ClareR (5879 KP) rated The Doors of Eden in Books
Feb 28, 2022
When Lee and Mal fall through a crack between worlds, we begin to see that there isn’t just one Earth, and they’re not all as ‘civilised’ as the one we inhabit. Lee manages to make it back to our Earth, Mal doesn’t.
Kay Amal Khan is attacked, and Julian Sabreur from MI5 is tasked with investigating. He sees some security camera footage that shows Mal - who is still missing, presumed dead - with a frankly enormous man, leaving Khan’s flat, with the men who were going to hurt him and/ or kidnap him (who knows) badly injured or dead.
Were any or all of these people after Khan’s research? Because the research seems to be proving that there are countless parallel Earths, and the walls between them are coming down - with no good end in sight.
I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this: creatures from different Earths, all with different values and wished. I mean, who’s to say that this couldn’t really happen (err… lots of scientists?)? It’s all so credibly written. And the interludes between chapters from another book:”Other Edens: Speculative Evolution and Intelligence” by Professor Ruth Emerson explains how these Earths evolved. It gives an explanation of the many characters from the different Earths.
There’s just so much interesting detail in this book. I finished it feeling that I really knew the characters, and that I had an understanding of these other Earths. I had to remind myself that they weren’t real (they’re not real, are they?).
This was an exciting, complex, just really interesting sci-fi adventure, and I took the dog for extra long walks, just so that I could keep listening (well, she was happy!). This isn’t my first Adrian Tchaikovsky book, and I’ll be reading/ listening to more - I haven’t been disappointed yet!
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ClareR (5879 KP) rated Beautiful Shining People in Books
Aug 5, 2023
I honestly didn’t know what to expect when I started reading this, but I quickly realised that I was loving what I was reading. I do like both speculative and science fiction, so I knew we’d be off to a good start.
This is so much more though. It’s about relationships, both with others and oneself. It’s about loneliness, feeling cut off from others and trying to make a connection.
Both John, a young American tech genius, and Neotnia, are loners. Neither of them want to be alone. John is trying to escape his past and his past self, and Neotnia wants to find her past. They’re both very caring, likeable characters, Neotnia in particular, especially in her interactions with the elderly residents of a home she volunteers at.
My particular favourite was the cafe owner and Neotnia’s guardian - Goeido. He has an interesting and sad past as a Sumo, and this is probably the reason why he is so protective towards Neotnia.
Some of the themes have their place in our society too. The rise of AI, tense relationships between superpowers, terrorist attacks, deep fakes, cyber attacks, fake news - all of these affect us today.
Tokyo as a setting was inspired. All of the AI and robots didn’t seem out of place. I mean, we expect them there, don’t we? Robots taking your order in a fast food restaurant and helping you with directions in the street seem not too far a reach of the imagination in Japan (you can probably tell I’ve never been there!).
The last chapter or so, was so powerful. It was sad and explained all of what had gone before. It was emotional, and the ending was perfect.
Many, many thanks to Orenda for sending me a copy as a part of their book club. I’m really glad I read it!
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Bookapotamus (289 KP) rated No Less Days in Books
May 29, 2018
The premise of this story is really cool. I admit, it reminded me of that Blake Lively move, Age of Adeline, but WAY better. There was thought here, and it drew me in the second I started reading.
The main focus of the story is that David Galloway cannot die. It should have happened, many times. But nope. Still here... 100 some odd years later and still looking every bit a healthy 35 year old man. We learn a lot of David's history, as well as his present situation, and we wonder: How did he become this way? Are there others like him? Will he ever die? How does he live live without ever aging?
I read this book really fast as I honestly wanted to find out what would happen. Page after page, it kept me riveted. I would give it 5 Stars, but I had some issues with parts of the story. Particularly all the themes going on - some felt really unnecessary. There was a lot of mystery, racial stuff, domestic abuse, love stories, historical references, religion, murders, celebrity, books.... I'm probably missing more. I felt like too much was happening and a lot could be toned down or eliminated. And it's very obviously set up for a sequel, but the way this "strange character" just showed up and then left... felt really disjointed and out of place.
I'm also not a big Speculative Fiction reader as well as the Christian Fiction genre. I would have never bought this book and read it on my own. But that is how you lose certain generalizations about things, and find some of the best stories. I took a chance, and I won :)
I'm happy to have read this book. And I'm pretty sure this is a sequel in the works, and I'll most likely seek that one out to read!
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