Shroud

Adrian Tchaikovsky has an amazing gift.

He keeps taking on different fantasy and science fiction styles and tropes and then creating something fresh and wonderful.

Shroud was gripping from start to finish. It is a new classic in the theme of surviving an impossible planet and what life is like when the corporations are in charge.

If he gives us more set in this universe, I'll be grateful. But I'll be similarly grateful if he adds to any more of his stories, and I've learned to trust that whatever he does will be terrific.

I devoured Shroud. This is Adrian Tchaikovsky at his scifi best - truly alien aliens and humans being humans, engrossing drama ensues.

In Shroud, Tchaikovsky imagines evolution on a world where visible light is not available.

As a legally blind person I'm both disappointed and glad that this novel is not about blindness. I would have liked to see Tchaikovsky describe the challenges of dealing with blindness, but wouldn't have liked to see him fail at it, like too many other sighted authors.

This is a first contact story. Quite uniquely, establishing communication isn't the first priority.

It contrasts a human capitalist strip mining project with an alien intelligence that has it's own history, constraints and priorities.

But first of all, it is a trek across a dangerous alien environment and survival against the odds.