Shroud

‘Thrilling, terrifying and fascinating’ Tim Peake, British ESA astronaut

They looked into darkness. The darkness looked back . . .

An utterly gripping story of first contact on a hostile planet from Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of the Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning Children of Time.

New for this paperback edition: The short story ‘Sins of the Children’, the fascinating prequel to Shroud.

An expedition to a distant star system discovers a pitch-black moon alive with radio activity. Its high-gravity, high-pressure, zero-oxygen environment is deadly to human life, but ripe for exploitation.

They name the moon Shroud. But they never mean to go there . . . until a catastrophic accident forces Juna Ceelander and Mai Ste Etienne to crash-land on its inhospitable surface in a barely adequate escape vehicle. Alone, and fighting to survive, the two women embark on a gruelling journey in search of salvation. But Juna and Mai’s tenuous existence is threatened by Shroud’s extraordinary alien species. If they can escape, they’ll have to explain the impossible and translate the incredible . . .

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Praise for Shroud

'Evokes an unrelatable extraterrestrial world . . . keeps you guessing throughout' – SFX, 5* Review

‘Clever, vivid and terrifying . . . No one has an imagination like Adrian Tchaikovsky’ – Jim Al-Khalili, presenter of BBC Radio 4’s The Life Scientific

‘Crunchy, conceptual SF at its best’ – Richard Morgan, author of Altered Carbon

‘This is hard-edged science fiction that never loses its soul’ – Sue Burke, author of Semiosis

‘Makes Andy Weir’s vision of Mars in The Martian look like a Caribbean beach resort’ – The Fantasy Hive

About the Author

Adrian Tchaikovsky was born in Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire, has practised law and now writes full time. He's also studied stage-fighting, perpetrated amateur dramatics and has a keen interest in entomology and table-top games.

Adrian is the author of the critically acclaimed Shadows of the Apt series, the Echoes of the Fall series and other novels, novellas and short stories. Children of Time won the prestigious Arthur C. Clarke Award, and Children of Ruin and Shards of Earth both won the British Science Fiction Award for Best Novel. The Tiger and the Wolf won the British Fantasy Award for Best Fantasy Novel, while And Put Away Childish Things won the BSFA Award for Best Shorter Fiction.