An utterly gripping story of alien encounter and survival from Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of the Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning Children of Time.
They looked into the darkness and the darkness looked back . . .
New planets are fair game to asset strippers and interplanetary opportunists â 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 Shroudâs 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 Shroudâs dominant species. It also begins to understand them . . .
If they escape Shroud, theyâll face a crew only interested in profiteering from this extraordinary world. Theyâll somehow have to explain the impossible and translate the incredible. That is, if they make it back at all.
Praise for Adrian Tchaikovsky
âThe smartest evolutionary worldbuilding youâll ever readâ â Peter F. Hamilton, author of Salvation on Children of Time
âCompelling on human and cosmic levels, and unputdownableâ â Stephen Baxter, author of Proxima on Alien Clay
âHeart-in-the-mouth fantasticâ â New Scientist on Alien Clay