necessary and it constantly broke the flow of the story. I skipped the interlude chapters. They added nothing, and they could’ve been cut from the final draft.

Aand you’d think with so many perspectives we’d get interesting characters. Nope. Despite so many perspectives, these characters were dull. The only ones I liked were Mal and Lee, only because they were able to hook me in with the first chapter. I can’t remember anyone else’s names, because they were so flat and uninteresting. No one had a personality, and no one made an impression. It felt like they were tools for the plot that didn’t give them time to develop.

Speaking of the plot, it was was waaayy too confusing. Maybe this book was too hard sci-fi for me, but this felt like a fumbling mess. I was never sure what was happening, and I don’t think Tchaikovsky knew either. Many of the concepts that drew me in with the amazing potential they could deliver arrived so lacklustre and tame that I wasn’t sure what the point of it was. I think Tchaikovsky got lost in how complex things were to remember he had to deliver a satisfying conclusion. I felt like I wasted my time with this.

Now the audiobook itself, sad to say, I didn’t like the narrator. I wasn’t a fan of her voice, and when she had to put accents on it made me cringe at how bad they were. There was a Welsh character and she had to put a Welsh accent on and I couldn’t bear listening to it. Maybe it’s because I am Welsh that I was sensitive to it, but even the other accents she tried sounded over the top as well. I didn’t enjoy listening to this.

To sum up this book, it had promise but failed to captivate. Maybe Tchaikovsky isn’t my type of writer, but this was an incredibly disappointing read.

This book was very complicated and convoluted. It had threads and themes that really needed to be read to understand so I found the audio-book quite difficult to get along with. The alternate chapters with the Pseudoscientific paper were ok to listen to but as soon as it got into the story I found the narrators' voice quite distracting as she didn't really do a good job of differentiating between the different characters. The book itself was fascinating and I switched to a print copy as soon as I could.

I received the audiobook from NetGalley so thank you.

Firstly I was thrilled to see who the narrator was. Sophie Aldred is fantastic. My netgalley app didn’t work too well so have her voice an incredibly annoying robotic effect!

Anyway, the premise of this book is fascinating. Worlds between worlds. Multiple worlds. Creatures from other worlds . All so promising!

Unfortunately I found the audiobook incredibly confusing . I missed lots of info and had to go back quite a few times to relisten!

I did enjoy the female characters in this book. Smart, funny and not just there to look pretty.

Overall I think I will try the physical copy of the book before I give a complete review as I feel the audiobook may not have done this justice

Audio ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review



Audio review first: I loved the narrator. She was versatile and engaging, bringing life to the characters and making the portions of scientific, especially evolutionary exposition, gripping and fascinating.



As for the book, I requested it because I love the author and the fact it looked vaguely sci-fi; In a rare move for me, I never bothered reading the blurb. It could have been a dangerous choice but I was not disappointed. Tchaikovsky's prose quickly invested me in the plot and I soon fell for the main characters. The book starts with Mal (Ellsinore Mallory) and her best friend and childhood sweetheart, Leigh, adventuring on Bodmin Moor. The two twenty-something girls had been searching for cryptids in the holidays since their late teens, and had been inseparable since they were children. It's a really sweet relationship, and the adventures serve almost as an end in themselves despite neither of them finding ant cryptids. However, on this occasion a freak blizzard blows out of nowhere and only one girl comes back from the moor. Four years pass and the heart-broken Leigh starts to doubt her memory of the strange things she saw before her girlfriend disappeared. Then other odd occurrences begin to happen: an eminent physicist is abducted: Alison, an analyst with MI5, somehow connects to vast computer intelligence which doesn't belong to this universe. As the walls of reality start to fail, strange sentient, alternate dominant species begin to drift through our earth, heralding the greatest natural disaster our world has ever seen.



There's a lot of social commentary here and a lot of (presumably the author's) opinion on politics, community and other hot button topics. I've seen some people complain about this and I see their point in that if you're just looking for entertainment, it must be jarring. On the other hand, I was greatly entertained and I didn't find it jarring probably because the author is posing questions that I'm continually asking myself anyway. In addition, I did not find this at all dry even though in places this is quite a 'told' story with a fair bit of scientific exposition. Personally I found the author's delivery engaging - though once again, I regularly read scientific journals and articles in these areas and have a particular interest in physics and evolution. So basically, he was preaching to someone in his exact target audience with me!



Overall this was a great book. Very entertaining and just thinky enough.



Not the sci-fi I was expecting, but definitely the sci-fi I didn’t even know I needed. Full of cryptid hunters, parallel dimensions and rifts in space and time. I love the author’s work but I think this is one of my favourites. Fast paced, intense and with an amazingly well built world and engaging characters. Highly recommend.

First of all, thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an early copy of this book. Now about the book, unfortunately, I think that the story was a little more hard sci-fi than I can handle. I can appreciate may things that this book did but ultimately I don't think it was for me.

Things I liked:

-I really appreciate the imagination that when into the book. I mean the amount of detailed that Tchaikovsky created for each parallel word is impressive.

-There is GBTQ+ representation and I felt it was done well. The characters are how they are and he doesn't turn them into a big deal just like he would do for the straight characters in the book.

-I really liked Khan. She is very interesting, smart, witty, strong and stands for herself and demands people to respect how she is.

-I enjoyed the non-human character and their differences in personality in comparison to other species. 
I both listen to the audiobook and read the E-Arc and I thought the narrator was really and she did a good job with different accents and coming up with how the other species might sound.


Things I didn't like:

-In my opinion, the main focus of the book was the world-building. It felt like the author really wanted to show his imagination and how far he can take it and as a result, the plot and the character felt to me like the took the back seat.

-We have six different POV and I think maybe it was a little too much. Because of this, I felt like we never really got the opportunity to get attached to the characters and explore their personality which meant that to my they were flat and one dimensional. They all have a personality trait (Mel was lost in another dimension, Lee is clinging to Mel, Julian is the inspector, Alison the computer freak, Khan the math freak, etc.) but that about it.

-Interludes. The author chose to tell us about all the different Earths and other dimensions using interlude in the forth of articles from a scientist. Unfortunately, I didn't like this format. It took me out of the story and felt like an infodump, I would have prefered if had learned about those alternative universes in a more organic way and to be somehow tidy into the action of the main plot. Even when Mal and Lee get stuck in another world we spend 2 half chapters there before they are conveniently taken back to our Earth and during this 2 half chapters is all about bombarding us with info instead letting the two characters show us this new world, it's inhabitants and their history.

-Even in the story we constantly get explanations, backstories and anecdotes that don't add anything apart from words count and if general it was too wordy for me for no reason.

Overall I think it was a little too hard Sci-fi for me and too much world-building and science. But I can see the appeal and I'm sure a lot of people, especially hard sci-fi fans will love this book.

Many thanks to the publisher, and NetGalley, for a review copy of this book. NetGalley have recently begun to offer books in audio format, so I listened to this book, read by xxx.
The author is a well-known name in British sci-fi, so I was looking forward to reading this – the first of his books for me.
The plot is detailed in other review, so here I will be brief. Lee and Mal are inseparable friends, fellow monster-hunters. But on one expedition, Mal disappears. Lee recovers and moves on…but then things get more complicated.
With two main teenage characters, firstly the book has a YA feel, which I wasn’t expecting. The author also breaks up the plot, interspersing it with some higher biology. For me, this break any momentum which might have been built up in the main narrative – though Stephen King does the same thing…
The book has its base plot centred around parallel worlds, and a disappearance or transition happening on a unusual geographic site, I was reminded of the writing of Alan Garner who often wrote about British myths and legends, often setting his stories around ancient archaeological sites and reinterpretations of British folklore.
For the main characters, the author has chosen one to be a lesbian of Pakistani descent. For a male British author, trying to accurately represent the feelings and behaviours of a young lesbian Pakistani, seems like rather a stretch. Don’t get me wrong, I have no beef about authors writing characters of a different gender, or race – this is fiction after all, and its about using imagination, but if you want your characters to feel real and true, you do need to feel you can accurately represent them, and I must say, I don’t really believe in these. However, again, on the flip side, sci-fi is not generally lauded for its depth of characterisation – it’s the literature of ideas, so this is perhaps a minor quibble as most readers are probably more interested in the plot.
Overall, this is an interesting plot, and I enjoyed the book.

DNF @ 12%

I received an audiobook review copy of this book from Tor Books, and while I was super, super anticipating this book, I really struggled with the audiobook. I didn't understand what was going on at any point, despite relistening to some chapters several times. To be fair, this book was great and interesting and had a really good hook at the start, I simply couldn't grasp the fairly complicated stuff that was being explained through the audiobook. That being said, I will probably try and get hold of a physical copy of this at some point, as I think I might fare better if I can read it on the page.

I will not be rating on Goodreads, however I am giving it 3 stars here because I don't think it's the book itself that I'm struggling with and still believe the book could be a very enjoyable read.

This is a complex book, combining a thriller with a complicated multiverse and with multiple story strands. The thriller element was certainly exciting and the multiple storylines meshed together well in the end. I had the audio version and at times it became a little confusing at the beginning as I failed to grasp what was going on - if i'd had the book I would have reread several pages - I didn't rewind and re-listen and it all became clear the more I listened. I'd read Adrian Tchaikovsky before and if you're a fan then you'll love this. It's full of those fantastic alien beings that he is so good at and the characters are well drawn and interesting. The complicated plot structure was interesting enough to keep me listening right to the end and was though-provoking and intelligent. It's quite a masterpiece of writing.

My thanks to Netgalley & Macmillan for an advanced copy for a fair review.
Adrian Tchaikovsky is a new author to me but one I think that will be taking up a lot of space on my bookshelves.
The Doors of Eden takes another look at the world of dimensions and adds to it the taste of a thriller, dodgy dealings buy the ober-rich and the natural unfairness of life.
The protagonists are well characterized, and none are perfect, at least not perfect in the eyes of the reader.
I thoroughly recommend this book as I haven't been so intrigued since I read Cloud Atlas by David Mitchel.
It gets 4 1/2 stars from me - I only dock it one-half star because at times I felt the author had hit a plateau and had trouble moving on.
Definitely one to read.

This was a very detailed, intricate sci-fi story. Well written, lots of characters but you really have to pay attention. I had to rewind the audiobook a couple of times when my mind wandered, it’s definitely not a background listen! I’d maybe prefer physically reading a book that requires this much attention!

It’s my first book from this author and I’ll definitely give some of his other books a go.

I received an advanced copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. These opinions are my own.

This was my first Adrian Tchaikovsky read, and I was pretty excited about it because I have heard such greats things about his books from friends.

I have to admit this book wasn't for me. I felt it was a little disjointed, the alternating chapters made it difficult for me to engage with the book. I ended up DNFing it. I'm wondering if I just couldn't engage with it because of the audio quality, it was quite tinny-sounding?

I did find the premise of the book interesting and enjoyed the characters introduced. I do feel I would like to read more from the author, as he does write interesting concepts and themes. Just maybe in book format next time?

My thanks to Macmillan Audio U.K. for a review copy of the audiobook edition via NetGalley of ‘The Doors of Eden’ by Adrian Tchaikovsky, narrated by Sophie Aldred.

I found this an excellent and highly engaging science fiction novel with techno-thriller elements. Although not part of his award winning, ‘Children of Time’ series, it had a similar epic feel.

‘The Doors of Eden’ includes plenty of action, multiple world building, fascinating alien creatures, strong characterisations that were inclusive in terms of diversity, great dialogue that includes snappy repartee, and just the right amount of humour to balance the darker aspects. There was also a number of nods and winks in the direction of popular culture that kept me on my toes.

I felt Sophie Aldred was an excellent choice as narrator for the audiobook edition. She has an impressive CV in terms of audiobook narration and also as a former companion during classic Doctor Who, is a fan favourite. I found myself very caught up in her storytelling and felt that she captured the essence and energy of the story and its characters.

Adrian Tchaikovsky continues to impress me and has reignited my love of science fiction. He is a modern master of the genre and I look forward to reading more of his work.

This was my first Adrian Tchaikovsky book and I really wanted to love it but I didn’t. I know a couple of people who have raved about his work and another who loved this one so it was likely just not my cup of tea.

The writing itself was brilliant, the plot so intricate and some great characters so I know people will love it. It gave me Northern Lights and Island of Doctor Moreau vibes, and it was at those points I was most interested. Part crime, thriller, mystery and sci-fi, it has a lot going for it; creature hunting, super computers, rips in the universe, political and social issues, the secret service, evolutionary science...

...it just wasn’t for me so I don’t want to say anymore and put people off what is actually a great book.

Thank you for NetGalley for my copy in Exchange for an honest review.

4.5 out of 5 stars

A new book from Adrian Tchaikovsky, one of my favourite authors, is always an exciting event. The Doors of Eden was a book that immediately caught my attention with its stunning cover and intriguing concept. I had sky-high expectations for this book, and I am so pleased to say thatthey were absolutely met! The Doors of Eden is an incredibly accessible, fun, and thought-provoking science fiction story with Tchaikovsky's signature twist.

If you haven't read any of his books before, or are newer to reading sci-fi, I think this would be a great place to start with Tchaikovsky's science fiction work due in part to the fact that it is mostly set in the real world. Not only does the familiarity of London streets and modern life help set the scene for readers, the characters are totally relatable and face real issues. This real-world setting is something new for him, I believe, and it works incredibly well! Don't worry though, there are plenty of trilobites, rat people, and other strange terrestrial and alien beings to fill the pages as well as humans!

While the plot and world are excellent, the characters are what really drive this story. We have multiple points of view across the book, and they intertwine together so effectively. This is one of the rare books where I enjoyed every POV, rather than preferring one over others because each voice was used so intentionally and added their own flavour to the story -- I can't think of a single one that should be cut. I absolutely loved Lee and Mal, our lesbian cryptid hunters and introduction to the book, as well as Alison,  the MI5 analyst who sees a little more than the rest of us. However, my absolute favourite was Dr Kay Amal Khan, the fabulously smart-mouthed, cigarette smoking genius who will save us all. The chemistry between these human characters and the relationships they form (or are forced into) with the non-humans they encounter are just fantastic. The audiobook narrator does a great job of bringing these characters to life -- although I did have to speed it up to nearly 2x as she speaks quite slowly -- and she masters the sharp dialogue. If you're going to pick this one up, I'd highly recommend the audiobook!

The Doors of Eden is an incredibly pacey, otherworldly, and fun science fiction adventure -- who would have thought the end of the world would be so delightful? A must-read for fans of Tchaikovsky's work and newcomers alike -- you'll absolutely tear through it!

Note (plus marked spoiler): It would be disingenuous for me to not mention the treatment of Kay by other characters in the story, as I worry it may make some readers, especially trans readers, uncomfortable. She's a trans woman and while I thought Tchaikovsky did a great job of making her a complex and fabulous character, some of the side characters misgender and deadname her throughout the book in passing. This is meant to show the ignorance of these characters, but I wanted to give a heads up about these moments.

*Minor spoilers below*

There is also a Very Bad Villain who refuses to accept her identity and forces her to masculinise in a small part of the book.

I have heard nothing but great things when it comes to the Adrian Tchaikovsky and I have been meaning to read his books for a while now, so I was so glad when I came across this book, The Doors of Eden, on NetGalley. It is so strange for me to want to read and request a book like this, simply because of its content, it’s heavy sci-fi content, which is usually the last thing I would choose to read. However, I am so glad that I did because it’s the time of read I have been craving lately.

This book had me hooked from the very first chapter, from the mystery of the events within the story, to the intriguing and different characters throughout the book. The characters within this book are created brilliantly and make this book for me, as only a great cast of characters can. Each of those have their own well developed backgrounds within the story, never feeling out of place and each add something to the book, whether they are likeable characters or not. You get to meet so many, not all of which are from Earth, and those who are not from Earth and not Human, may be some of my favourite within this world, possibly because Tchaikovsky got to play around with them a little and it really worked. Some were blunt and funny, maybe without knowing it, and I love that!

The story and plot of this is poor genius and one that would’ve gone over my head and made me not look twice at it a year ago, because of how heavily Sci-Fi it is, with parallel Earths. The plot and how it is written and comes together is done so smoothly, it’s poor brilliant. I found myself listening to this, staying awake until early hours into the morning to see its conclusion, needing to see how this story ended, becoming quite captivated. The ending left me wanting more, left me with questions, but left me hoping that Tchaikovsky is going to come back to this book in the future, which definitely gives me hope.

I have become an easy fan of Adrian Tchaikovsky and I am eager to read one of his other works, knowing how much more love they get.