This is a really creepy but very interesting take on a first contact novel! It's also very layered in terms of the politics it deals with, creating a very intriguing cast of characters set in a very challenging environment. I don't want to say to much because learning the little worldbuilding bits as the story unfolds is important, but if you enjoy the author's word, especially the Children of Time, I think you'd enjoy this one!

When I started the book it felt somewhat out of step with the works of Tchaikovsky that I’ve previously read: certainly science fiction, but more human focused than I had anticipated. It is in many ways a study on human response to systematic oppression, evocative of a futuristic 1984. The ways in which a society can break interpersonal connections and trust such as to prevent the people as a collective from gaining any real power. These are not new themes, but it’s always fascinating in a morose kind of way to look at them in a new context.

Tchaikovsky’s body of work seems to me to be intimately concerned with the question of what consciousness could look like outside of the human context, without the aim of anthropomorphizing those answers. This one went a little over my head, but it gets at some fascinating ideas that I had never thought of before. I also just love the concept of the ecology of the planet on which the book is based.

Well, I hoped to like this more. There are many interesting facets to this sci-fi story. But it didn’t work for me.
This was told in first person by a professor of bio ecology. It’s a futuristic tale of life unknown in the galaxy. People are transported away to this planet, Kiln, when they are convicted of a crime.Once Arton Daghev arrives, he is used to help discover the alien flora and fauna here. So things start off slowly. He does a lot of musing on what’s going on. So there’s lots of storytelling and not much action. The pacing is very uneven.
At the 20% mark some interesting things happen, but then it slows down again. At about 50% we see some alien lifeforms. They are incredible and scary to behold.
We get a discussion on politics of this place and how some have better jobs than others. But there is a natural inquisitiveness to the leader, although he deathly afraid of the environment and what it might hold.
There’s lots of musings on society and how we understand nature. But I wanted less of philosophical considerations and more alien interaction.
The ideas here are just amazing. I’m sure fans of Tchaikovsky’s works will enjoy this.

This was a very easy read. Even though there was a lot of heavy science at times, it was easily digestible, which is rare in my experience.

Loved the juxtaposition of the political dissident main character, and the naturally dissident environment. Adrian Tchaikovsky's ideas are crazy, and always intriguing. Will be reading more of his work for sure!

Honestly, Tchaikovsky is a voice that I'm getting to the point of seeing his name on a book means an auto read for me. General premise here is that an academic professor has been sent to a work camp on a foreign planet where there's some weird body horror biology going on. Ends up being a take on solidarity across species in a truly amazing way and a tale of surviving an environment designed to grind you down, literally! Fantastic book, and a highly recommended pool read.

🌱 Alien Clay 🌱

Tchaikovsky always creates the most unique, imaginative and inventive worlds, and this one was no exception.

Arton Daghdev is a political prisoner of a rigid, totalitarian government called The Mandate, and sent to the alien world of Kiln as punishment. He will serve in a labor camp until he dies, with no hope of return to Earth. Exploring an alien world should be an exciting prospect for a former professor of xeno-biology, right? Well, be careful what you wish for..

The planet of Kiln is crafted in such a way that it feels truly alien. This book is full of foreshadowing and has a deeply eerie atmosphere. The symbiotic relationships of life are so different and weird (in a good way!). The core mystery of the book and ultimate reveal were paced to perfection. I loved the relationships between the characters and their environment.

Full of the human desire to understand and be able to “figure out” and control our surroundings. I truly enjoyed the politics woven into the larger story.

We explore themes of survival, discovery, loneliness, what it means to be truly human and our relationship to the natural world in a thought provoking way.

Politics and science and world building are effortlessly tied together with evolution and revolution. Fascinating.

I purchased this copy from @thebrokenbinding , but I was provided an ARC for review from @netgalley and @orbitbooks_us - many thanks!

I think this may officially mark my departure from science fiction as a reader. Because I'm pretty sure my disinterest wasn't the book's fault. In fact, I'm a fan of the author, but to be fair, I enjoy his novellas. Somehow, in long form, it proved to be much too much.
The concept of the novel was intriguing (loved the science and politics dynamic), the worldbuilding absolutely first rate, but something about the density of its style (heavy on descriptions, light on dialogue) and she sheer size of the volume made my reading experience kind of a drag. Plus, I didn't really care about any of the characters. Frustrating, because I really, really wanted to like it more and tried and tried, but in the end, was simply glad to see the end of it.
That said, I'm sure this will delight plenty of science fiction fans. Thanks Netgalley.

This book is well-crafted, featuring fine lines, well-conceived set pieces, perceptive observations, and a sometimes lean and edgy narrative drive. The premise is intriguing, and I understand its appeal in both style and content for its intended audience. However, despite my efforts, I couldn't find the characters, their situations, or the overall narrative engaging enough to maintain my interest. Thus, it feels inappropriate to delve deeper in this review, except to suggest that curious readers might still find it worth exploring.

This is like if Blake Crouch wrote Annihilation and maybe had a background in zoology.

You can always count on Tchaikovsky to bring an interesting biology angle, and <i>Alien Clay</I> did not disappoint. Four rather than five stars from me because this didn't have the same philosophical/introspective vibe as my favorite Tchaikovsky books, and for a book with some thrilling parts, the pacing felt a little slow at times.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit Books!

Don’t let the jocular tone mislead you; this is serious science fiction. I don’t usually love this kind of winking narrative voice, with its casual asides and “you won’t believe what happened next!” foreshadowing—although obviously many people do. If nothing else, it’s guaranteed to date the novel terribly in the near future, to absolutely scream 2024 (just as the slangy voice of some new wave scifi screams 1967). But when the underlying storytelling and worldbuilding is this strong, who cares. And if it helps draw in readers of fun, voicey science fantasy who don’t usually pick up the hard stuff, all the better.

Tchaikovsky isn’t funny, not really. Entertaining, yes—funny, no. If you’ve read any Soviet fiction, you’ll see about what he’s after with the prison-camp humor, and also that he doesn’t quite hit the mark. He doesn’t quite hit the mark on characterization either. They just don’t quite step off the page. But again, whatever. This is scifi! I know, I know, everyone wants “character driven.” But honestly, I want my science fiction idea driven. Science driven. Is it an either/or? Of course not—but since, quite frankly, nobody else is doing idea-driven, far-future hard scifi this well right now, I’ll take what I can get. You don’t see me complaining that there aren’t enough space aliens in Tolstoy, so lets not get too worked up if Tchaikovsky is just one of the best science fiction writers working, and not a once-in-a-generation literary genius to boot.

The politics of the novel are interesting and well integrated into the story. That said, as in most of what contemporary westerners write about armed revolution that isn’t firmly grounded in deep research or on-the-ground reporting—in fiction, in magazines, or online—the revolutionary politics aren’t quite convincing. I can’t put my finger on why. I'm sure I couldn’t do better. But you can feel the difference, putting down a book like this and picking up (as I just have) a book like Flowers of Flame, written about the Bangladeshi War of Independence by someone who had just lived through it. This is revolution in theory, not in life.

On the other hand, the book is a master class in how the science in hard science fiction actually gives its worldbuilding a way longer leash than do the norms of fantasy and science fantasy, even as it feels like it should be a shorter one. Fantasy comes back again and again to familiar world building patterns, most of them deeply rooted in the genres of early European literature: the fairy tale, the folk tale, chivalric romance, Indo-European mythology. Root your world building in rigorous exobiological speculation instead and you can roam far, far further.

Tchaikovsky also nails story structure. The mystery builds, grows, transmutes—answers pose questions, questions suggest answers. I still had absolutely no idea where the novel was going at the half-way point, but I could tell I was in good hands, so that uncertainty was a thrill in itself. I finished the novel totally satisfied.

Another introspective sci fi book by an author specializing in holding up a mirror to humanity. Lots of questions posed, and a gripping framework.

"Everything that our biological sciences say can't be here on Kiln, his archaeology says is here. Or was."
I'm passing familiar with gulag narratives, having read my share of Solzhenitzin, Dostoevsky et al; enough, at any rate, to be pretty sure nobody really needed to tell the Czars to hold my beer: they were plenty bad as already recorded, thanks.

But nobody told that to Adrian Tchaikovsky, apparently.


The basic idea of Tchaikovsky's latest, Alien Clay, is, what if gulags but we also demanded that the inmates perform original almost-scientific research on a bizarre alien biome full of life forms that are not only hostile to humans but also just incomprehensibly strange, ridiculous kluges of forms so complexly interdependent/mutually exploitative/indistinguishable that they call the very Idea of speciation and taxonomy into question.

Also that "almost-scientific" is important; the Mandate, aka the human space empire from which our prisoner/researchers have been dispatched, is a totalitarian state run by powers who have a skewed, religiously-tinged idea of what science is even for, which is finding and promulgating only that evidence which supports the Mandate's pre-ordained conclusions about how the universe works and about humanity's place as the pinnacle and point of all creation.

Oh, and there's xeno-archaelogical evidence, in the form of strange gigantic structures that reminded the first visitors to this nightmare planet of kilns, hence the name bestowed, unofficially of course, on the planet: Kiln. This Must Be Investigated by (pseudo) Science, or at least appear to have been investigated even though the conclusions about what these ruins are, what kind of beings built them, what they mean for humanity, are pre-determined.

So our exiled convict-scientists' primary job is to present the Mandate with evidence supporting the conclusion that somehow Kiln once supported some kind of humanoid life that built the weird structures. They have to demonstrate how these humanoids evolved and how they're basically humans because nobody else could make structures like these kilns. And woe betide anybody who even sort of suggests otherwise -- never mind that there's no sign of anything remotely human-like ever having lived on Kiln -- let alone discloses that life on Kiln operates on principles that are pretty far from the good old descent-with-modification we know from terrestrial evolution.

So I guess the elevator pitch for this book must be something like: Jeff Vandermeer meets Alastair Reynolds meets China Mieville. With maybe a little bit of Greg "Blood Music" Bear thrown in toward the end.

That China Mieville bit is not a third wheel, by the way: most of the convicts laboring on Kiln have been banished for revolutionary activity, actively organizing against the Mandate, not just occasionally publishing slightly subversive ideas. And they've brought a wealth of that kind of political experience with them to Kiln; much of Alien Clay's first third or so concerns covert activity on the part of our narrator and his fellow political prisoners against the evil and manipulative Commandant of the teeming hellhole where they're expected to spend the rest of their lives. Entertainingly, we are never privy to any of their actual planning or preparation; we see them doing seemingly inexplicable, covert actions and only understand why when actual revolution breaks out. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

A revolution story on a weird prison world would be plenty interesting on its own, but what really makes Alien Clay so special, such an exceptional read, is the speculative biology of Kiln, which our narrator describes visually as "a forest of body horror just quietly going about its business." Everything our convicts encounter on this planet is a macro version of the true nature of our own bodies that we try so hard not to think about; truly, we are weird teeming assemblages of diverse other creatures, right down to our cells. The mitochondria that power those cells were originally independent single-cell organisms, just captured and harnessed ages ago by slightly bigger single-cell organisms. Our guts are host to vast colonies of microbes that help us digest our food; our skin is home to a myriad of mites that eat our dead cells, etc.

On Kiln, in Kiln, that is all scaled way up. As our narrator observes on the dissecting table even before actually getting to explore any of the planet's lushly weird surface, what his masters keep trying to describe as species are anything but:

Not "species" -- the specific combination of symbionts that make up this particular visual signature, which all exist independently elsewhere with other partners, as though the entire biosphere is one big polyamorous love-in. If it'd been them coming to us they'd have been appalled at how repressed, one-note and boring all us Earth types are.
And of course it all turns out to be way weirder than that.

Tchaikovsky keeps all of these plots and revelations in exquisite balance while also providing the kind of intense character drama that a good gulag story requires. Many of the inmates were colleagues of various kinds back in the Mandate proper, who were expertly manipulated by the regime into distrusting each other long before they got shipped out in one-way deathtraps to work themselves into early -- I would normally say graves but since Earth and Kiln biology are wildly incompatible, human corpses would not decompose properly if buried on Kiln, so I'll say an early recycling, with all the nastiness that implies. There are some staff here -- supervising scientists who are not convicts but, being willing to serve out large chunks of their careers on this hellworld, they're not the best and brightest the Academy has to offer; security guards to keep the convicts in line, usually violently; and, of course, a Commandant who rules over all with all the brutal and manipulative flair that the Mandate has made into its one true science, but who also fancies himself an actual scientist, just like his slaves. And there are some in-between figures to keep everybody, including the reader, guessing.

I've read a lot of really great books this year, despite not having written posts about very many of them, but of them all I think Alien Clay is a candidate for my favorite, both among those published this year and among those older ones I have read this year. I snoozed on Tchaikovsky for a long time, but I shall do so no longer!

Adrian Tchaikovsky really gets into the nitty-gritty, "this is how weird extraterrestrial life REALLY could get" to a much more thorough and thought-provoking extent than most other sci-fi authors I regularly read. That said, at first I was pretty uncertain with this book - it seemed that the side-by-side plot threads of a) political exiles being sent off to a forced labor-camp on an alien world, and b) scientists trying to understand bizarre alien archaeology and even more bizarre biology, were a little too directly in conflict with each other. The needs and interests of the different groups and ideologies currently occupying the planet Kiln did not seem to be particularly amenable to sharing the same story space, let alone physical space.

I was definitely wrong.

I will admit that it took a little while for all the thematic threads to start coming together - I've seen other reviewers mention that the story clicks into better focus after about the halfway point, and while I didn't necessarily feel that way on my own read, I can certainly understand and sympathize with that feeling. Some readers may not make it far enough to get to that "click" point, but for those who do, I feel like it's even more satisfying to realize where the structure of the story has been leading all along. This will probably be a good book club/group discussion book for that very reason!

This is a well written book. It has some fine lines, a few well-conceived set pieces, a fair share of perceptive and insightful observations, and occasionally a lean and edgy narrative drive. The premise is enticing, and I can see the book's appeal, regarding both style and content, for its target audience. That said, try as I might I found neither the characters, nor their situations, nor the overall narrative and its execution engaging enough to arouse or hold my curiosity and attention. As a consequence, it doesn't seem fair to write much more of a review, apart from encouraging inquisitive readers to give the book a try.

I’ve been meaning to pick up one of Adrian Tchaikovsky’s sci-fi novels after enjoying Redemption’s Blade. Alien Clay is such an interesting combination of elements. I would describe it as a mix of 1984 by George Orwell and The Expanse by James S.A. Corey.

Alien Clay follows Professor Daghdev as he wakes up from a deep sleep as his transport arrives to Kiln, a world where ruins of an alien civilization have been found. Unfortunately for Professor Daghdev, his political activism landed him on the transport as The Mandate has condemned him to a lifetime of hard labour on the unforgiving world of Kiln.

While readers never see Earth directly under The Mandate’s power, Professor Daghdev often ruminates on his time fighting against The Mandate through his scientific work then his time spent escaping before eventually being caught and sent to Kiln. The Mandate has a 1984 vibe, hence the comparison. Tchaikovsky’s work is also relevant to contemporary political issues. If you’re up-to-date with American politics then you’re aware of Project 2025. The founders of Project 2025 have been publishing their manifesto style series titled “Mandate for Leadership”. While Tchaikovsky’s use of the word ‘Mandate’ to describe the oppressive regime in his world may be a coincidence, it’s certainly an eerie one.

Professor Daghdev’s narration is that of an unreliable narrator, though its expertly masked with his dry wit and sense of humour. Despite being shipped to a planet guaranteed to kill him that is also still firmly under the control of The Mandate, Professor Daghdev manages to inject levity into his situation.

Alien Clay’s pace is on the slower side, however the pacing fits the story as readers learn in real-time with Professor Daghdev the politics of the world and trying to survive its harsh environment while attempting to discover information regarding the builders of the ruins that The Mandate will approve of.

Honestly, the opening and closing sentences of Alien Clay are beautiful mirror images of each other. I wasn’t sure if I was going to like the ending of the novel, but it was perfect.

Overall, Alien Clay is an engaging sci-fi novel about discovering a new world under an oppressive regime with 1984 by George Orwell and The Expanse by James S.A. Corey vibes.

I feel extremely mixed about this book. I requested a copy because it features one of my favourite tropes (extinct alien civilizations), and I thought the elements of revolt & revolution sounded like they could make for a super interesting mix. (Plus, I have been wanting to pick up a stand-alone sci fi novel from this author for years.)

And while those elements did make a really compelling mix as a whole, the execution fell short for me. While reading the first half of the book, I nearly lost count of the number of times I considered dnf-ing; the only reason I persisted is because I wanted to see how one of my favourite tropes ended up being executed. In the end I'm glad I kept reading, because I think the thematic elements made the story really effective and powerful -- but that's a view I have after completing the whole book, and which is completely invisible from the first half of the book.

So while I think the story as a whole was really powerful & effective, I wish the first half had been tighter, so I would've actually felt compelled to keep reading if that favourite trope hadn't been dangling over my head as a reward.

If you can get through the first half, then it's really good -- but if you're struggling, then this might not be the book for you.

Professor Daghdev arrives on the planet Kiln as a dissident prisoner. He’s fought the Mandate for most of his academic career, and finally pushed hard enough or ran out of luck. Either way, he’s now trapped with old colleagues and conspirators on a terrifying planet where escape is impossible, but so is admitting defeat.

The first half of this book felt a little disjointed to me, and lacked Tchaikovsky’s usually easy transitions. It’s in first person, which is also unusual for his oeuvre, but it’s necessary for this particular tale. If you can be patient with the set-up, the last half is satisfying and swift. I appreciate Tchaikovsky’s willingness to let the reader work a little. It makes his last few books feel more like a collaboration between author and reader.

This is a gritty, oftentimes visceral, tale. Like any war, there’s torture and trauma. The mystery of the planet will carry you along even when the storytelling itself slows. If you like Vandemeer or Miéville, then you’ll enjoy this one. It has a wide cast of characters, and the setting is more than just a stage. There’s disability rep, which I found a little uneven in execution, but was still pleased to see make an appearance.

Like his latest duology (The Tyrant Philosophers), Alien Clay’s narrative is a meta-warning and clear commentary on our current politics. The Mandate that expects facts to bend to political will, the hierarchy of who rides that Mandate to power, and the way the rest of us can resist—even if it means changing who we are in ways we can’t imagine when we first set out to fight back.

Thank you to Netgalley and Orbit Books for providing an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

In the latest addition to Adrian Tchaikovsky’s massive SFF catalog, is the SciFi standalone, Alien Clay: a journey into what makes us human, a human community, and how the more you stifle the growth of thought, the stronger it will bloom!

This quick-read standalone narrates the story of ecobiologist Artom Daghdev as he his exiled to the prison planet, nicknamed Kiln, to help understand the advent of alien life on the planet as well as discover the secrets of human-like ruins, all while suffering under the boot of the authoritarian Mandate.

As with most of Tchaikovsky’s standalone novels, Alien Kiln is the result of two major themes/tropes that intertwine and clash with each other to form the central backbone of the conflict of the narrative. In this case, it is the sci-fi trope of human wonder as we discover alien life on a new planet, smashed against the dystopian bleakness of a gaol, both physical and mental personified by the thought and research-policing Mandate. The struggle to understand the mysteries of Kiln, all while suffering the tedium of indentured servitude, forms the central premise of Alien Clay.

This struggle is told through the eyes of Daghdev, an intellectual dissident, fermenting academic rebellion on Mandate-controlled Earth, inevitably being arrested and being exiled upon a prison barge to the prison-cum-research-facility that is the planet Kiln. While on Kiln, he suffers his fall from grace not only from his vaunted academic perch, while also trying to adapt to the indignities of being common prison slave labor.

The other primary character is the major antagonist, the prison warden, and Mandate representative Terolan. Terolan is colored to be his own brand of scientist pursuing the secrets of Kiln while fanatically maintaining his Mandate brainwashing, simultaneously prodding and stifling the progress accrued by Daghdev and his compatriots. Terolan started off as an interesting sketch of character conflict but sadly devolved into a more one-dimensional villainous warden towards the end of the story. The other characters include the indomitable yet resigned Chief of Excursions, Keev, the disgraced Science officer Primat, as well as a smattering of other characters to fill out Daghdev’s excursion team as well as fellow rebels back at the Kiln base.

There are several thematic parallels between Alien Clay and other exploration first-contact novels, as well as heavy influences drawn from 1984 being echoed in the Mandate, as well as something like Shawshank Redemption for much of the humdrum slow-death of prison life. Make no mistake, this is still at its very base a first-contact novel, so expect a lot of visceral body horror. Tchaikovsky expertly blends the horrors of an alien world with the banal terror of humans holding power over other humans. Again, the mirror of facing a hostile world outside and a hostile prison environment within the “prison” walls is a fantastic centerpiece that makes Alien Clay worth recommending.

While there is much to celebrate in Tchaikovsky’s latest offering, there are a few things that hold Alien Clay from being one of the greats. In keeping with many of my complaints of his standalones, Tchaikovsky continues to vex me with his floundering third acts. While he expertly crafts tension past the halfway mark, establishing the main motivation of the protagonists and the threat of climactic conflict that would crescendo in a rewarding conclusion, the immediate sections that follow tend to dawdle and get “lost in its own sauce”. It is in these chapters that, admittedly one of my favorite authors, begins to lean too hard into his metaphysical commentary, often reading less enjoyably and coming off as more of a chore to get through. Many of the philosophical conundrums plaguing Daghdev as he adapts to his new place on Kiln as he wrestles with his final conflict with the antagonist Terolan, become less serving to the pacing of the story and works against the momentum generated by a near-perfect second act. Perhaps this is a metaphor of Daghdev’s descent into his own mental symbiosis with the planet, but the slow plodding of his thoughts is meandering and I found myself skimming more than a couple of pages to get back to the meat and potatoes of the story.

My last qualm is more of a personal one: the tone set by Daghdev as he narrates the tale on Kiln as well as his reminiscences of his earlier dissident life on Earth is one filled with sardonic irony and forced levity. While there are instances that his gallows humor serves as a jarring but necessary contradiction to the bleakness of his circumstance, these are few and far between and I found his narrative tone to be quickly grating. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on your tilt), this tone also undergoes evolution as he “adapts” to his new life on Kiln veering away from heavy handed irony towards philosophical argument and eventually into peaceful acceptance.

Alien Clay is yet another great addition to the Tchaikovsky catalog for fans of first-contact novels with an anti-authoritarian spin. I can only wonder which other themes and tropes this mastermind will bake together in the kiln of his mind in the future.

Alien Clay is Tchaikovsky’s most politically leaning work to date, and it takes away from what could have been a seamless plot. There’s nothing novel about the story, and it’s disappointing because the premise is so promising.

The plot was enjoyable enough to keep me entertained and spark my imagination. In the beginning, I was imagining what prison colonies would look like on our neighboring planets. By the end, I was re-reading Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. 

The rambling explanations intended to provide context to the plot did slow the story bits down. And while the protagonist is a professor, the wordiness was the one thing that kept this book in “good,” rather than “great” territory for me. That being said, the final few sentences left me simultaneously optimistic and horrified. I’m not sure I have ever experienced that combination of emotions before, and I enjoyed the journey.