Review: Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Blurb:
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 . . .
Review:
Right off the bat, I’ll say that the best part of Shroud is the atmosphere. The perpetual darkness of the tidally locked moon is a formidable setting for a first contact/survival story. And the looming presence of unimaginable fauna haunts the narrative from the get-go. As the story progresses, our protagonists end up stranded on Shroud, and are forced to explore this alien satellite in an attempt to survive and escape these lightless locales. They discover creepy sceneries and inconceivable creatures, each serving as a sizable stepping stone in their punishing journey towards survival.
It was around the 20% mark where the book became un-put-down-able. I’ll talk about the first 20% in the next section, but 20% onwards, the book was an absolute masterpiece.
One brilliant aspect of this book was the alien’s POV. While the majority of the narrative follows Juna, we occasionally get the Shrouded’s POV, which highlights a completely different story. The human POV follows a typical survival drama, albeit with horror elements. On the other hand, the Shrouded’s POV follows a curious first-contact adventure. The two species can barely communicate with each other, and so they both assume the other’s intentions without ever truly getting clear confirmations. This mismatch of perceptions, coupled with their respective motivations and backgrounds makes for a rich and dual experience. This really makes you wonder how first contact—if or whenever it does happen—would transpire. Would we be curious supporters or exploitative killers?
The Shrouded really stole the show here. I can’t say a lot about them without spoiling some horrifyingly cool elements, but Tchaikovsky really does a stellar job with that POV. Its limited senses and expansive perspective of the moon setting serve to build a world and a world-view that’s as alien as can be, yet somehow feels real and relatable. On the contrary–and I assume this is by design—the human perspectives feel very clinical and dry. Corporate greed and unchecked expansionism have resulted in literal vat-grown human societies where their biology has been manipulated to allow sustained interstellar travel. The near-perpetual dependence on pharma drugs to survive in the apathetic corporate world of Opportunities seems to have rendered these people less human, emotionally speaking.
Juna, our protagonist, does display the humanity that we recognize. But for the most part, the humans remain hard to relate to. And root for, if I’m being honest. However, I admit that Juna’s role in this story becomes clearer in the latter part, with the ending completely blowing my mind! Voracious readers of SFF might see the end coming a long way, but that doesn’t make it any less amazing.
Lastly, I have to talk about the structure. The story is divided into six parts, where at the end of the first part you start getting the Shrouded’s perspective. Each part is separated by an interlude, which I will not talk about for spoiler reasons. Human POV, Shrouded POV, and Interludes… the three make up a fascinating balance of stories that make this 500-page book read like a much more epic tale. Plus, jumping between the three actually improved the pacing of the book for me.
Shroud reminded me a lot of Scavenger’s Reign, but with the treatment of a horror-fueled fever dream.
What I didn’t like:
The start was a bit of a slog if I’m being honest. The science jargon—irrespective of its accuracy—was too heavy to digest. The characters felt two-dimensional, and the narrative rushed forward at a wonky pace. I almost gave up on the book because the opening chapters were a little too dry. The whole corporate angle, while brilliant on paper, didn’t feel as engaging or thought-provoking as it could have been. Which makes me wonder, how would the book have read if all those complications were trimmed out of the narrative, making the book all about Shroud’s alien atmosphere, fauna, and survival.
Another part that didn’t work for me was the humans. Somehow, I felt more connected to the alien creature than any of the human characters. If it weren’t for the cosmic-horror-esque atmosphere, I wouldn’t have kept reading. Juna isn’t the easiest protagonist to root for. Especially when you have the Shrouded in the mix. Yet, she does her job, and keeps the narrative rolling forward.
Lastly, and this is the only spoiler bit in my review, so SPOILER WARNING:
I didn’t enjoy the last part of the book. After a fascinating, imaginative, and terrifying adventure, we’re sort of thrown back into the corporate bureaucracy of Garveneer. While Tchaikovsky neatly ties everything by the end, I didn’t particularly enjoy the corporate aspects of it. They didn’t feel as interesting or engaging, despite my understanding of the reason for their existence in this story.
Conclusion:
Shrouded is a brilliant speculative story. It is as much about what it means to be human in an inhuman world, as it is about life’s curious climb up the evolutionary ladder. It’s terrifying, it’s fascinating, and it is mind-blowing!
TL;DR:
WHAT I LIKED: Atmosphere and exploration of the alien world, alien POV.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE: Human POVs were a little dull, didn’t like the corporate aspects, some pacing issues.
