Shroud - Library Corner

560 pages

English language

Published Feb. 27, 2025 by Tor.

ISBN:: 978-1-0350-1379-1
ASIN:: 1035013797
Goodreads:: 210384823

(1 review)

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 …

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.

3 editions

Zivan reviewed Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Review of 'Shroud' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

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.

Subjects

English literature