Eden by Tim Lebbon

In a time when Earth’s rising oceans contain enormous islands of refuse, the Amazon rainforest is all-but destroyed, and countless species edge towards extinction, the Virgin Zones were established in an attempt to combat the change. Off-limits to humanity and given back to nature, these thirteen vast areas of land were intended to become the lungs of the world.

Dylan leads a clandestine team of adventurers into Eden, the oldest of the Zones. Attracted by the challenges and dangers posed by the primal lands, extreme competitors seek to cross them with a minimum of equipment, depending only on their raw skills and courage. Not all survive.

Also in Dylan’s team is his daughter Jenn, and she carries a secret – Kat, his wife who abandoned them both years ago, has entered Eden ahead of them. Jenn is determined to find her mother, but neither she nor the rest of their tight-knit team are prepared for what confronts them. Nature has returned to Eden in an elemental, primeval way. And here, nature is no longer humanity’s friend.

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Eden is the first novel I’ve read by Tim Lebbon although I have seen the film adaptation of The Silence.  Eden has quite a different premise, but I loved the idea and world-building, and I quickly got swept away in the adventures of Jenn, Dylan, and their intrepid team.

The novel is set in the near future where climate change has resulted in rising sea levels and the virtual annihilation of the Amazon rainforest.  In a last-ditch attempt to salvage the planet and reverse some of the damage caused by humans, the world unites and declares certain extensive areas of land to be off-limits to humans.  Given back to nature, it’s hoped that these Virgin Zones will help to undo the devastating effects of climate change.  Of course, such a decision isn’t entirely without consequence, and each chapter begins within the excerpt of an official document, some of which mention the impact on those displaced by the initiative. 

While the Zones have border patrols, their size makes them difficult to control effectively and these areas form an irresistible temptation for some.  Drug dealers and people traffickers seek to use them for their own nefarious purposes, scientists are naturally curious about how nature has responded to the lack of human interference, but there are also groups like the protagonists in this novel who see it as an opportunity to explore a true wilderness and as a challenge to set the fastest time for crossing these uninhabited zones.  That Jenn, Dylan, and team are trespassing did make me think slightly less of them as a group, although they go about it in the right way.  They carry everything they need and leave no trace of their passing, disturbing nature as little as possible as they race across Eden.

This team are a relatively small group, but all are super fit ultramarathon types who relish the challenge and are happy to run and climb through unchartered territory.  I liked some of them more than others (Cove in particular proved to be a bit of a knob), but they all have their individual skill sets and can take the lead when needed.  The main focus is on Jenn who I really liked despite her flaws.  In her mid-twenties, she knows that her mother entered Eden ahead of their own group, and while she initially keeps this a secret, it’s her main reason for being there, hoping to track down the woman who left her some years earlier but with whom she’s maintained a degree of contact.  It adds an element of mystery to the novel as there’s a desire to understand what Jenn’s mother is doing in Eden and what has happened to her, although the reader soon knows more about that than Jenn does.    

While the group attempts to be as unobtrusive as possible, it soon becomes clear that their passage has been noticed, and that they are not welcome in Eden.  With indications that they are being followed, although by whom or what isn’t immediately obvious, the tension quickly ramps up as things begin to go wrong for the team.  They soon understand that they have bigger things to worry about than setting an unbeatable time, and find themselves running for safety rather than for fun.  Lebbon successfully manages to imbue the novel with a feeling of dread as the reader understands, even before the team does, that something resides in Eden that doesn’t welcome outsiders…

Eden is a great eco-thriller / horror novel that I really enjoyed.  I liked the way in which the tension is there from the beginning and ramps up as the novel progresses – there’s a wonderful sense of claustrophobia as the team begins to wonder if they are as alone as they were expecting to be.  Recommended.

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Book 9 of 20 Books of Summer.