Alien Clay
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4.6 • 5 Ratings
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
Alien Clay is a thrilling far-future adventure by acclaimed Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author Adrian Tchaikovsky.
The planet of Kiln is where the tyrannical Mandate keeps its prison colony, and for inmates the journey there is always a one-way trip. One such prisoner is Professor Arton Daghdev, xeno-ecologist and political dissident. Soon after arrival he discovers that Kiln has a secret. Humanity is not the first intelligent life to set foot there.
In the midst a ravenous, chaotic ecosystem are the ruins of a civilization, but who were the vanished builders and where did they go? If he can survive both the harsh rule of the camp commandant and the alien horrors of the world around him, then Arton has a chance at making a discovery that might just transform not only Kiln but distant Earth as well.
Praise for Adrian Tchaikovsky:
‘Brilliant science fiction and far-out world-building’ – James McAvoy
‘One of the most interesting and accomplished writers in speculative fiction’ – Christopher Paolini
‘Tchaikovsky’s world-building is some of the best in modern sci-fi’ – New Scientist
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Exiled to a labour camp on the distant planet of Kiln for his political dissidence, science professor Arton Daghdev quickly turns his focus to the radically different ecology and biology found there. As he begins to learn more about Kiln’s hidden threats and history, Arton wonders how his findings might be applied back on Earth. Alien Clay uses Arton’s wry, conversational narration as a handy shortcut to author Adrian Tchaikovsky’s heady concepts and ambitious world building. But this is just as much a twisty and well-paced thriller as it is an imaginative sci-fi novel, and Arton’s gradual grasp of the planet’s secrets creates a sustained tug of mystery alongside vivid descriptions of Kiln’s distinctive flora and fauna. Fans of Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation and Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary will relish this subversive look at evolution and colonisation alike.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Imprisoned dissident scientists struggle to understand alien ecology in this mind-expanding planetary romp from Arthur C. Clarke Award winner Tchaikovsky (Service Model). Arton Daghdev, captured by the totalitarian Earth government called the Mandate after a year in hiding, lands on the prison planet Kiln, where he is assigned to support archeological digs into the beehive-shaped mounds left by a vanished civilization. Caught between fellow prisoners planning a rebellion and a warden who espouses the Mandate party line—that the Universe was designed to produce humanity as its pinnacle achievement—Daghdev forges his own path into the heart of Kiln's vitally different life-forms. ("Know thyself is the Earth adage, but here on Kiln it's Know one another," he muses of their strikingly different culture.) Tchaikovsky's philosophical musings about identity and the individual against the collective will feel familiar to science fiction readers, but his resolution will surprise even longtime genre fans. Tchaikovsky continues to impress.
