Review: Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Synopsis

An utterly gripping story of alien encounter and survival from Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of the Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning Children of Time.

They looked into the darkness and the darkness looked back . . .

New planets are fair game to asset strippers and interplanetary opportunists – and a commercial mission to a distant star system discovers a moon that is pitch black, but alive with radio activity. Its high-gravity, high-pressure, zero-oxygen environment is anathema to human life, but ripe for exploitation. They named it Shroud.Under no circumstances should a human end up on Shroud’s inhospitable surface. Except a catastrophic accident sees Juna Ceelander and Mai Ste Etienne doing just that. Forced to stage an emergency landing, in a small, barely adequate vehicle, they are unable to contact their ship and are running out of time. What follows is a gruelling journey across land, sea and air. During this time, Juna and Mai begin to understand Shroud’s dominant species. It also begins to understand them . . .If they escape Shroud, they’ll face a crew only interested in profiteering from this extraordinary world. They’ll somehow have to explain the impossible and translate the incredible. That is, if they make it back at all.

Due to be published 27 February 2025

Review

Shroud is an epitomical example of Tchaikovsky’s ingenious world building and memorable non-human characters.

The feat of world building, from the flora and fauna, to the weather and chemical composition of the environment, is beyond anything I’ve ever encountered. It felt like I learned some new things from a scientific perspective too.

The story gets off to a slowish start, aboard a ship orbiting Shroud – a moon intended to be harvested for its resources. There is a lot of dense hard science thrown at you from the get go and a dystopian-esque, hierarchical human equivalent of the civil service in space. This is where we are introduced to our characters, through the POV of Juna – the assistant to the director of a special research team.

The characters live in a universe where humanity seek to expand by prospecting alien worlds and moons, but at a cost. The Concerns, akin to business-like organisations, measure the wage-worth of their inhabitants – employees – and if you don’t provide value to the cause, you’re put back on ice until your services might be needed again.

As things develop and the action shifts to the moon of Shroud itself. This is where the story picks up in pace and Tchaikovsky’s wild imagination really takes on a life of its own.

Despite some hard science and completely alien landscapes and beings, I never felt lost (not as lost as our human characters, anyway). The author manages to describe everything in a way that is accessible and vivid.

Shroud is suspenseful, with some real moments of horror, but with a smattering of well placed humour that helps ease the mounting sense of unease.

The non-human characters are as weird as weird gets. The Shrouders also provide a secondary POV, giving a unique perspective on first contact with aliens.

The character development through adversity is done well, both from a human and alien perspective. The Shrouders’ development throughout the story is fascinating, both in how we perceive them, through their interactions with our characters’ pod, but also in how they perceive themselves, their world, and the alien humans. Tchaikovsky really shines in these moments of realisation and learning from the aliens.

Tchaikovsky is excellent with his social commentary through his speculative fiction. Another aspect I appreciated from Shroud is the strong theme of connection running through it – highlighted by the disconnection of humanity, but how we could achieve so much more by being more connected with each other in our common goals, was a message not lost on me, especially in this ever increasing fractious world we live in right now. We (humanity) have become disconnected from ourselves and each other in this future universe. The need for meaningful connection is portrayed well through both POVs throughout.

Tchaikovsky really goes beyond the realms of imagination with Shroud – a world full of mindblowing alien life and landscapes, based on (what I believe to be) well thought out scientific ideas. This is a hard sci-fi adventure done in the most brilliant and accessible way.