Outstanding book. I was told it was horror, but it is really an eco-thriller. The writing is exquisite and the characters are well-developed. There is horror, especially in the second half, but the story is primarily about extreme runners in a dystopian future. This is an important and morally resonate book. ( )

Eden has an interesting premise and could have been a more satisfying book if the true villain was more developed. ( )

Lebbon did an amazing job on his world-building in this novel. The setting and world of EDEN is something that I can very easily picture. Depressingly the human race is well on its way to creating this world. Anyway, the characters and their actions are also easy to picture and imagine others doing exactly what they did. That combination immediately means the book will be good and powerful.

The story: civilization finally realizes that it has impacted the Earth enough to be detrimental to continual survival. In a drastic effort to help, thirteen Virgin Zones are created where no humans can enter and Mother Nature can rule supreme. It's now fifty years since the creation of the Virgin Zones and they are well-established. Dylan leads a team of adventure racers who are running through the different Virgin Zones; Eden is their latest goal. Jenn, Dylan's daughter and part of his team of adventure racers, has a secret: Jenn's mom and Dylan's wife Kat who abandoned them both years previously entered Eden shortly before them. Now the team is on both a rescue trip and a race, running through a territory that is no longer friendly to humans.

Everything about the story made sense to me and worked nicely together. The hardest thing to believe was the running through the forest but considering people, Tim Lebbon included, run Iron Man races and even brutal Iron Man races, it's really not that hard to believe. When people started dying, I was a bit surprised because it wasn't the order that I expected. That was a good thing though. Not even close to a cliche. I'm not really sure what else to say except buy this book and read it. You'll be happy. I would put this as my second favorite work by Lebbon, lagging only a very little behind "White". ( )

Thanks to NetGalley & Edelweiss for the ARC.

If you have seen The Silence then you have experience a touch of the horror that Tim Lebbon can create. The Silence on Netflix was my entry point to the work of Tim Lebbon. Tim is an accomplished writer across genre from popular culture sci-fi novels: Star Wars, Alien, Alien vs. Predator, to wide ranging novels and novellas and story collections. With Eden you are in good hands. Tim Lebbon is a master storyteller and Eden is a perfectly paced cinematic creepy roller coaster. Eden takes on themes of climate change and horror. Eco-horror: Yes. Climate-Fiction-Action-Horror-Thiller: YES YES.

Eden is set in a very unfortunately plausible near-future where climate change has passed the tipping point. The entire world has slid into decline and gigantic islands of trash float out in open sea. The Amazon is a horroscape of destruction and extreme-weather is the weather pattern. There are thirteen large areas that humanity has managed to keep as Virgin Zones: places that are forbidden general access in the hope that nature will reestablish and that someday things might return to an normal that was once known. Normal never returns and we are living that now - The premise gets more chillingly near-future the longer we live out this quarantine with the knowledge that nothing will ever return to the way it was. Eden takes on the same themes but with cinematic raw-power. Eden is the first of these zones and has been around the longest and the nature that has reestablished in decidedly not human-inclined. Nature may have never been friendly or unfriendly but this new-nature is most defiantly out to get you. In this case a group of adventure racers enters Eden and things do not go well. They go very badly.

TIm Lebbon has with wholly entertaining and though provoking storytelling and stunning prose weaved a tale that will have you ripping along from very first page to ending.

Pairs well with:
The Silence - TIm Lebbon
The Hunt - Tim Lebbon
Southern Reach Triology - Jeff Vandermeer
Bone series of books - Jeff Vandermeer
Book of Koli - M.R. Carey
Hothouse - Brian Aldiss ( )