Really intriguing premise, loved the exploration of philosophical themes of self and exploration. The world building and the descriptions of the alien was just incredible. The horror of the dystopia and the isolation of space/fatalism was also very chilling. Quite slow and meditative rather than action packed, but very engaging.

This is a book that takes a lot of unexpected turns and the author keeps you guessing all the way - its also a book that underneath all the cynicism and greed, holds together a kernel of hope and that more than anything surprised me a lot. What the blurb indicates and what the book actually is about causes a bit of an issue with pacing - and that took me out of the book a fair few times but it ends very strongly and very differently.

If there's one thing Adrian Tchaikovsky does well (ok, he does very far more than one thing, but go with me), it's alienness. Not just alien life, but worlds, cultures, habitats... every aspect of a Completely Other Thing. Which comprehends just as well as we do, without any ability to communicate to the odd little two-legs who come crashing into their backyard.

The first portion of the book is the human setup. A planet that is entirely dark but on which has been found life. A human society that’s become entirely focused on business, productivity and the most awful aspects of middle-management that you’ve ever experienced. A frustrated protagonist whose duty seems to be coordinating a spaceship crew that’s essentially an office of staff that don’t get on with each other.

It’s wryly humorous with a strong undercurrent of mystery. The only video of the planet that manages to reach the ship reminded me of ‘found-footage horror’ in how vague it is, with just enough going on to inform the reader that this place is Not Pleasant At All.

Then suddenly our protagonist finds herself on the surface. Possibly. She’s not an astronaut at all, not even a scientist. There’s no way to communicate past the atmosphere, and no indicator of any help coming. Her surviving colleagues still don’t get on. And there’s alien life coming by to see what all the noise is about.

To my surprise and pleasure, the book then shifts to the ‘alien’ perspective - and it’s amazing! No spoilers, but this is a human writer depicting a very non-human life-form about as perfectly as can be. They don’t see like we do, communicate or understand, but they’re far from stupid. In fact, they seem to be far smarter than the human society that’s inadvertently made first contact, and it’s fascinating to imagine how such interaction would go.

Because of course, the planet is not at all friendly to humans, and with limited oxygen and food, what are those two-leggers to do? And whose side will the reader end up on?

While ‘Alien Clay’ hasn’t quite been ousted from my Favourites podium just yet (effusive review here), ‘Shroud’ is a close second. The skill at which Tchaikovsky draws us in with relatable characters - both human and alien - is incredible, and I genuinely did not know what was going to happen from one moment to the next. Everything makes sense in context, and the ‘science’ isn’t too dense that I ever felt lost.

I have never read anything like this, and the sheer atmosphere of it will stay with me for a long time. Relevant twenty-first-century science-fiction at its absolute best.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.25 / 5

Shroud is a story of survival, exploration, and the intersection of human and alien cultures, as it dives into the complexities of first contact and the consequences of humanity's pursuit of profit and discovery.

📖 A commercial expedition to a distant star system discovers a pitch-black moon alive with radio activity. Its high-gravity, high-pressure, zero-oxygen environment is deadly to human life, but ripe for exploitation. They named it Shroud.

Forced to stage an emergency landing, in a small, barely adequate vehicle, Juna and Mai 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 . . .

✨ Review ✨
Shroud is a Sci-Fi with elements of horror. While this does have a plot it's slow paced. It's more of an exploration of a world and what it means to be human more than anything else. I loved it.

Tchaikovsky's world building is divine. This is a world mainly sat in darkness and the way he brought it to life in such a vivid way was incredible. There was also something eerily about this world and it had me nervous for what we were going to come across next.

The characters in this were solid, I could have used a little more depth because I wasn't fully engaged on an emotional level but overall I really enjoyed them. The way Tchaikovsky explores humanity and what it means to be human really does make up for that lack of emotional attachment.

There is just something so incredibly interesting about this world and story. I don't really want to talk about what my favourite part is because I feel like it's a spoiler and it was fun to discover on my own but there is a special element in the book that stole the show for me.

I can't wait to read more of his work

[ARC provided by NetGalley and Tor. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review Shroud.]

Rating: 3.7/5

This was my first venture into the works of Adrian Tchaicovsky and I’m sure it won’t be the last! Shroud is the kind of book that presents some pretty existential concepts that will linger in your brain long after the last page, and although there were times where I felt the story dragged, ultimately it all came together well in the end.

When a commercial expedition to a distant star unveils a pitch-black moon rich with resources, a special projects team is tasked with finding ways to exploit it. This inhospitable moon that will become known as ‘Shroud’ is not the kind of place where a human could survive, but when a catastrophic accident results in June Ceelander and Mai Ste Etienne crash landing onto its surface, they must fight for survival and find a way to get back to humanity. Unfortunately their gruelling journey is wrought with many obstacles, most of all, the beings that find them in the darkness.

In this reality where humans are expanding throughout the cosmos, seeking to find footholds where they can further their goals, there’s a familiarity in the corporate exploitation that is rife in the narrative. The workers that do the bidding of their sometimes faceless superiors are forced into dangerous situations with little reward when something goes well, and significant consequences if something goes poorly. This feeds directly into the ever present theme of existential dread which is constantly reinforced by the grim vision of humanity’s future that is presented to us, making the story incredibly eerie and very unsettling.

There are other interesting themes but I’m hesitant to delve deeply into them as that would be spoiler territory, and I think this kind of book is the best to jump into blind. What I will say is that Tchaicovsky introduces an interesting insight into the limits of human perception as well as non-human intelligence that is a little mind-bending at times. Overall I had a great time with it but some of these themes and motifs can get in the way of character development which I felt brought the pacing down significantly. It’s not a massive negative, but something that I might caution others about if I were recommending the book.

(Also side note, and I don’t know if I’d consider this a spoiler so tread with caution: this really felt like a prequel story, especially as I neared the end. I’m not sure if there’s a follow-up planned or if this will remain a standalone, but I have so many thoughts and questions regarding the future of these characters!)

There were moments where I struggled with getting to the next chapter but by the time I’d reached the end, I was satisfied with the journey this book took me on. The thriller elements of Shroud make it particularly exciting and I found the last 100 pages to be excellent. I’d say that if you do pick up this book and find the beginning tricky to get into, stick with it as the ending more than makes up for it.

Shroud is centred around a crash landing on a pitch-black alien moon that forces two humans into a fight for survival—while its mysterious inhabitants start to take an interest in them.

This was my first Tchaikovsky, and unfortunately, I struggled with it. The beginning was dense, packed with heavy scientific exposition that made it feel like reading a business report rather than a novel.

The plot itself didn’t really get going until a fifth of the way in, and even then, it often felt like the same complications were repeating without adding much to the story or characters. The whole middle section could have been condensed—this probably would’ve worked better as a novella. Luckily, the short chapters kept things moving.

The biggest issue for me was the (human) characters. There wasn’t much character development, and the MC sometimes felt more like a sidekick than a protagonist. The characters weren’t particularly compelling or nuanced. A small bone to pick: If I hadn’t read the synopsis, I wouldn’t have even realized the narrator was female. I'm not sure if the story lacked opportunities to make this clearer or if it was a flaw in the writing, but it stood out.

The world-building was phenomenal, though. Shroud itself is so vividly described that I had no trouble picturing its eerie, oppressive darkness, and the alien species was genuinely interesting. I just wish the book had leaned more into the interactions between them and the humans.

I am still interested in trying Children of Time, since I’ve heard from @book_syl that all of Tchaikovsky’s books are very different. But this one wasn’t for me. If you love hard sci-fi and you’re more interested in the mechanics of the technology and new worlds, you might have a better time with it.

Thank you to Pan Macmillan for providing an eARC for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Adrian Tchaikovsky writes so interestingly about life and what it means. In Shroud, the crew of a commercial expedition to a distant star system discover a moon with commercial potential, bewildering radio activity – and which is uniquely hostile to human life.

Plans are made by the experts onboard to explore, but an accident means that two women on the team – Juna Ceelander and Mai Ste Etienne – are stranded on Shroud, fighting for survival. There is nothing there that resembles what we might recognise as life. Despite that, as Juna and Mai begin to make sense of the environment they are trapped in, it appears that it also begins to understand them.

For me, Shroud, comes under the challenging but interesting heading. I’ve written before about my limits in visualising what I read. In Tchaikovsky’s Children of Time series this was easier for me, with no science background and a limited knowledge of science fiction, because the protagonists are humans fleeing a dying earth and super-evolved spiders, octupuses and corvids.

In Shroud, there are no analogues. The humans in the spaceship have no direct connection to Earth, having been bred in “habitation tanks” purely for corporate use. And what they find on the planet is initially unrecognisable to them – and us – as life at all. So you have to be able to conceptualise Shroud based purely on a description that doesn’t link it to anything familiar. But that is the point – that is what the scientists are also having to do, as they make sense of the bewildering atmosphere and electrical signals.

It’s not all hard science. There is also a vein of humour running through Shroud. Some things, it seems are universal across time and space, such as the office politics on the vessel and the endless speculation of who is sleeping with who.

The narrator, Juna, is a shrewd observer of her colleagues, all highly skilled specialists. She is tasked with supplying the emotional intelligence that keeps them all working together in an extremely confined space. Interesting that in this role she is both seen as vital and has the status of an assistant.

There is also a dark threat hanging over them. Despite their skills and relatively high status, each of them knows that challenging their corporate overlords could mean being sent back to the horrors of the habitation tanks.

Tchaikovsky cleverly challenges us to consider how we impute meaning to other species and our own, how we communicate (or fail to), and the power and limits of empathy.
*
I received a copy of Shroud from the publisher via NetGalley.

Shroud is a well paced survival story. It follows the traditional structure of problem, resolution of said problem and so on. As each problem gets resolved we the reader and the protagonist gain piecemeal knowledge of the world and its inhabitants in a satisfying way.
This moon is inhospitable to humans and has an otherworldly feel to it. Adrian masterfully manages to create a feeling of sensory deprivation mixed with wonder and unease in the reader.

How Adrian deals with the planet and its inhabitants point of view are unique and refreshing. It creates space between the more traditionally told story. It was something I looked forward to most while reading.
There is a lot of science jargon and paragraphs details issues so this break in POV gives the reader a reprieve. This gave me enough time to catch a breath and dive deeper into the world of Shroud with each oncoming chapter.

The main character’s interactions and dialogue with their crew I enjoyed also. The world building relating to group politics and governing bodies in this story was something I loved exploring. While not the main focus of the story it added depth and felt like a real organisation dealing with people as commercial resources.
This dispassionate moon acted as both a contrast and reflection to the humans and how their governing body treats them.

My only negative is the survival story dragged slightly as the crew faced another problem just after the midway point of the book. However, the momentum and situation shifted to provide an eagerness to complete the story. The book concludes in a satisfying way and had many twists and turns right up until the last page. The ending is earned and satisfying with great use of foreshadowing.

I would recommend this story to readers who enjoy survival storytelling, learning about alien worlds.Those who find science jargon heavy might struggle despite Adrian’s excellent ability to simplfy complex terms.

Thank you to NetGallery and Pan Macmillan for providing a review copy of Shroud in exchange for an honest review.

Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Shroud is a science fiction novel that covers themes of survival, first contact, and the complexities of alien ecosystems. The story follows two scientists, Juna Ceelander and Mai Ste Etienne, who, after a catastrophic accident, find themselves stranded on Shroud—a pitch-black, high-gravity moon teeming with alien life. Their journey across this hostile environment forms the basis of the story.

Tchaikovsky has to be praised for his imaginative creation of Shroud’s ecosystem. The alien flora and fauna are intricately detailed, offering a vivid portrayal of life in an environment vastly different from Earth. For me, this has to be one of Tchaikovsky’s most creative and inventive alien worlds, although I haven’t read all of his science fiction yet.

Along the way the novel provides chapters from the viewpoint of Shroud’s indigenous species, offering a unique take on first contact scenarios. I did feel this dual perspective enriched the narrative, giving us the profound differences and potential connections between human and alien consciousness.

The book was fascinating, however, I found the densely detailed scientific explanations and complex descriptions of the alien environment challenging to follow. For me, it made certain sections of the book feel slow-paced and overwhelming. This led to some major pacing issues for me. While the story started and ended with gripping sequences, the middle portion, focuses on the protagonists’ trek through the alien landscape, and was a just a little too repetitive.

Shroud most definitely showcases Adrian Tchaikovsky’s strengths in crafting complex alien worlds and delving into profound themes of connection and survival. For those who appreciate detailed world-building and thoughtful explorations of alien life, Shroud offers a compelling read.

My thanks to both NetGalley and Pan MacMillan for an e-arc and an honest opinion.

Of the Tchaikovsky I've read – which is a lot, but still only a fraction of his vast output – this runs closest to the recent Alien Clay, another bunch of luckless Earthlings squeezed between a rigid, blinkered regime back home, and a new world that's impossible both in the sense of being utterly inhospitable to human life and entirely baffling to human assumptions. They're not, however, part of the same setting; where that book's Mandate was motivated by human-supremacist pseudoscience, the Concern here is all about growth for growth's sake, ensuring humanity avoids another euphemistically named 'bottleneck' by spreading our across the galaxy so we can exhaust other planets just like we did the one that so foolishly gave us birth; turns out it really was easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism, and all the more so once it had already happened once. Be lovely if either the Mandate or the Concern seemed remotely implausible, wouldn't it? But the overlap was sufficient that I remembered all the fan jokes suggesting Tchaikovsky must just be the frontman for a syndicate, wondered if he'd maybe not kept enough of an eye on the subordinates to make sure they were all producing either series proper or sufficiently distinct works.

That was one part of why I made slower progress with Shroud than I normally would with an ARC of the next Tchaikovsky from Netgalley. Another, obviously, was that the Concern shaded too much into the sort of apocalypse we're already living through, and which as such I mostly tend to dodge in entertainment. But the biggest delay wasn't either of these so much as the belated appearance of James Cameron's The Abyss on UK streaming, reminding me quite how stressful I find submarine stories. I was talking recently to a friend who can't get on with spaceship stories, part of that being the ongoing, anxious awareness of the hostile environment just beyond those terribly thin tin walls. Which I don't get at all in a lot of SF, because it either has in-world arguments for why explosive decompression isn't a big worry (have I ever mentioned how much I miss the Culture?), or simply determines not to draw attention to that because it would stress everyone out when we're all here for swashbuckling in space. Well, Shroud goes the other way, very firmly reminding us that the Concern ship is a long way from help and one mistake or puncture away from death – and then going right the other way as some of the crew find themselves down on the surface of Shroud, which is much more the submarine experience, in that the atmosphere outside is highly pressurised, opaque, toxic...so still one mistake or puncture away from death, and the pressure gradient going the other way is of immense practical significance, but emotionally makes less difference than you might think.

The other key detail that our poor bloody leads have established prior to landing on Shroud, apart from some very confusing footage of native life, is that it's incredibly noisy, in both the electromagnetic and sonic senses. Which means that once down there, simply signalling for help is a non-starter, so the bulk of the book is an odyssey across its surface which walks a number of very thin lines, both within the fiction, and in terms of narrative choices. Tchaikovsky is clearly aware of the pernicious side of the idea of the indomitable human spirit overcoming all odds, even while you can occasionally detect the imprint of an authorial finger on the scales ensuring that Shroud is, at least in part, another example of just that. My second criticism is that having a crew member called Ste Etienne inevitably made me think of wistful springtime wanderings on Primrose Hill, rather than a tough engineer trying to think and wrench her way out of dying on a distant, hostile moon. But the biggest is that the Concern humans, who have only ever known a world entirely dominated by hypercapitalism, grown as resources on space stations and stuck back in the deep freeze whenever their continued waking existence doesn't serve the bottom line, still come across an awful lot like transplanted moderns. Charitably, you could say that this makes sense given quite how far down that road we've already gone; certainly that feels true of the sections anatomising office politics, corporate bullshit, and managers anxious to claim credit and offload blame for work they don't even deign to try understanding. But sometimes it can feel like a cheat, a sop to 'relatability' in what would otherwise be a book where every element was strange.

This is a pity, because Shroud is at its best when it's strangest. The alien biosphere is ingenious and, at least to this non-specialist reader, believable even at its most outlandish. To go into any further consideration of which, I should warn that from here to the end there'll be SPOILERS. Such as, again like Alien Clay, Tchaikovsky seems here to be riffing on recent advances in understanding our own world's biology, not least via fungi, and the gradual, reluctant realisation that the boundary between self and other is a lot less firm than long-standing intellectual currents, not least the social misapplication of Darwinism, have given us to believe. And this is mirrored on the side of the human invaders, who may be taught to believe in individual competition, but who are really cells in a corporate whole, sacrificed with as little thought as a body discards a microscopic component which has outlived its usefulness. Tchaikovsky's choice of administrator Juna Ceelander as his main narrator initially seems like it's because her role means she has to know enough about everyone else's specialties to explain them to each other, or up the chain of command, and as such is also the best candidate for clarifying the situation to the reader. Partly it is, but what gradually becomes clear, to the reader sooner than it does to her, is the value of being a facilitator and connector in and of itself, the oil in the interlocking gears of humanity. By the end of the odyssey through Shroud's murk, the book has even got into some territory on the importance of real human connection and togetherness, as against the simulated version on which corporations batten, that feels a lot soppier than you might expect in a book with this many nightmarish alien life-forms. All of which, in turn, becomes another way to consider the old, hard philosophical problem of the self. And by the end it's clear, not to mention appropriate, that the similarities and differences between Shroud and the differently collaborative ecology in Alien Clay aren't a consequence of Tchaikovsky's fiction minions operating without co-ordination, but of a mind turning the same problem over and over, trying to shed light on it from fresh angles, and thereby find a fuller picture. Not a million miles away from how Iris Murdoch operated, in fact, except for the minor matter of using space missions in dystopian futures rather than emotionally messy post-Oxbridge cliques.

Tchaikovsky is incredibly prolific and blessed with ideas, as shown here, in Shroud.

If I was pitching Shroud to a friend, I might say it's a mix of The Martian with a futuristic space horror.

We start with a team of scientists investigating a dark and mysterious planet, at the behest of a giant corporation that will simply plunge them into stasis once their job is done. When disaster happens, two team members end up separated from everyone else, plunged into the depths of the planet, trapped inside a small pod that can just about keep them alive. Rescue isn't coming.

The only thing they can do is try to navigate halfway across the planet without ever leaving the pod - but there's something oddly alive and conscious moving around them, something so alien they don't even know how to try communicating...

The author excels at dreaming up new alien ways of existence and this book is no different. The chapters from the Shrouded perspective are fascinating as they evolve over the course of the story. I was less interested in the human characters in some ways - they never quite truly came to life for me. Many of their chapters are hard SF depicting tough times and exhausting journeys and felt a little repetitive - I came a bit close to skimming those.

But it all comes together at the end, so for me it was worth the toil of the journey! 3.5 rounded up.

Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky is a gripping and thought-provoking sci-fi survival thriller that plunges you headfirst into the terrifying unknown. The premise is simple: a hostile, alien moon ripe for exploitation by a profit-driven corporation. What could possibly go wrong? Everything, of course.

Tchaikovsky throws Juna Ceelander and Mai Ste Etienne into a desperate fight for survival after a catastrophic accident leaves them stranded on Shroud. The moon's environment is a masterclass in atmospheric dread – a high-gravity, zero-oxygen nightmare that feels claustrophobically real. The descriptions of the landscape, the crushing pressure, and the constant threat of death are visceral and unsettling. You feel every agonizing breath, every aching muscle, every desperate hope.

This isn't just a survival story, though. It's a sharp and often darkly humorous commentary on capitalism and its dehumanizing tendencies. The corporate mindset, which views workers as expendable resources rather than people, is laid bare and dissected with a scathing wit. This critique adds a layer of depth to the narrative, making the characters' struggles all the more poignant.

Beyond the immediate dangers of Shroud, the story explores the nature of humanity itself. As Juna and Mai navigate the alien landscape and encounter its bizarre inhabitants, they are forced to confront their own limitations and redefine what it means to be human in the face of the utterly alien. The gradual unveiling of Shroud's secrets is masterfully handled, revealing just enough to keep you on the edge of your seat while leaving you with a sense of wonder and unease.

Shroud is a must-read for fans of science fiction that blends thrilling adventure with intelligent social commentary. It's a claustrophobic horror story, a survival epic, and a thought-provoking exploration of what it means to be human, all wrapped up in Tchaikovsky's signature blend of imaginative world-building and compelling characters. Highly recommended.

Shroud is an alien first contact story in which the aliens feel truly alien. It charts a quest to survive on a planet where everything is an anathema to human life and it provides a pretty good reason why Star Trek has its prime directive (that is, not to reveal space faring technologies to non-spacefaring civilisations). Although, the milieu here is far from the utopian ideals of Star Trek.
Tchaikovsky makes it clear from the beginning that the universe of Shroud stands in contrast to that imagined by Gene Rodenberry in Star Trek. Humanity’s mission in Star Trek is to discover new worlds and seek out new life and bring them into a united Federation. That franchise imagines a utopian future in which a universal translator allows for simplified first contact and most encounters with aliens boil down to human-like misunderstandings. The mission of the crew of the Garveneer in Shroud is much more commercial and pragmatic. This is because Tchaikovsky has imagined a corporatised future. One in which humanity is in the thrall of giant corporations, or Concerns, and the value of any individual is based on their ability to deliver for the corporation.
When the crew of the Garveneer discover evidence of life on a moon that they are prospecting they are given some leeway to investigate. Conditions on the planet surface are dark and inhospitable and yet a decision is made to build a vehicle that can take people to the surface. Before the vehicles are fully ready, a disaster forces three of the crew to drop down to the planet surface in two of them.
From there Shroud becomes a survival tale as the three try to do the impossible and find a way to navigate to the planet’s pole in order to contact their ship. At the same time they are constantly trying (and failing) to engage with and understand with the bizarre local beings which communicate in the deep, crushing dark using electromagnetic waves. Where Shroud shines is the way in which Tchaikovsky, at the same time, shows this interaction from an alien perspective.
Neither the humans, nor the aliens, ever really understand the other while this journey is taking place. But the alien life on Shroud has the capacity to learn. And the humans soon find that the creatures, who can construct their bodies like machines, quickly learn how to adapt human technologies. This in turn has a very real impact on some evolutionary limits that had been set by the planet’s conditions.
Shroud works on a number of levels. It is a great novel of human ingenuity and survival. It is a take down of the role of corporate culture driving human development. But more than that it is a fascinating (if stressful) descent into a completely new and hostile world and an exploration of the diverse ecosystems that have evolved to live in it. And it is a novel about communication and the consequences of a failure to try and understand the other. It is another great novel from Tchaikovsky who continues to be one of the most innovative and intriguing authors in science fiction and fantasy.

Shroud is a claustrophobic xeno-sci-fi survival story, with additional themes of alien intelligence and inter-species communication (themes fans of Adrian Tchaikovsky surely love). It’s a strong entry into the genre that features a wildly imaginative setting inimical to human life.


The opening setup to this novel is a little like the movie Alien – the protagonists work for an interstellar corporation that is more interested in profits than preserving the lives of their crew. As they plan to mine a new system for all the resources they can get, an anomaly is found – a moon that is practically screaming on all radio frequencies, and with no clear reason why. A crew of specially skilled operators are decanted from cryosleep to investigate – and they find strange alien life.

The tension between the crew and their company overseers is clear from the start – the company is keen to cut corners and get instant results, while the crew mostly just want to do a good job and discover the secrets of Shroud (the name they give the moon). When the drones give them very little to go on, a manned expedition starts to take form, and a freak accident sends three of the crew down to the surface in the pods.

I enjoyed how hostile the alien planet was to humans – they are pretty much strapped to cushioned couches that their bodies sink into due to the high gravity. Any exposure of oxygen to the atmosphere of the planet causes an instant explosive reaction. There’s a real claustrophobia to their situation that becomes all the worse when they discover that not only is there life on the planet, but that it is teeming with it, and that it may just be smarter than expected.

There’s something great about the way Tchaikovsky writes stories involving communication between two vastly different species, and this is perhaps the most pronounced it has been in any of his stories. The humans are limited by the pods that encompass them, and are so far away from anyone that could help them. The aliens communicate so differently that deciphering a language is not even an option. And there’s always a goal in mind for the humans, that of survival, something that they can barely hope for without help from beings they can barely understand.

The last quarter of the book takes a drastic turn, but to do so would spoil things, so I’ll just say that I enjoyed where Tchaikovsky took the ending. On the whole I loved Shroud, a very dark and atmospheric but thoughtful book.

Rating: 9/10

If the personality hire were forcibly stuck on an alien planet! A fun read, although the main character’s perspective dragged in technical details but the alien perspective was very interesting and novel. Slightly frustrated by the clinical feel to the whole book and lack of clear resolution, although the intermissions were retrospectively a great touch.

All things creep and crawly
All pincers great and small
Monsters out to eat you
Tchaikovsky made them all

No one does alien quite like Tchaikovsky. And Shroud is about as inhospitably alien as you can get. Add to that his incisive social commentary and deadpan humour (if many-legged giant insectoids screaming in an incomprehensible electromagnetic language is your idea of humour), then with ‘Shroud’ you have a highly enjoyable romp through the most alien of landscapes.

A cracking read!

Adrian Tchaikovsky’s books are always rich in world-building, and Shards of Earth is no exception. One of the things I both loved and found frustrating in Children of Time was the level of detail he put into constructing the planet and its ecosystem. Shroud follows the same pattern, immersing the reader in the strange, alien life of its mysterious world. Like Children of Time, the book starts slowly, introducing the crew, their dynamics, and their first encounters with Shroud. Humanity is expanding across the galaxy, but it’s the corporations leading the charge. Employees are judged by their "wage-worth," and those deemed unnecessary to the mission are put back into stasis. I can’t say I was a fan of this setup.

The story picks up once the action shifts to Shroud itself. Tchaikovsky excels at making complex science accessible, and I particularly enjoyed the alien perspectives—it’s always fascinating to see the world through a truly non-human lens. There’s plenty of horror and action to keep the tension high while unraveling the mysteries of Shroud. However, some of the human POVs didn’t fully resonate with me. Juna stood out, and I enjoyed following her journey, but others were harder to connect with.

The alien life in Shroud is completely unlike humanity, and seeing how these two worlds collide was one of the book’s greatest strengths. We’re so used to encountering life that mirrors our own in some way, but here, Tchaikovsky leans into the truly bizarre. As always, his world-building is phenomenal, and if you enjoy hard sci-fi, this book is well worth your time.

I liked Shroud, though, much like Children of Time, it takes a while to find its stride. If I hadn’t expected this from Tchaikovsky, I might have been tempted to put it down early on—but it’s absolutely worth persevering. I would have liked a little more resolution at the end, but I can’t say much without spoilers. Just read the book!

This is my first book of Adrian’s and it definitely won’t be the last! I loved that it was not only sci fi but horror too, it kept me on my toes and turning the page late into the night. I’m a new sci fi reader and it was very accessible and easy to understand. The world building and the characters were great. It was dense at times but loved every minute of it.

This book got off to a slow start for me, and there were points where I wasn't sure I was going to finish it. But, I'm so glad I pushed through as this book only got better and better.

The switching of perspective between light and dark was brilliant, and slowly revealed more and more about how complex Shroud is, and how interconnected the world is.

The final lines of this book are so strong, and was such a strong ending to a really compelling novel. Juna is a hero, no matter what remedial works might suggest.

A brilliant first-contact sci-fi!
Suspenseful and exciting moody sci-fi ,while being an exploration of humanity through the characters.
Loved this book, I’d read anything by Adrian Tchaikovsky and this one is great!