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Saturation Point
A group of scientists and soldiers are hunted by mysterious enemies in a terrifying new climate thriller from the "Master of British SF"
Doctor Jasmine Marks is going back into hell.
The Hygrometric Dehabitation Region, or the "Zone," is a growing band of rainforest on the equator, where the heat and humidity make it impossible for warm-blooded animals to survive. A human being without protection in the Zone is dead in minutes.
Twenty years ago, Marks went into the rainforest with a group of researchers led by Doctor Elaine Fell, to study the extraordinary climate and see if it could be used in agriculture. The only thing she learned was that the Zone was no place for people. There were deaths, and the program was cut short.
Now, they're sending her back in. A plane crash, a rescue mission, a race against time and the environment to bring out the survivors. But there are things Marks's corporate masters aren't telling her. The Zone keeps its secrets, and so does Doctor Fell . . .
Doctor Jasmine Marks is going back into hell.
The Hygrometric Dehabitation Region, or the "Zone," is a growing band of rainforest on the equator, where the heat and humidity make it impossible for warm-blooded animals to survive. A human being without protection in the Zone is dead in minutes.
Twenty years ago, Marks went into the rainforest with a group of researchers led by Doctor Elaine Fell, to study the extraordinary climate and see if it could be used in agriculture. The only thing she learned was that the Zone was no place for people. There were deaths, and the program was cut short.
Now, they're sending her back in. A plane crash, a rescue mission, a race against time and the environment to bring out the survivors. But there are things Marks's corporate masters aren't telling her. The Zone keeps its secrets, and so does Doctor Fell . . .
Audible Audio
First published July 30, 2024
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About the author
Adrian Tchaikovsky
191 books16.8k followersADRIAN TCHAIKOVSKY was born in Lincolnshire and studied zoology and psychology at Reading, before practising law in Leeds. He is a keen live role-player and occasional amateur actor and is trained in stage-fighting. His literary influences include Gene Wolfe, Mervyn Peake, China Miéville, Mary Gently, Steven Erikson, Naomi Novak, Scott Lynch and Alan Campbell.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 357 reviews
October 6, 2024
I shouldn’t have worried — Tchaikovsky as usual brings it all to a great close. Did I ever mention I love his endings? Unlike some writers out there he knows how to close the story to my utmost satisfaction, and this is no exception. And even if I have an idea where the story is headed, it’s never dull.
What starts like a nod to Strugatsky brothers with the references to the Zone (here not an alien landing site though but a hot extremely humid and deadly for humans jungle arising as a result of climate change), but with insufferably naive narrator and a flirtation with the Noble Savage trope ends up much cleverer than I expected, with fun twists on “Us vs. Them” theme. I suppose that’s how you’d write a biology-focused eco-thriller with a good dose of SF horror vibe — and centered around thermoregulation, of all things.
And in the typical for Tchaikovsky success, it’s a well-done novella that’s paced right and feels like a complete book and not just an undercooked novel or an overripe short story. Concise and precise worldbuilding is just a pleasure. And although this is not his best, it’s only because he set the bar for perfection so high with his beyond excellent novellas. But it’s very good.
4 stars.
——————
Also posted on my blog.
What starts like a nod to Strugatsky brothers with the references to the Zone (here not an alien landing site though but a hot extremely humid and deadly for humans jungle arising as a result of climate change), but with insufferably naive narrator and a flirtation with the Noble Savage trope ends up much cleverer than I expected, with fun twists on “Us vs. Them” theme. I suppose that’s how you’d write a biology-focused eco-thriller with a good dose of SF horror vibe — and centered around thermoregulation, of all things.
And in the typical for Tchaikovsky success, it’s a well-done novella that’s paced right and feels like a complete book and not just an undercooked novel or an overripe short story. Concise and precise worldbuilding is just a pleasure. And although this is not his best, it’s only because he set the bar for perfection so high with his beyond excellent novellas. But it’s very good.
4 stars.
——————
Also posted on my blog.
July 29, 2024
As always, Adrian Tchaikovsky delivers, this time it is an eco- thriller novella.
The story is set in a world controlled by corporations and devastated by climate change, where people who live in fear of viruses and in constant isolation. Not scary at all.
Then we are introduced to 'The Zone' an inhabitable jungle where the main character find herself hunted down, giving me some Predator vibes.
After finishing the book I was somehow surprised that it was just a novella, because it honestly felt like a "complete" book.
The writing is that good. If you are familiar with the author, you know what I'm talking about.
I listened to the audiobook version and it was really good, I liked the narrator a lot.
Thank you Tantor Audio!
The story is set in a world controlled by corporations and devastated by climate change, where people who live in fear of viruses and in constant isolation. Not scary at all.
Then we are introduced to 'The Zone' an inhabitable jungle where the main character find herself hunted down, giving me some Predator vibes.
After finishing the book I was somehow surprised that it was just a novella, because it honestly felt like a "complete" book.
The writing is that good. If you are familiar with the author, you know what I'm talking about.
I listened to the audiobook version and it was really good, I liked the narrator a lot.
Thank you Tantor Audio!
October 6, 2024
4.0 Stars
Video Review https://youtu.be/ylEjUV5CZi8
This was a very enjoyable new novella but one of the best sci fi authors publishing these days. The premise reminded me of Annihilation, but I personally found this one more engaging from a narrative standpoint. I found the story suspenseful and entertaining. The ending was fantastic and really finished the story on a strong note.
Video Review https://youtu.be/ylEjUV5CZi8
This was a very enjoyable new novella but one of the best sci fi authors publishing these days. The premise reminded me of Annihilation, but I personally found this one more engaging from a narrative standpoint. I found the story suspenseful and entertaining. The ending was fantastic and really finished the story on a strong note.
July 23, 2024
A truly gripping sci-fi/horror tale of man's hubris, the merciless ways in which nature retaliates and a message that life will find a way in any environment. Only it may not be what we planned or expected. The story blends elements from the classics Roadside Picnic and The Island of Dr. Moreau, yet revolves around the catastrophic collapse of the world's climate and the chilling and bizarre ways in which both the planet and humanity adapt. The narrative is in epistolary form, written from the perspective of an ecologist in the field and is both incredibly taut and claustrophobic as it traces her journey deep into the mysterious "Zone". Tchaikovsky masterfully weaves in details of cutting edge ecology and biology to make the tale all the more convincing and alarming. The audio narration by Emma Newman is absolutely fantastic.
I received an audiobook ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I received an audiobook ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
September 20, 2024
A wonderful novella about a zone on Earth that has basically gone backwards in time, kinda like a prehistoric jungle complete with human-killing heat/humidity and ferocious wildlife.
Earth is ... not well. Humanity has managed to fuck up just as much as many are predicting today. However, unlike some seem to expect, Earth isn't dying with us, it is simply changing to the extent of us not being capable of keeping up. Most humans live entirely isolated in their apartments (no idea if houses still exist or if our population growth has made that impossible). If they put in the mandatory work hours per week/month/year, that suffices. Apparently, working from home is the standard now and people get everything delivered instead of going to get it.
About 20 years ago, a scientist was part of a team going into "the zone" to figure out what it is and how we can survive or even use it to our advantage. Needless to say, things went horribly wrong and several members died, the survivors no longer being in contact with one another after their return.
Now, one of those survivors is asked to go into the zone again and what she discovers is a prime example of perception / expectations versus reality and manipulation.
I LOVED this thriller. The weird and unreal but also very real sense of claustrophobia in such a wide and open space, the secrets that were revealed, humanity's technological capabilities, nature's answer to the infestation that is humanity ... it was all absolutely riveting!
The scientist herself was a bit much, but it was absolutely fantastic how the narrator brought her panic attacks to life, making the reader being on the edge of their seats the entire time ... marvellous!
I cackled several times and there were a number of twists, some of which I had expected - Tchaikovsky's execution was masterful though and I enjoyed the hell out of every second. So much so that I'd looove to get more of this world!
Earth is ... not well. Humanity has managed to fuck up just as much as many are predicting today. However, unlike some seem to expect, Earth isn't dying with us, it is simply changing to the extent of us not being capable of keeping up. Most humans live entirely isolated in their apartments (no idea if houses still exist or if our population growth has made that impossible). If they put in the mandatory work hours per week/month/year, that suffices. Apparently, working from home is the standard now and people get everything delivered instead of going to get it.
About 20 years ago, a scientist was part of a team going into "the zone" to figure out what it is and how we can survive or even use it to our advantage. Needless to say, things went horribly wrong and several members died, the survivors no longer being in contact with one another after their return.
Now, one of those survivors is asked to go into the zone again and what she discovers is a prime example of perception / expectations versus reality and manipulation.
I LOVED this thriller. The weird and unreal but also very real sense of claustrophobia in such a wide and open space, the secrets that were revealed, humanity's technological capabilities, nature's answer to the infestation that is humanity ... it was all absolutely riveting!
The scientist herself was a bit much, but it was absolutely fantastic how the narrator brought her panic attacks to life, making the reader being on the edge of their seats the entire time ... marvellous!
I cackled several times and there were a number of twists, some of which I had expected - Tchaikovsky's execution was masterful though and I enjoyed the hell out of every second. So much so that I'd looove to get more of this world!
September 15, 2024
Adrian Tchaikovsky at the height of his powers (sorry, I love the expression somehow, I have not been taken over by an AI marketing bot...) writing those themes AT finds more interesting - biology, so much biology, overreaching corporations, the role of the individual in those, parallel evolution, and species. This time about global warming, and with a The Island of Dr. Moreau theme but even more explicitly as in Dogs of War. Typically well paced novella with a typical Tchaikovsky ending, and I love his endings (mileage may vary in that). This time he approaches global warming and biology, and some of the ideas developed here are new to me and fascinating - if you read SF for ideas, this feels fresh for all that the classic references it has!
But now for the criticism, while it is such a good example of what he does well, and what interests him, he writes so much (thank you!) that some of his stories are just better than others, and my feelings were not particularly deeply invoked, neither in caring for Jasmine (it does not help that she is really,truly, deeply quite stupid) nor in feeling huge surprise at some twists or how the plot goes. If you never read Tchaikovsky, I would push a few of his other works way ahead of this - Dogs of War (and he is writing a trilogy at least about it), or Ogres or Elder Race as being deeper, better somehow. But it was still a good one and better than And Put Away Childish Things.
But now for the criticism, while it is such a good example of what he does well, and what interests him, he writes so much (thank you!) that some of his stories are just better than others, and my feelings were not particularly deeply invoked, neither in caring for Jasmine (it does not help that she is really,truly, deeply quite stupid) nor in feeling huge surprise at some twists or how the plot goes. If you never read Tchaikovsky, I would push a few of his other works way ahead of this - Dogs of War (and he is writing a trilogy at least about it), or Ogres or Elder Race as being deeper, better somehow. But it was still a good one and better than And Put Away Childish Things.
August 5, 2024
4.5 stars
Tchaikovsky is so prolific that you can usually find something you like in the crowd. I enjoy more of his work than not, but Saturation Point is exactly the kind of story I hope for whenever I pick a new Tchaikovsky up.
Tchaikovsky is so prolific that you can usually find something you like in the crowd. I enjoy more of his work than not, but Saturation Point is exactly the kind of story I hope for whenever I pick a new Tchaikovsky up.
August 2, 2024
He did it again!
Every time I tell myself Aah, I know what's going on, Adrian Tchaikovsky will do it again!
This is the story of Doctor Jasmine Marks who after 20 years has been asked to join another research team to back into hell, some place called ZONE, where the heat and humidity make it impossible for warm-blooded animals to survive.
A perfect horror-science fiction novella that is complete and whole in just 4 hours and 43 minutes.
Thank you so much Tantor Audio via NetGalley for ARC.
Every time I tell myself Aah, I know what's going on, Adrian Tchaikovsky will do it again!
This is the story of Doctor Jasmine Marks who after 20 years has been asked to join another research team to back into hell, some place called ZONE, where the heat and humidity make it impossible for warm-blooded animals to survive.
A perfect horror-science fiction novella that is complete and whole in just 4 hours and 43 minutes.
Thank you so much Tantor Audio via NetGalley for ARC.
September 22, 2025
Adrian Tchaikovsky was a new-to-me author, until I listened to the audio of Spiderlight earlier this year. Shortly after I finished that one, I saw a review of this book, by my fellow reviewer Mike Finn, and due to that, I added this to my TBR.
I listened to this on audio and it kept me on the edge of my seat. A scientist, Jasmine Marks, is asked to return to "The Zone." A site to which she has already been and swore she'd never return to. The corporate interests that want her to return lie to her to get her there and once she arrives everything begins to go wrong. That's all I'll say about the plot.
I guess this could be classified as climate horror, or science fiction/horror, or just plain horror! There's a lot here to think about-for instance, how about a zone, here on earth near the equator, that is so hot and humid people cannot live there anymore? Or how about corporations lying, sometimes even to their own employees, about the nature of what is accepted science?
I started out liking Jasmine as she begins to relate her adventure through a series of journal entries. As time went on, I began to like her less and less, as her entries revealed more and more. Voiced by Emma Newman, whose performance was excellent, Saturation Point grabbed on to me and would not let me go until I was done.
This was a fun, novella-length audio and I enjoyed it immensely!
*Thanks to my local library for the free audio download! LIBRARIES RULE!*
I listened to this on audio and it kept me on the edge of my seat. A scientist, Jasmine Marks, is asked to return to "The Zone." A site to which she has already been and swore she'd never return to. The corporate interests that want her to return lie to her to get her there and once she arrives everything begins to go wrong. That's all I'll say about the plot.
I guess this could be classified as climate horror, or science fiction/horror, or just plain horror! There's a lot here to think about-for instance, how about a zone, here on earth near the equator, that is so hot and humid people cannot live there anymore? Or how about corporations lying, sometimes even to their own employees, about the nature of what is accepted science?
I started out liking Jasmine as she begins to relate her adventure through a series of journal entries. As time went on, I began to like her less and less, as her entries revealed more and more. Voiced by Emma Newman, whose performance was excellent, Saturation Point grabbed on to me and would not let me go until I was done.
This was a fun, novella-length audio and I enjoyed it immensely!
*Thanks to my local library for the free audio download! LIBRARIES RULE!*
March 24, 2025
Tchaikovsky always sticks the landing. I recommend the audiobook for maximum existential dread.
May 7, 2025
Global Warming /
Sci-Fi Horror
Xover novella. Mash-up of the The Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells and Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer.
The Zone. Location of Wet-bulb Events ( >40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) and near 100% humidity)
My audio version was almost five hours in duration. In dead tree format it would have been 176 pages. It had a 2024 copyright in both print and audio.
Adrian Tchaikovsky is a British author of science fiction and fantasy novels. He is also a remarkably prolific author. He has published more than twenty (20) novels in several series and standalone. In addition, he has published several novellas and many short stories. I’ve read many books by the author, mostly his science fiction. The last book being Service Model (my review).
Emma Newman was the narrator. She did a very good job with the female Brit protagonist. She also had enough ‘voices’ to cover the limited number of characters. I note that she has narrated Tchaikovsky novellas in the past.
Tchaikovsky is a reliable author. He is also a very prolific author of science fiction and fantasy. One of the things he does well is to mashup familiar tropes in unusual ways. I also note that this book was something that I've read before from different authors, given a Cly-Fi and Invasion spin.
TL;DR Synopsis
In the MegaCorp dominated future, Doctor Jasmina Marks Storyboards the Apocalypse . She's recruited to return to The Zone, a mysterious, quarantined, growing, hostile physical environment, in a region of mutating plants and animals caused by rampant equatorial heating. As a post-doc, she'd survived an ill-fated, Zone research expedition. That claimed the life of her former mentor, Dr. Elaine Fell, Et al. decades earlier. She was to be the the native guide to a corporate-sponsored Zone expedition with dubious goals.
A survival thriller develops when the expedition reveals itself to be a hunt for Dr. Fell and her corporate-sponsored Mutants .
In a small number of pages, Tchaikovsky successfully mashes up: Cly-Fi, The Island of Doctor Moreau, Annihilation, and a dystopian, MegaCorp's Obsession with a Deadly Item . Nothing really new here, but the riffs of established tropes, and mutated red-herrings, in a small number of pages were well done.
The Review
Tchaikovsky is a good writer. Note that having Ear-read this book, I can't comment on the physical prose. However, if you listened for it, it did contain a modicum of his humor. Although, I didn't laugh-out-loud, I did chuckle several times. The narrative was a pseudo-epistolary. Part of it was the protagonist's voice recordings made on her environmental suit. This was not as effective as it could have been. Also, the Magic Countdown associated with the suit's battery power was a bit ramshackle. It reminded me of obsessing over a mobile's battery charge and less about breathing.
This being a Cly-fy/Sci-Fy Horror mashup, I found it to not be too scary. However, he did a good job with the: mistrust, secrecy, and particularly Marks' isolation. The Nature of The Zone, its menacing power and persistence were likewise well wrought. There was a Tchaikovsky-level of exposition, which I was not burdened to have geeked-out on. For example, the important Wet Bulb Event that required folks to wear environmental suits in The Zone.
The Marks character was the single POV, and protagonist. She struck me as a Byronic Hero ? The vacillation of her loyalties between the Corporate-life and Dr. Fell as the plot swung from her Zone induced Xylophobia to the Darwinistic dread of the Ultimate Life Form was well done.
The other characters were thick-enough for their limited roles.
Antagonists were The Zone, Dr. Fell and the expedition's corporate leader and Übermensch (Glasshower). The Zone was a human-induced Death World on Earth. (No surprise Marks' mentor hid-out there?) It was a surprise that Mark's mentor was a Likewise, Glasshower surprised me. I'm not certain he was a "Bad Guy" at the end?
This story contained no: sex, drugs or rock 'n roll. That is except for medicinal painkillers.
Violence was: physical, ranged weapon (arrows), and military-grade firearms. Blood, gore, and other trauma was minimalized in the prose. Body count was moderate. I suspect the deemphasis of physical trauma contributed to me being less horrified whilst reading the story? I contrast this with Marks' psychological trauma, which was well done with Newman's assistance.
World building was good, but not exceptional. I've read a lot of stories about MegaCorp-based dystopias and jungle death worlds. These were not special. Tech was very credible, with (thankfully) nothing magical there. Likewise, with the Cly-Fi; it being very mainstream. For some reason, I felt The Zone was in South America? However, there was no evidence of that.
Summary
I felt, this story was just long enough. In the past I've found that the novella-format was Tchaikovsky's "Sweet Spot". This just reaffirmed that opinion.
The Marks character was excellent for the part she played. Also, Newman's narration enhanced the character.
This was not a great work, because of its dependence on too many common tropes. That was despite the artful riffs the author performed on them. Which, I do recognize as needful for the shorter page count. However, I somehow missed being horrified. (I suppose I could blame that on too much of the desensitizing Black Mirror (2011- )?)
Recommended.
Readers may also enjoy reading The Island of Doctor Moreau Illustrated and Annihilation?
The Zone. Location of Wet-bulb Events ( >40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) and near 100% humidity)
My audio version was almost five hours in duration. In dead tree format it would have been 176 pages. It had a 2024 copyright in both print and audio.
Adrian Tchaikovsky is a British author of science fiction and fantasy novels. He is also a remarkably prolific author. He has published more than twenty (20) novels in several series and standalone. In addition, he has published several novellas and many short stories. I’ve read many books by the author, mostly his science fiction. The last book being Service Model (my review).
Emma Newman was the narrator. She did a very good job with the female Brit protagonist. She also had enough ‘voices’ to cover the limited number of characters. I note that she has narrated Tchaikovsky novellas in the past.
Tchaikovsky is a reliable author. He is also a very prolific author of science fiction and fantasy. One of the things he does well is to mashup familiar tropes in unusual ways. I also note that this book was something that I've read before from different authors, given a Cly-Fi and Invasion spin.
TL;DR Synopsis
In the MegaCorp dominated future, Doctor Jasmina Marks Storyboards the Apocalypse . She's recruited to return to The Zone, a mysterious, quarantined, growing, hostile physical environment, in a region of mutating plants and animals caused by rampant equatorial heating. As a post-doc, she'd survived an ill-fated, Zone research expedition. That claimed the life of her former mentor, Dr. Elaine Fell, Et al. decades earlier. She was to be the the native guide to a corporate-sponsored Zone expedition with dubious goals.
A survival thriller develops when the expedition reveals itself to be a hunt for Dr. Fell and her corporate-sponsored Mutants .
In a small number of pages, Tchaikovsky successfully mashes up: Cly-Fi, The Island of Doctor Moreau, Annihilation, and a dystopian, MegaCorp's Obsession with a Deadly Item . Nothing really new here, but the riffs of established tropes, and mutated red-herrings, in a small number of pages were well done.
The Review
Tchaikovsky is a good writer. Note that having Ear-read this book, I can't comment on the physical prose. However, if you listened for it, it did contain a modicum of his humor. Although, I didn't laugh-out-loud, I did chuckle several times. The narrative was a pseudo-epistolary. Part of it was the protagonist's voice recordings made on her environmental suit. This was not as effective as it could have been. Also, the Magic Countdown associated with the suit's battery power was a bit ramshackle. It reminded me of obsessing over a mobile's battery charge and less about breathing.
This being a Cly-fy/Sci-Fy Horror mashup, I found it to not be too scary. However, he did a good job with the: mistrust, secrecy, and particularly Marks' isolation. The Nature of The Zone, its menacing power and persistence were likewise well wrought. There was a Tchaikovsky-level of exposition, which I was not burdened to have geeked-out on. For example, the important Wet Bulb Event that required folks to wear environmental suits in The Zone.
The Marks character was the single POV, and protagonist. She struck me as a Byronic Hero ? The vacillation of her loyalties between the Corporate-life and Dr. Fell as the plot swung from her Zone induced Xylophobia to the Darwinistic dread of the Ultimate Life Form was well done.
The other characters were thick-enough for their limited roles.
Antagonists were The Zone, Dr. Fell and the expedition's corporate leader and Übermensch (Glasshower). The Zone was a human-induced Death World on Earth. (No surprise Marks' mentor hid-out there?) It was a surprise that Mark's mentor was a Likewise, Glasshower surprised me. I'm not certain he was a "Bad Guy" at the end?
This story contained no: sex, drugs or rock 'n roll. That is except for medicinal painkillers.
Violence was: physical, ranged weapon (arrows), and military-grade firearms. Blood, gore, and other trauma was minimalized in the prose. Body count was moderate. I suspect the deemphasis of physical trauma contributed to me being less horrified whilst reading the story? I contrast this with Marks' psychological trauma, which was well done with Newman's assistance.
World building was good, but not exceptional. I've read a lot of stories about MegaCorp-based dystopias and jungle death worlds. These were not special. Tech was very credible, with (thankfully) nothing magical there. Likewise, with the Cly-Fi; it being very mainstream. For some reason, I felt The Zone was in South America? However, there was no evidence of that.
Summary
I felt, this story was just long enough. In the past I've found that the novella-format was Tchaikovsky's "Sweet Spot". This just reaffirmed that opinion.
The Marks character was excellent for the part she played. Also, Newman's narration enhanced the character.
This was not a great work, because of its dependence on too many common tropes. That was despite the artful riffs the author performed on them. Which, I do recognize as needful for the shorter page count. However, I somehow missed being horrified. (I suppose I could blame that on too much of the desensitizing Black Mirror (2011- )?)
Recommended.
Readers may also enjoy reading The Island of Doctor Moreau Illustrated and Annihilation?
September 12, 2024
This is quintessential Tchaikovsky. It is his love letter to Ballard, Jeff Vandermeer and even Strugatsky brothers.
We follow the voice diary of Jasmine Marks, as she returns to “the Zone” and area of Earth where it is so hot and humid humans cannot survive without a suit. A corperation is looking into the crash of her old mentor- Dr Fell.
I loved the obvious homage to other famous works. Maybe one of his most enjoyable novellas yet
We follow the voice diary of Jasmine Marks, as she returns to “the Zone” and area of Earth where it is so hot and humid humans cannot survive without a suit. A corperation is looking into the crash of her old mentor- Dr Fell.
I loved the obvious homage to other famous works. Maybe one of his most enjoyable novellas yet
March 2, 2025
Really enjoyed this! I love how Tchaikovsky plays with the first person narrator in this and other works. He reveals just what they know and also the terror of discovering what is happening. He manages to convey his world in a way that never feels info-dumpy but is thoroughly engaging as one tries to figure out what is happening and envision whatever his clever inventive brain has come up with. Another excellent ending made for an engaging read. Didn’t quite enjoy it as other books of his that I’ve read, but he sets the bar high and this was still a very good read.
September 4, 2024
At the halfway point I'm kind of disappointed. The MC seems muddled and unsure, which is very well written from the perspective of "stressed out, reliable, but distracted narrator" but very limiting when our own and only POV is that narrator.
The core conceit of the book, that there is an uninhabitable band around the equator due to global warming - great science fiction, good chance it will happen. The secondary conceit that this is somehow fatal-within-minutes to humans is not plausible or explained. Yes, wet bulb temperatures above 30C will kill you, but it's not like it's nerve gas that immobilizes and kills in minutes...you aren't going to die because your hazard suit breached. There's no way this heat and humidity band causes problems for airplanes flying over, it's not gonna be crazy hot a few kilometers up.
There are also simple science errors, like confusing exons for introns. Yeah, this is pedantic, but it's also using the words exactly backwards for a pair with diametrically opposed definitions.
// end review
There's more utterly absurd "science" closer to the end. Protein expression doesn't work that way.
I'm frustrated because the setting implies moderately hard science fiction - a middle-future of Earth where runaway climate change has caused problems - but the actual setting is science fantasy that just makes stuff up but uses real science words. Both the structural engineering and the biology go beyond suspension of disbelief in the last quarter of the story. Star Trek technobabble had the honesty of salting in fake nonsense words most of the time around real physics words; this is using a bunch of real biology completely wrong.
The core conceit of the book, that there is an uninhabitable band around the equator due to global warming - great science fiction, good chance it will happen. The secondary conceit that this is somehow fatal-within-minutes to humans is not plausible or explained. Yes, wet bulb temperatures above 30C will kill you, but it's not like it's nerve gas that immobilizes and kills in minutes...you aren't going to die because your hazard suit breached. There's no way this heat and humidity band causes problems for airplanes flying over, it's not gonna be crazy hot a few kilometers up.
There are also simple science errors, like confusing exons for introns. Yeah, this is pedantic, but it's also using the words exactly backwards for a pair with diametrically opposed definitions.
// end review
There's more utterly absurd "science" closer to the end. Protein expression doesn't work that way.
I'm frustrated because the setting implies moderately hard science fiction - a middle-future of Earth where runaway climate change has caused problems - but the actual setting is science fantasy that just makes stuff up but uses real science words. Both the structural engineering and the biology go beyond suspension of disbelief in the last quarter of the story. Star Trek technobabble had the honesty of salting in fake nonsense words most of the time around real physics words; this is using a bunch of real biology completely wrong.
December 30, 2024
First book I can recall where the cover design itself is a spoiler, so I don't think I'm giving anything away below. Starts off a lot like Annihilation/Roadside Picnic, then gets a little "Predator" and "Apocalypse Now" before going full on Dr. Moreau. And then there are just a whole lot of surprises thrown at you in the last 15 minutes (I listened to the audiobook), unfortunately presented mostly via dialogue…
But still (or perhaps despite), an overall good read (3.5 rounded up), with a perfect narration by Emma Newman, who is apparently an SF author in her own right. Will definitely revisit both Newman and Tchaikovsky sometime in 2025.
But still (or perhaps despite), an overall good read (3.5 rounded up), with a perfect narration by Emma Newman, who is apparently an SF author in her own right. Will definitely revisit both Newman and Tchaikovsky sometime in 2025.
September 22, 2024
Climate fic/thriller, novella, near future. Starting off in a world full of „neo-viruses“, new diseases and people living in a kind of permanent lock-down. Told through journal entries and recordings of the main character Doctor Jasmine Marks.
Marks goes back into the Zone, an expanding equatorial jungle that is uninhabitable for humans or any warm-blooded animals, as an expert for a rescue mission. A plane has gone down. Marks has been here twenty years ago, to research how to make the Zone profitable by adapting crops to the extreme heat and humidity and the generally hostile environment. It failed, people died. Now she is back and maybe gets a chance to figure out what happened to her mentor and head of research, Doctor Fell.
I do like to read about survival in hostile territories and this fits the bill. I would have liked even more of it. But for the length this was, world building and character development were excellent. I enjoyed the scientific explanations, Tchaikovsky does this well without smothering the reader with boring info dumps. I vaguely knew about thermoregulation, but not well enough… Strongly reminiscent of the beginning of The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson ★★☆☆☆.
What rights does something have that was created in a laboratory? Not the direction I thought this novella would be going. Not a new topic for Tchaikovsky either, considering Dogs of War ★★★★★. His nod to The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells? Nature finds a way.
I liked the plot twists, although I am still debating how much I liked the ending. It was so different from where I thought it would go.
This would probably make a great eco-thriller-meets-horror movie.
Marks goes back into the Zone, an expanding equatorial jungle that is uninhabitable for humans or any warm-blooded animals, as an expert for a rescue mission. A plane has gone down. Marks has been here twenty years ago, to research how to make the Zone profitable by adapting crops to the extreme heat and humidity and the generally hostile environment. It failed, people died. Now she is back and maybe gets a chance to figure out what happened to her mentor and head of research, Doctor Fell.
I do like to read about survival in hostile territories and this fits the bill. I would have liked even more of it. But for the length this was, world building and character development were excellent. I enjoyed the scientific explanations, Tchaikovsky does this well without smothering the reader with boring info dumps. I vaguely knew about thermoregulation, but not well enough… Strongly reminiscent of the beginning of The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson ★★☆☆☆.
What rights does something have that was created in a laboratory? Not the direction I thought this novella would be going. Not a new topic for Tchaikovsky either, considering Dogs of War ★★★★★. His nod to The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells? Nature finds a way.
I liked the plot twists, although I am still debating how much I liked the ending. It was so different from where I thought it would go.
This would probably make a great eco-thriller-meets-horror movie.
October 14, 2024
4.25*
Tchaikovsky’s latest offering takes the shape of an eco thriller novella that I couldn’t stop reading, finishing it in one sitting :O)
We are thrust in a world devastated by global warming and pandemics, a world ruled by corporations and where its citizens live in isolation. We follow Doctor Jasmine Marks who is contacted to help in a rescue mission in the Zone, a spreading area where humans and warm-blooded creatures cannot survive due to its high heat and humidity. The narration, consisting of Marks’s journal entries, becomes quickly engrossing. What is really happening? Since it is Tchaikovsky, expect fascinating science that is kept engaging through a taut narrative, dealing with Humanity’s hubris and how Nature does find a way... even if not what you expected.
Tchaikovsky’s latest offering takes the shape of an eco thriller novella that I couldn’t stop reading, finishing it in one sitting :O)
We are thrust in a world devastated by global warming and pandemics, a world ruled by corporations and where its citizens live in isolation. We follow Doctor Jasmine Marks who is contacted to help in a rescue mission in the Zone, a spreading area where humans and warm-blooded creatures cannot survive due to its high heat and humidity. The narration, consisting of Marks’s journal entries, becomes quickly engrossing. What is really happening? Since it is Tchaikovsky, expect fascinating science that is kept engaging through a taut narrative, dealing with Humanity’s hubris and how Nature does find a way... even if not what you expected.
July 27, 2025
I picked up Saturation Point in the library because it is based on the terrifying yet fascinating concept of wet bulb temperature. This is the lowest temperature at which humans can cool themselves with evaporation of water. It's terrifying because at 100% humidity, a temperature of 35°C will rapidly kill you as sweating can't cool you down. The setting of Saturation Point is the 22nd century, when climate change has rendered the whole band around the equator uninhabitable to humans because it's always wet bulb temperature or above. To stay alive in there, humans must wear protective cooling suits. The protagonist Dr Jasmine Marks has done research within this Zone as corporations sought ways to commodotise it. These attempts proved uneconomic, so she has been working on new crop strains for the past twenty years. As the novella opens, Marks is one of the few people who have visited the Zone and survived, so gets pulled into a new expedition.
Saturation Point wears its influences on its sleeve. I saw the blurb and immediately thought of J.G. Ballard's The Drowned World; the vibes are very similar. The Zone is obviously a Roadside Picnic/Stalker reference and one character complains it is 'Strugatsky nonsense'. The setup is not especially original, however I anticipated Tchaikovsky would do it justice and was vindicated. He's very good at ecosystem description, also the notable strength of Alien Clay. Here the planet is Earth but the ecosystem has become alien thanks to rapid climate change. Dr Marks is a good point of view from which to observe the Zone. Although she isn't a particularly interesting or well-developed character as such, she doesn't need to be. This is a quest narrative, following her into the Zone and exploring its dangers and weirdness. Both were very satisfying. I enjoyed the twists and the ending.
The brevity of the book is appropriate, in my view. Whilst the plot could have been stretched out for longer, I don't think much would have been gained by doing so. The atmosphere and tension worked well at novella length. Saturation Point delivered just what I expected at good quality, which is all the more impressive considering the high frequency of new Tchaikovsky books. If you want more fiction to stoke your fear of being cooked to death by wet bulb temperature, I recommend the opening chapter of Kim Stanley Robinson's The Ministry for the Future.
Saturation Point wears its influences on its sleeve. I saw the blurb and immediately thought of J.G. Ballard's The Drowned World; the vibes are very similar. The Zone is obviously a Roadside Picnic/Stalker reference and one character complains it is 'Strugatsky nonsense'. The setup is not especially original, however I anticipated Tchaikovsky would do it justice and was vindicated. He's very good at ecosystem description, also the notable strength of Alien Clay. Here the planet is Earth but the ecosystem has become alien thanks to rapid climate change. Dr Marks is a good point of view from which to observe the Zone. Although she isn't a particularly interesting or well-developed character as such, she doesn't need to be. This is a quest narrative, following her into the Zone and exploring its dangers and weirdness. Both were very satisfying. I enjoyed the twists and the ending.
The brevity of the book is appropriate, in my view. Whilst the plot could have been stretched out for longer, I don't think much would have been gained by doing so. The atmosphere and tension worked well at novella length. Saturation Point delivered just what I expected at good quality, which is all the more impressive considering the high frequency of new Tchaikovsky books. If you want more fiction to stoke your fear of being cooked to death by wet bulb temperature, I recommend the opening chapter of Kim Stanley Robinson's The Ministry for the Future.
February 15, 2025
Oh great, another author to binge. BRB 🫠
July 29, 2024
Rating: 4/5 stars
Adrian Tchaikovsky has fully embraced his “speculative biology-era”, and I’ve done nothing but cheer him on from the sideline ever since. For far too long, the science-side of hard sci-fi was dominated by physics, and I love Tchaikovsky’s way of bringing alternative biology to that same height, and out of the realms of “Searching for Bigfoot-novels”.
This year, he brought us not one, but two releases within this niche: Alien Clay and Saturation Point. Although I enjoyed both, it’s undeniable that the two read extremely similar, almost as if written from the same outline, but focusing a slightly different evolutionary concept.
Saturation Point is set in a dystopian future where the Earth has been wrecked by climate change and global warming, making large parts of the globe uninhabitable to humans. The constant threat of new contagions and viruses keeps communities isolated, whilst large corporations do their best to find ways to make a profit within the increasingly hostile natural environments around them.
Our story follows a female scientist, through a series of briefing logs, as she recounts her experiences within “The Zone”; a band of wild rainforest around the equator where heat and humidity make it impossible for warm-blooded animals to survive. Combining her recounting of her first trip into the Zone, mixed with her latest upcoming mission, we get a glimpse into a truly hostile world of nature, corporate greed, and the insignificance of humanity in the face of both.
What I Loved:
As mentioned: Tchaikovsky is a master of this style of sci-fi. What Alien Clay did for the biological concept of symbiosis, Saturation Point does for thermoregulation. Elements of horror, thriller and action are combined into a cohesive whole that feels like an incredibly complete story, despite its short length of under 200 pages. Because of Tchaikovsky’s strong grasp on the biology behind his world, he’s able to bring the world to life without overexplaining it to you as the reader. Perhaps even better within his novella’s than his full-length novels, he balances showing-vs-telling, especially when it comes to the ethical questions he brings up. This is climate fiction that is scary without being preachy, which is something I can always appreciate.
What I didn’t love:
Epistolary or “interview-style” novels are often hit-or-miss for me, but the protagonists narrative voice, brought to live brilliantly by the audio-narrator Emma Newman, really pulled me in.
That leaves me with only a single valid point of criticism, which is that Saturation Point felt so similar to Alien Clay. And in that comparison, Alien Clay wins by a long stretch. Luckily though, this isn’t an evolutionary competition where only the strongest may survive. I’m happy to have both Alien Clay and Saturation Point next to each other, and think Saturation Point, for its shorter runtime, makes for a perfect entry into this authors extensive backlog.
Readalikes: Alien Clay (obviously, for aforementioned reasons) and a mix of Annihilation and Predator, but without the charming campiness of the latter.
Adrian Tchaikovsky has fully embraced his “speculative biology-era”, and I’ve done nothing but cheer him on from the sideline ever since. For far too long, the science-side of hard sci-fi was dominated by physics, and I love Tchaikovsky’s way of bringing alternative biology to that same height, and out of the realms of “Searching for Bigfoot-novels”.
This year, he brought us not one, but two releases within this niche: Alien Clay and Saturation Point. Although I enjoyed both, it’s undeniable that the two read extremely similar, almost as if written from the same outline, but focusing a slightly different evolutionary concept.
Saturation Point is set in a dystopian future where the Earth has been wrecked by climate change and global warming, making large parts of the globe uninhabitable to humans. The constant threat of new contagions and viruses keeps communities isolated, whilst large corporations do their best to find ways to make a profit within the increasingly hostile natural environments around them.
Our story follows a female scientist, through a series of briefing logs, as she recounts her experiences within “The Zone”; a band of wild rainforest around the equator where heat and humidity make it impossible for warm-blooded animals to survive. Combining her recounting of her first trip into the Zone, mixed with her latest upcoming mission, we get a glimpse into a truly hostile world of nature, corporate greed, and the insignificance of humanity in the face of both.
What I Loved:
As mentioned: Tchaikovsky is a master of this style of sci-fi. What Alien Clay did for the biological concept of symbiosis, Saturation Point does for thermoregulation. Elements of horror, thriller and action are combined into a cohesive whole that feels like an incredibly complete story, despite its short length of under 200 pages. Because of Tchaikovsky’s strong grasp on the biology behind his world, he’s able to bring the world to life without overexplaining it to you as the reader. Perhaps even better within his novella’s than his full-length novels, he balances showing-vs-telling, especially when it comes to the ethical questions he brings up. This is climate fiction that is scary without being preachy, which is something I can always appreciate.
What I didn’t love:
Epistolary or “interview-style” novels are often hit-or-miss for me, but the protagonists narrative voice, brought to live brilliantly by the audio-narrator Emma Newman, really pulled me in.
That leaves me with only a single valid point of criticism, which is that Saturation Point felt so similar to Alien Clay. And in that comparison, Alien Clay wins by a long stretch. Luckily though, this isn’t an evolutionary competition where only the strongest may survive. I’m happy to have both Alien Clay and Saturation Point next to each other, and think Saturation Point, for its shorter runtime, makes for a perfect entry into this authors extensive backlog.
Readalikes: Alien Clay (obviously, for aforementioned reasons) and a mix of Annihilation and Predator, but without the charming campiness of the latter.
July 17, 2025
IN A NUTSHELL
'Saturation Point' was everything I could ask for from speculative fiction: original, surprising, science-based with a few 'what if' extrapolations, and the twists and pace of a thriller. All of which was made even better by Emma Newman's narration. I think this is Adrian Tchaikovsky at his best.
'Saturation Point' was a tense, intelligent Climate Fiction thriller, made more intense by being delivered as a first-person narrative at novella length.
I liked that, in this version of a climate change apocalypse, it's only the mammals whose survival is threatened. Other species are thriving. So much Climate Fiction talks about The End Of The World, envisioning global warming as killing the planet. 'Saturation Point' recognises that global warming is only The End Of The World As We Know It. It imagines a climate where the humidity is so high that humans rapidly and fatally overheat unless they're protected by a suit. Then it asks, "But what life WOULD not just survive but thrive in that environment?"
The novella is a thriller, not a treatise on ecology. It's a compelling story, told by a scientist who is being given a chance to return to a place where her career peaked twenty years earlier: the hostile environment of the Zone, an equatorial rainforest, lush with life but with a lethal-to-humans level of humidity. It is a compelling mystery told as a first-person account by a narrator in a hostile environment with her agenda under threat from the unexpected. The plot kept me guessing. The action kept me turning the pages. The underlying concept left me with plenty to think about.
I recommend the audiobook. Emma Newman's performance did a lot to increase my engagement with the story. Click on the YouTube link below to hear a sample.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Cabn...
'Saturation Point' was everything I could ask for from speculative fiction: original, surprising, science-based with a few 'what if' extrapolations, and the twists and pace of a thriller. All of which was made even better by Emma Newman's narration. I think this is Adrian Tchaikovsky at his best.
'Saturation Point' was a tense, intelligent Climate Fiction thriller, made more intense by being delivered as a first-person narrative at novella length.
I liked that, in this version of a climate change apocalypse, it's only the mammals whose survival is threatened. Other species are thriving. So much Climate Fiction talks about The End Of The World, envisioning global warming as killing the planet. 'Saturation Point' recognises that global warming is only The End Of The World As We Know It. It imagines a climate where the humidity is so high that humans rapidly and fatally overheat unless they're protected by a suit. Then it asks, "But what life WOULD not just survive but thrive in that environment?"
The novella is a thriller, not a treatise on ecology. It's a compelling story, told by a scientist who is being given a chance to return to a place where her career peaked twenty years earlier: the hostile environment of the Zone, an equatorial rainforest, lush with life but with a lethal-to-humans level of humidity. It is a compelling mystery told as a first-person account by a narrator in a hostile environment with her agenda under threat from the unexpected. The plot kept me guessing. The action kept me turning the pages. The underlying concept left me with plenty to think about.
I recommend the audiobook. Emma Newman's performance did a lot to increase my engagement with the story. Click on the YouTube link below to hear a sample.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Cabn...
July 29, 2024
3,5
"Cold bloodedness is the best diet."
I am not a big SF reader, but had heard Adrian Tchaikovsky is something special. This is certainly more 'S' than 'F', but I had fun!
In this novel a scientist is asked to go back to 'the Zone', an unlivable area where she did research under a famous doctor decades earlier. It quickly becomes clear the zone is not as abandoned as suspected and of course 'everything is not as it seems' :)
I liked the plot twists until the end, and also enjoyed the original thinking on humans as highly imperfect animals.
"Cold bloodedness is the best diet."
I am not a big SF reader, but had heard Adrian Tchaikovsky is something special. This is certainly more 'S' than 'F', but I had fun!
In this novel a scientist is asked to go back to 'the Zone', an unlivable area where she did research under a famous doctor decades earlier. It quickly becomes clear the zone is not as abandoned as suspected and of course 'everything is not as it seems' :)
I liked the plot twists until the end, and also enjoyed the original thinking on humans as highly imperfect animals.
February 22, 2025
Plotwise Saturation Point is not Tchaikovsky's best novel, but the format and writing are fantastic. The story's told through the main character dictating a journal whenever she has the opportunity to do so, catching the reader up on what happened since the last entry. Since she's still in the middle of the plot while doing so, other characters sometimes interject, the dictation gets cut off, etc. etc. It works brilliantly - not always easy to follow, but very creative and very effective at dragging you into the story.
November 8, 2024
“You were in the Zone,” she says, like an accusation.
“Please.” Glasshower rolls his eyes. “Let’s not have any of that Strugatsky BS. The Hygrometric Dehabitation Region. No point mystifying this business any more than we have to. But yes, Doctor Marks. You were in the HDR.”
This is a eco-thriller SF novella, with homages to earlier SF writers. I read it as a part of the monthly reading for November 2024 at SFF Hot from Printers: New Releases group. The novella was released in 2024 and is a worthy nominee for the next year SFF awards. The audiobook is read by another great SF writer, Emma Newman.
The book starts with the narrator (and a lot of the story is presented as records of a direct audio narration by the protagonist) Doctor Jasmine Marks, a biologist. Twenty years ago, she worked at a research station in somewhere she refers as the Zone, but after their team leader Doctor Fell left them and two of her colleagues were found dead, she changed her employer. Now she is contacted as an ultimate specialist in the Zone and survival there, to help a rescue mission there. The mission is quite strange, for the majority of participant are tooled-out commandos.
The Zone is deadly, but not because of some kind of active enemies, but of the nature itself. It is a hot (37° Celsius / 100° Fahrenheit) and 100% humidity. Such environment is deadly for humans and other hot-bloodied animals, because they are unable to cool off and are cooked alive: We’re biochemically really simple, we mammals. Efficient. Which is fine until we can’t shed all the heat we make. At which point our proteins denature and all the various bits of us boil over and stop working. Even our fat reserves begin to liquify, like butter left next to the stove. Except we’re the stove. However, not for everyone it is hell: multiple plants, insects, fungus, reptiles are quite happy there. The origin of the Zone isn’t spelt out explicitly, but it seems a natural result of the global warming.
Doctor Marks doesn’t fully understand what happens and why. The rescue team in special suits with cooling elements goes on their mission, but everything seems fishy. As she learns more, lives of people around her are taken by the Zone, and maybe not only naturally.
It is a nice touch for SF fans for the narrator mentions several SF authors and their works, including Roadside Picnic, The Drowned World and The Island of Dr. Moreau.
Overall, a solid novella is an unexpected final.
“Please.” Glasshower rolls his eyes. “Let’s not have any of that Strugatsky BS. The Hygrometric Dehabitation Region. No point mystifying this business any more than we have to. But yes, Doctor Marks. You were in the HDR.”
This is a eco-thriller SF novella, with homages to earlier SF writers. I read it as a part of the monthly reading for November 2024 at SFF Hot from Printers: New Releases group. The novella was released in 2024 and is a worthy nominee for the next year SFF awards. The audiobook is read by another great SF writer, Emma Newman.
The book starts with the narrator (and a lot of the story is presented as records of a direct audio narration by the protagonist) Doctor Jasmine Marks, a biologist. Twenty years ago, she worked at a research station in somewhere she refers as the Zone, but after their team leader Doctor Fell left them and two of her colleagues were found dead, she changed her employer. Now she is contacted as an ultimate specialist in the Zone and survival there, to help a rescue mission there. The mission is quite strange, for the majority of participant are tooled-out commandos.
The Zone is deadly, but not because of some kind of active enemies, but of the nature itself. It is a hot (37° Celsius / 100° Fahrenheit) and 100% humidity. Such environment is deadly for humans and other hot-bloodied animals, because they are unable to cool off and are cooked alive: We’re biochemically really simple, we mammals. Efficient. Which is fine until we can’t shed all the heat we make. At which point our proteins denature and all the various bits of us boil over and stop working. Even our fat reserves begin to liquify, like butter left next to the stove. Except we’re the stove. However, not for everyone it is hell: multiple plants, insects, fungus, reptiles are quite happy there. The origin of the Zone isn’t spelt out explicitly, but it seems a natural result of the global warming.
Doctor Marks doesn’t fully understand what happens and why. The rescue team in special suits with cooling elements goes on their mission, but everything seems fishy. As she learns more, lives of people around her are taken by the Zone, and maybe not only naturally.
It is a nice touch for SF fans for the narrator mentions several SF authors and their works, including Roadside Picnic, The Drowned World and The Island of Dr. Moreau.
Overall, a solid novella is an unexpected final.
April 2, 2025
Very solid little book. It's clearly and unequivocally his ode to A Roadside Picnic, and it's referenced a few times. It has all the hallmarks of a decent Tchaikovsky story. Interesting alienness and weird biology. Also has a great little twist at the end.
August 1, 2024
Again Adrian Tchaikovsky shows that Novella simply is his forte. The narrow first person POV and the journal entry style pulls the reader in medias res without giving away too much explanation. This way the story had me hooked from the beginning and I listened to it in one sitting. The audio narration is done by Emma Newman who also narrated Tchaikovsky's "Guns of Dawn" and again she is brilliant!
On a not so far future earth an expedition starts into an uninhabitable zone where high temperature combined with high humidity makes living for humans without environmental gear impossible. What starts as a rescue mission very quickly turns into something else.
This ecological evolutionary novella is rather similar to Tchaikovky's novel "Alien Clay", yet the POV and form makes the tone different, more tight. As a fan of novellas in general I enjoyed it a lot, especially the ending.
On a not so far future earth an expedition starts into an uninhabitable zone where high temperature combined with high humidity makes living for humans without environmental gear impossible. What starts as a rescue mission very quickly turns into something else.
This ecological evolutionary novella is rather similar to Tchaikovky's novel "Alien Clay", yet the POV and form makes the tone different, more tight. As a fan of novellas in general I enjoyed it a lot, especially the ending.
August 16, 2024
This book was good but I’m giving it three stars because it just wasn’t as good as Tchaikovsky’s other work. To be fair, I’m grading him on a curve which he sets. If this was by another author I would probably rate it more leniently. This is an interesting premise and it had some good action but it never fully hit for me. I still really liked it, it just didn’t have the punch in the gut moment Tchaikovsky’s other novellas have for me.
September 6, 2024
Saturation, conflagration, contamination, desolation, the world is dying, the world is surviving, we are dying, we happy few and our pets, our co-inhabitants of this precious balance of elements and heat and the eternal forces that we call home, and soon it’ll all be gone, burned away by monkeys with little to no foresight, looking forward only to their next sinful reprieve.
Suffice to say, we stand on a dark precipice.
Adrian Tchaikovsky, no stranger to criticising our ways and days, takes it - and spits in our faces.
Beneath the men-on-a-mission survival horror of the story calling itself Saturation Point, is a clearly critical commentary on how we are fucking up our environment, and yet in our limitless arrogance believe it'll be alright because we are humans, and humans always make it, our most beloved survivor bias, come to define our solipsistic self-destruction.
The lead of the novel does grate a bit. Not just as a representative of a futile species, but one wonders how she managed the last time around - how she's managed anything important in her life. But of course that's the point - she hasn't really; and that's why she's here, in danger of imminent death again (as opposed to a slow one in an isolationist society heavily influenced by having lived through the COVID pandemic). It's just that it makes the audiobook sometimes difficult to listen to, all that exasperation and arrogance and helplessness. All part of the point, sure, but difficult all the same (no fault of the narrator Emma Newman though - she's good).
Which is perhaps what Tchaikovsky feels when listening to our species explaining itself away on its path to self-imposed mortality. And then writes such thrilling stuff you can barely set the book down, unable to wait to see what he's cooked up this time, what's waiting behind the next door, how he sees us destroying ourselves this time.
Climate catastrophe, corporate dominance, fallacious human arrogance, our merciless xenophobia, a bit ludicrous finale, you can name a few repeating themes in the man’s work, all making a showing this time around. The novella’s pretty good, I've little else to add to what the man is already saying. Goodness already knows not enough are listening.
Suffice to say, we stand on a dark precipice.
Adrian Tchaikovsky, no stranger to criticising our ways and days, takes it - and spits in our faces.
Beneath the men-on-a-mission survival horror of the story calling itself Saturation Point, is a clearly critical commentary on how we are fucking up our environment, and yet in our limitless arrogance believe it'll be alright because we are humans, and humans always make it, our most beloved survivor bias, come to define our solipsistic self-destruction.
The lead of the novel does grate a bit. Not just as a representative of a futile species, but one wonders how she managed the last time around - how she's managed anything important in her life. But of course that's the point - she hasn't really; and that's why she's here, in danger of imminent death again (as opposed to a slow one in an isolationist society heavily influenced by having lived through the COVID pandemic). It's just that it makes the audiobook sometimes difficult to listen to, all that exasperation and arrogance and helplessness. All part of the point, sure, but difficult all the same (no fault of the narrator Emma Newman though - she's good).
Which is perhaps what Tchaikovsky feels when listening to our species explaining itself away on its path to self-imposed mortality. And then writes such thrilling stuff you can barely set the book down, unable to wait to see what he's cooked up this time, what's waiting behind the next door, how he sees us destroying ourselves this time.
Climate catastrophe, corporate dominance, fallacious human arrogance, our merciless xenophobia, a bit ludicrous finale, you can name a few repeating themes in the man’s work, all making a showing this time around. The novella’s pretty good, I've little else to add to what the man is already saying. Goodness already knows not enough are listening.
July 31, 2024
Tchaikovsky remains the 'King of Novellas' - Saturation Point is a fascinating, terrifying tale of a possible future on a climate-ravaged Earth.
Set in a distant(?) future where climate change has so warmed the Earth that the area around the equator is unlivable, scientist Jasmine Marks is recruited to go on a rescue mission to that zone to find and retrieve her former boss. Jasmine is one of the only people still alive to have lived and worked in the zone, 20 years prior, so her experience is deemed invaluable.
But all is not as it seems, and what Jasmine finds is shocking.
The story is told in the first person through journal entries, and I was enthralled throughout.
Highly recommend it for SciFi or Horror fans!
Set in a distant(?) future where climate change has so warmed the Earth that the area around the equator is unlivable, scientist Jasmine Marks is recruited to go on a rescue mission to that zone to find and retrieve her former boss. Jasmine is one of the only people still alive to have lived and worked in the zone, 20 years prior, so her experience is deemed invaluable.
But all is not as it seems, and what Jasmine finds is shocking.
The story is told in the first person through journal entries, and I was enthralled throughout.
Highly recommend it for SciFi or Horror fans!
August 10, 2024
I might be at my own personal saturation point with Adrian Tchaikovsky at the moment (my seventh book by him this year!)
It’s Annihilation meets wet bulb temperatures and takes some intriguing turns. Worth a quick read!
It’s Annihilation meets wet bulb temperatures and takes some intriguing turns. Worth a quick read!
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