I honestly don't know how Adrian Tchaikovsky does it. Book after book, one better than another, and not a single one that I didn't like. This one is probably my favourite out of all his works after the whole Children of Time series, because it's also concept-driven rather than character or plot-driven, and this is my jam as far as sci fi goes.

It's hard to describe the plot of the book without going into spoilers, so let's keep things vague here. A group of explorers is tasked to research a strange moon with intensely dense atmosphere that is also entirely saturated by radio waves produces by strange forms of lives there; things don't go according to plan (obviously). The rest is best left unknown until the reader actually gets through the book but I absolutely guarantee that anyone who loved Children of Time and its sequels would love this book as well.

It's simply not possible to read Mr Tchaikovsky's stories quickly! His work is always so rich with details and descriptions that you can create a 'movie' in your mind of the words you're reading. Shroud is superb. There's the Special Projects team as they try to decipher Shroud's secrets from their little space station, the sinister aspect of Shroud itself, the unfortunate accident that strands members of the team on Shroud's surface, and how they felt when they realised just how little they actually knew about Shroud's 'inhabitants' from their observations from space. The story is simply mind-boggling! And the ending ... just wow!
Thanks to Netgalley, Pan Macmillan, and Adrian Tchaikovsky for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review

I really enjoyed this book. It was entertaining and it kept you guessing. There was enough peril to keep it interesting without it being too much to make it so you didn't want to go on. I liked the characters of Mai and Juna. I liked that they both had mental breaks because who wouldn't in their position? I found the science believable but not too complex even if I did have to look up quite a few words. I liked that the aliens weren't even remotely like humans. I believe that the exploitation of worlds is exactly what would happen if we ever got that technology. I give it 4.5 stars.

I would probably read anything Adrian wrote including his latest shopping list because I’m pretty sure it would be better than most books in the current top 10!
I’m not going to bore people who can be bothered to even read my review by recanting the story, it’s very good! Read it !!

In the far flung future, humanity lives among the stars and exploits any planet it comes into contact with. On the moon of Shroud, a survey team comes into contact with a primitive society, but one with the capacity to learn. When they become stranded, will peace or science win the day?

Well, neither actually. Hard SF fans will lap this up quicker than a second-hand copy of New Scientist, but it’s not dynamic enough to sustain attention. The writing is heavily factual. And, yes I’ll admit that is a trope of the genre. But despite the odd flourish (humanity is genetically engineered for deep space) the crew are the hard-boiled narks that have inhabited SF since the Nostromo in 1979.

The plot picks up a little in the middle eight of the book, but this is what Whovians will know as ‘base under siege’. The prose style here is choppy, episodic and resolved far too quickly. The alien race (worm-like, using endoskeletons and sacrificing the injured to their god) is a fascinating concept, but they are seen first as bloodthirsty Lovecraftian beasties and then noble angels at the ends of the novel.

It’ll have its fans, but it found it too cold and worthy to keep my interest. It’s published by Pan Macmillan on February 27th, 2025 and I thank them for a copy. #shroud

Fantastic worldbuilding and alien biology as always from Tchaikovsky, but while the beginning and end grabbed my attention, the middle was a bit of a slog at times. Still an excellent read but I think it could have been even better at novella length. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC