Shroud Audiobook By Adrian Tchaikovsky cover art

Shroud

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Shroud

By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
Narrated by: Sophie Aldred
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On a planet shrouded in darkness, a stranded crew must fight for survival. But, the darkness may have plans of its own in this wildly original story from Adrian Tchaikovsky, Hugo and Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author of Children of Time.

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 . . .

©2025 Adrian Tchaikovsky (P)2025 Orbit Adventure First Contact Science Fiction Space Opera Thought-Provoking Solar System

Critic reviews

"The most inventive alien world I've ever encountered in SF... Pure Tchaikovsky. I swear the man is some kind of genius."—Peter Watts, author of Blindsight

"Adrian Tchaikovsky explores worlds where no one else would dare to go, and the unimaginable becomes believable... This is hard-edged science fiction that never loses its soul."—Sue Burke, author of Semiosis
"Crunchy, conceptual SF at its best...the best alien contact novel I've read since Peter Watts' Blindsight, and that is high praise indeed."—Richard Morgan, author of Altered Carbon
Truly Alien Lifeforms • Brilliant World Building • Excellent Narration • Imaginative Storytelling • Unique Concept
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Tchaikovsky’s writing style allows for easy listening while simultaneously building a world of visuals inside your head that keep you entertained throughout.

Engrossing Visuals

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Adrian Tchaikovsky is one of the best SF writers active today and Shroud is one of his better works. Really enjoyed this one.

One of Tchaikovskys best

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But as a standalone book it was not my favorite.
It’s a “crash-land and don’t get eaten” survival story with an amorphous consciousness arising in the background. It portrays humans so cynically there were maybe ~1.5 people who I even cared if they survived, and their best hope was to return to being slaves of their awful space mining corporation.
The alien life was too abstract to really function as a character.
I don’t get it. Tchaikovsky *knows* how to do characters, even out of radically different forms of emergent consciousness.

Maybe the series gets better?

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An enjoyable and imaginative sci-fi from Adrian Tchaikovsky. Where I thought it would go, it went somewhere better, how I thought it would be end, it did better. How does he continue to come up with such intriguing SciFi?! There should be movies inspired by his works.

Unique Story

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A very unique and original concept. Entertaining and thoughtful. Most of the author's books are intriguing and engaging!
I look forward to his next creation.

WOW!

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This book is a remarkable journey of 2 kinds of mind trying to imagine each other. The idea, the story, and the narration— all excellent.

The idea of it—the 2 kinds of mind, trying to imagine each other.

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Tchaikovsky always does such a great job with the unknown that is space and with space’s inhabitants. Such a lovely writer and able to create truly new ideas about what it means to be an “alien” or a “human” for that matter! Loved it!

Typical Tchaikovsky in that there is nothing “typical” about it!

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I will read anything the man writes, that is not the question. Nor is the quality of the writing, characters, story, inquiry, exploration, and occasionally interjected obscure references and witticisms between the above mentioned novel and this one. It is only to say that the gravity and revolution of this shrouded moon consumed me into its dark depths, and curiously I didn't mind. Between this and Alien Clay I'm really loving these crash landing standalones and hope he keeps writing more. May we all see these stories as examplars of finding ways to connect with each other despite the seemingly vast and alien differences between us.

My favorite book of Adrian's since Children of Time

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Overall, an interesting book. At first, the story and the cadence of the plot development struck me as being rather slow. However, the book truly develops with a very interesting conclusion.

Gets better as the story develops

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Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Shroud offers a unique take on alien intelligence. On a planet deemed unable to support human life, a group is exploring for possible resources. A team gets stranded on the surface and learns that dangerous lifeforms abound. They race to a location on the other side of the planet that offers a rescue. Along the way, they encounter intelligent life forms. What follows is both sides figuring each other out with direct communication nearly impossible. While the rescue is successful, the greedy corporate backers of the endeavor push a bit too much and the aliens very quickly ‘learn’ to stay one step ahead.

Tchaikovsky takes a classic sci-fi element of alien first contact with truly alien lifeforms, not simply their biology, but also their mental processes which are shaped by the unique environment in which they have evolved. All too often, aliens are anthropomorphized, but more likely it’s the environment that shapes intelligence, rather than biology.

The narration is quite good with solid character distinction. Pacing is a tad brisk.

Alternative alien intelligence

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