BOOK REVIEW: EDEN BY TIM LEBBON

Eden
Author: Tim Lebbon
Publisher: Titan Books
Pages: 384
ISBN: 9781789092936
Reviewed by: Sandra Scholes

From the author of Netflix's The Silence, bestselling author, Tim Lebbon introduces us to his latest thriller where mankind has ravaged most of the planet, and only the Virgin Zones remain. There are thirteen areas where nature has been left to grow, yet with so much damage already been done to the environment, nature might not be able to go back to what it once was.

One of the oldest zones, Eden is a place where adventurers seek to conquer nature but die in its vastness. One such team is left by Dylan, with his daughter Jenn and secret is she has gone in to find her mother, Kat who had left them to try and find herself away from the rat race of modern life.

In Eden, the Virgin Zones are Man's attempt to give back to nature before it's too late. Others like Antony Keyse of the Green World Alliance thinks it is too little too late and nature might not survive the fact that the world is made up of colossal rubbish dumps and chemical plants polluting the air and killing wildlife.

Each of the Virgin Zones are places where some want to investigate how much nature has taken back what is rightfully it's own. Dylan has no idea his wife is in Eden, and this later causes conflict once he discovers the truth. He feels his daughter has kept the lie and rightfully feels resentment that she kept in contact with her mother and never told him.

There is a good reason why Kat left and didn't want her husband to know, but Jenn only wants to find her mum safe and sound, and hope she can get her family back to the way it was before. This emotional part of the story aside, there are other issues the team have to consider, the Zone Protection Force and the Zed's who patrol the area against teams like Dylan's who threaten this new and untouched habitat, though the Zed's are mercenary killers who seem to enjoy their work.

Along the way, Lebbon drops in tidbits of information that will make you sit up and take notice, and enjoy this novel for what it is, a journey into the unknown and dangerous.