October 2020 -- The Doors of Eden (No Spoilers)

[Oleksandr]

First impressions thread

[Oleksandr]

Started the book today, a great beginning, and, as I was interested in cryptozoology in my teens, I see some notions like The Beast of Gévaudan, which is great

[Gabi]

This beginning gave me some severe X-Files nostalgia ;)

[Oleksandr]

Yes, old style X-Files!

[Gabi]

What I appreciate a lot here is how real the characters feel. It is quite a difference to the book I've just finished where they were rather generic.

[Oleksandr]

Gabi wrote: "What I appreciate a lot here is how real the characters feel. It is quite a difference to the book I've just finished where they were rather generic."

I like the characters even if I assume both LGBT lines were added to please the SFF fandom, they are still very well done.

[Gabi]

Oleksandr wrote: "I like the characters even if I assume both LGBT lines were added to please the SFF fandom, they are still very well done. ..."

But it is one of the few times that they feel like they just are which feels so wonderfully natural. I have read so many mediocre SF novels that clearly only where there to get a queer character in that I meanwhile stay away from novels which are announced foremost for their queer content, until folks whose taste I share tell me the story itself is worth it as well.

[Eva]

I've seen a video interview between Tchaikovsky and Reynolds in which both were saying how much fun it is to make their characters as diverse and as different from themselves as possible, because the whole appeal of SF writing for them lies in imagining the different and new, and it makes the characters much more interesting and challenging for them to write. I believed them, so I think it's probably not pandering to fans, but rather fulfilling their own wishes and giving themselves fun challenges. :-)

[Oleksandr]

Gabi wrote: "But it is one of the few times that they feel like they just are which feels so wonderfully natural. "

Fully agree

[Oleksandr]

Eva wrote: " interview between Tchaikovsky and Reynolds ... whole appeal of SF writing for them lies in imagining the different and new, and it makes the characters much more interesting and challenging for them to write."

I guess that's true for most writers. At the same time they usually limit themselves with different but positive - it is rare to see revolting protagonists like in A Clockwork Orange, so it is a divergence but it clearly has bounds

[Kateblue]

I will get to this one in a couple of weeks. Excited for it

[Oleksandr]

Kateblue wrote: "I will get to this one in a couple of weeks. Excited for it"

You are right to be excited, it is very good

[Grace]

Hello everyone! I’m new to this group but I needed a safe space for rambling about The Doors of Eden. :)

Not sure this group has the same folks as SFF group.

I just completed Part 1. I love Gym Bro Police POV. So fun that last chapter! Also loving the interludes, I mentioned on the other group it felt like an overly passionate biology teacher was narrating. Still so excited how much I enjoy this style of Adrian Tchaikovsky! (I had to google now where all this biology stuff is coming from, and just found out he studied zoology).

[Oleksandr]

Welcome Grace!

Grace wrote: "Not sure this group has the same folks as SFF group."

We definitely intersect in our membership, if you mean SciFi and Fantasy Book Club group, but not all our members belong or at least active there.

I fully agree on interludes and style

[Kristenelle]

Welcome, Grace!

I'm actually struggling with the interludes. It was a rough start for me as I'm finding them kind of boring... I get impatient about getting on with stories though. I just want to know what's going to happen!

[Kristenelle]

I'm curious if you all are reading the print version or listening to the audiobook. Someone on the book page answered a question saying they didn't care for the audio book performance. I'm reading this on kindle and am curious if anyone agrees the audio performance is poor.

I've been listening to a lot of audiobooks lately and have started to notice differences in reader quality. :-P

[Gabi]

The audiobook narration is great! Sophie Aldred is reading and I love her narrating voices.

[Grace]

I did both because I couldn’t wait to continue even when I’m busy doing things. And then went back and eye read. I both read and listened to the last few chapters. I may be greedy. Enjoyed both.

[Oleksandr]

Gabi wrote: "The audiobook narration is great! Sophie Aldred is reading and I love her narrating voices."

I liked the narration too

[Cordelia]

I listened. I liked the narration.

[Kateblue]

Still have not started, but will soon. Am in the midst of two books:

The Fix, which as not as good as the previous books in the series and The Sun Down Motel, which just seems to be an amateur sleuth mystery with some ghosts thrown in. Not bad, though.

Also, am supposed to be starting some buddy reads on some GREAT series, one in two days The Eyre Affair and one November 1 Grave Sight

[George]

Just ordered a copy. It will take a week to deliver (I live on an island). I agree with Gabi's comment "meanwhile stay away from novels which are announced foremost for their queer content, until folks whose taste I share tell me the story itself is worth it as well."

[Antti]

I started yesterday. After few dozen pages I was a bit wary: is this going to be some kind of book about cryptid hunters? Because that didn't sound very appealing, but I had faith that Tchaikovsky will throw several new ideas and twists in the mix. Luckily it seems like my faith wasn't misplaced and the book got much more interesting.

The interludes are golden: they're the bits that make me excited to be reading forward. Unlike most if you, I don't find the characters very interesting, at least not yet: they are... fine, I guess, but nothing special so far.

(I'm at pg 100 or so at the moment)

[Eva]

I like the cryptid hunters and scientists, but have read too many books featuring secret agents to be excited about any of them, especially since they seemed to be very vanilla secret agents. I find the interludes a bit boring, but informative. I adore (view spoiler)[the rats and their way of speaking (hide spoiler)]. Overall it's very, very good so far despite of me being more interested in some characters than others.

[Gabi]

Antti wrote: ".... The interludes are golden: they're the bits that make me excited to be reading forward. ..."

Yes! I loved them so much. I trained as a biologist (not working anymore in that field, but the love stays), and bits like these make me so immensely happy to read.

[Kateblue]

Getting kinda spoilery in this thread.

I am not sure I will be getting to this book this month. This is the 2d-in-a-row Tchaikovsky book that I have not had time to read, and I often really like him. But hey, life intervenes.

[Oleksandr]

Antti wrote: "I started yesterday. After few dozen pages I was a bit wary: is this going to be some kind of book about cryptid hunters? "

It will be definitely more

Kateblue wrote: "Getting kinda spoilery in this thread. "

What Antti posted it is a lure-in spoiler, not in line with spoilering the main story, don't be afraid.

[Kristenelle]

“Hoicked” is my new favorite word. 😆 “She ....hoicked a bottle of Chardonnay out of the fridge.” I’ve never heard it before. I wonder if it is a British word. I love how it sounds like a sound effect for the action it represents.

[Eva]

It's a great word! 😄 I've finished it and have posted some impressions in the spoiler thread.

[Oleksandr]

Kristen wrote: "“Hoicked” is my new favorite word. 😆."

I decided to check the origin:

Etymologists suspect that hoick is an alteration of the verb hike, which is itself akin to hitch. According to the evidence, hike entered the language during the first decade of the 19th century, whereas hoick appeared near that century's close. The word hoick can be used for any type of abrupt pulling movement but is commonly used for the sudden pulling back on the joystick of an airplane; a rough, jerky movement when rowing; and a jerky, elevated shot in cricket. In fox hunting, the word hoicks is used to call attention to a hound that has picked up the scent and to bring the pack together.

[George]

Looking forward to it. Racing through "Recursion" while waiting for this to arrive.

[MH]

About 40% of the way through, and enjoying it. I like the interludes, the LGBT characters feel natural, and I'm loving the rabbit hole.

One thing which is grating is how one character is constantly misgendered by others. Yes, some of it is characters who are obviously being dicks, but for others it just seems... odd. Its not that hard.

[Oleksandr]

MH wrote: "One thing which is grating is how one character is constantly misgendered by others. Yes, some of it is characters who are obviously being dicks, but for others it just seems... odd. Its not that hard."

I guess it is hard for many, esp. older folk who haven't grown up with a concept, or worse, growing up with a strange mix of what can it mean, "in which box it fits". As Max Planck famously said "Science progresses one funeral at a time". The same with a society as a whole

[Antti]

Yeah, some people are just plain ignorant/confused: You say "it's not that hard", but if one has never engaged with LGBT+ movement in any way, perhaps even deliberately ignored news and articles about the "oddballs", it's indeed possible to not realize misgendering is something to be avoided.

[Gabi]

I agree with Oleksandr. I think Tchaikovsky did a quite fitting image of our society.

[George]

Finally got started last night. Looking forward to it. Pace starts off well.

[George]

Gabi wrote: "Antti wrote: ".... The interludes are golden: they're the bits that make me excited to be reading forward. ..."

Yes! I loved them so much. I trained as a biologist (not working anymore in that fie..."

I trained as a chemist, but never worked in the field.

[Kalin]

I was at the bookstore today and aaaalmooost brought this one home, based on how much love the author gets in our community. But it was $30 for the paperback and I was already spending too much today, so my first date with Tchaikovsky will have to wait for another day.

[Kristenelle]

$30 for a paperback?! 😧 I got the ebook for $10.

Honestly, I’m having some trouble getting into this. The pacing feels really slow to me. It is an interesting enough story...I don’t know why it isn’t hooking me.

[Kalin]

30 bucks Canadian, our prices are always hiked from the USD cost. It's still a lot though, paperbacks usually aren't more than $22-24.

[Kristenelle]

Yeah, the Canadian price is always written next to the US price and usually it seems like it is only a couple dollars more. I guess I don’t buy that many brand new paperbacks, but I wouldn’t expect to pay more than $20 even in Canada. I wonder why this one is more?

[Oleksandr]

Kalin wrote: "I was at the bookstore today a... $30 for the paperback "

I feel your pain! If not for the access to US libraries, my reading would have been much poorer, for even $9.99 for an e-book I consider too high (ok, Ukraine's per capita GDP is $3100 vs Canadian $46400 but I earn more than average)

[*Tau*]

Oleksandr wrote: "for even $9.99 for an e-book I consider too high"

Same here.
The e-book of The Doors of Eden is available for € 13 (and that's a promotion, because normally it's sold at € 17).
As this is the price of the paperback-version that will be available next year, I prefer to wait and have the paper book instead 😊

[George]

About 1/2 way through. My copy arrived late in the month and I wanted to finish Uprooted before starting. I like it, but sometimes I find myself getting lost. The character development seems very limited on the main characters. They are sympathetic, but generic. The whole alternative earth thing has been done a lot, and though this is a decent treatment is is not as good as some others I have read.

[Oleksandr]

I liked Uprooted, partially because Slav-flavor fantasy is relatively rare.

Yes, the development of chars could have been better

[Eva]

Kalin wrote: "I was at the bookstore today and aaaalmooost brought this one home, based on how much love the author gets in our community. But it was $30 for the paperback and I was already spending too much tod..."

Doors of Eden is also on Storytel, which offers free trials, so you could listen to it for free.

[Kalin]

I've been experimenting with audiobook listening thanks to the Clarkesworld podcast, and the expected results are that I'm too attention-addled to be able to concentrate on audio storytelling. I need the text. :(

[Eva]

Oh, I see. I felt the same way for a while, and then got more used to it and now I can follow whole books, but I also know some people who simply aren't auditory types and absorb information much better visually. If ebooks work for you: some of Tchaikovsky's books are currently on sale in Canada, some for less than 2 dollars: https://www.amazon.ca/s?k=adrian+tcha...

(I seem to have joined Tchaikovsky's marketing team, lol.)

[Oleksandr]

Kalin wrote: "I've been experimenting with audiobook listening thanks to the Clarkesworld podcast,"

That's an offtopic, but generally, at least for me, podcasts go worse that audiobooks, I guess it is a problem of professional narrators

[Oleksandr]

Eva wrote: "(I seem to have joined Tchaikovsky's marketing team, lol.)"

Make Tchaikovsky Great (Again)
:)