Book Review: "Shroud" by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Publication Date February 2025

I am grateful to the kind people at Pan Macmillan for providing an advance copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

‘Shroud’ is a new novel by the author Adrian Tchaikovsky. It is a stand-alone novel, so there is no need to have read any of Mr Tchaikovsky’s previous books to enjoy this one. Although I highly recommend you do ! I thoroughly enjoyed ‘Shroud’; taking my time to read it slowly, prolonging the pleasure.

The book is set sometime in the future and begins with a prologue. A young woman, Juna, recently brought out of the deep induced-sleep of space travel, survives an accident in a space craft orbiting an apparently lifeless Moon, named Shroud, far from Earth. She has been expelled to ‘safety’ in a small escape module. She thinks to herself:

“I’m not supposed to be here. Not in this thing. Not down here…on Shroud.”

The early chapters backtrack in time, providing context and introducing some of the characters. The Earth is largely uninhabitable due to conflicts. A Corporation, the Concern, has replaced Governments, with a mission to populate and exploit far reaches of the Solar System. Earth’s inhabitants, those who have survived and are ‘fortunate’ enough to be of some use to the Concern, take part in these missions. Until they are no longer required. Juna, an endearing and optimistic young woman, works for the Concern and is the main narrator in this book.

She is part of a team, that was orbiting Shroud, in an area of dead, lifeless planets. We learn a little about Juna’s team. The dynamics and relationships. Juna is the glue that holds the team together. Shroud has been approved for exploration and mineral exploitation. Before the accident she reflects on her lifestyle, perhaps with a little sarcasm and a lot of reality:

“We were all properly grateful…We were lucky enough to live…”

Juna is clever and likeable; someone with whom the reader will identify and enjoy. Despite her position in life as a low-level employee, she is full of spirit, funny, sometimes sarcastic. But also a realist, eager to survive, competent, doing her job to the best of her abilities, knowing full well that there are far worse alternatives than being an Assistant working for the Concern, evaluating, exploiting and inhabiting distant and sometimes dangerous Solar Systems.

Shroud has an extremely harsh and brutal environment. Cold and barren with a toxic atmosphere. And completely dark, always in the shadow of a nearby planet. Although unsuitable for life of any sort, initial analysis by the Concern team suggests it is a candidate for exploitation using robots, robotic equipment and drones. Juna and her colleagues do not intend to go anywhere near the surface of Shroud ! They are given the task of investigating some unexpected signals and radio-noise, essentially static, emanating from Shroud. Drones are sent to investigate, data, including some video recordings are evaluated and suggest some sort of life may exist. Flora or perhaps fauna may be the source of the signals. Then the accident happens. Juna and a couple of her team end up on Shroud. Alive but stranded. This book tells the story of their journey on Shroud, to escape to the safety of orbit, if indeed there is anyone up there to rescue them.

On Shroud, they have some resources for living, some mobility in their escape vehicle, but hardly any means of communications or defence. They encounter up-close, the source of the signals and noise they picked-up while orbiting and observed from the drone recordings. It is not too much of a plot-spoiler to mention that Shroud has inhabitants. After some encounters and unfortunate incidents, Juna muses to herself:

“…we could only try to understand them, as perhaps they were trying to understand us…”

The scene is thus set for a wonderful story of engaging characters and otherworldly incidents as Juna and what remains of her team, attempt to return to the relative safety of orbiting Shroud.

Mr Tchaikovsky builds his characters slowly, letting us come to know them better from their lived-experiences, their role in the Concern and for the unfortunates on Shroud, how they act under pressure. Juna and another young colleague, Mai, are both particularly endearing. They are brave, capable and tenacious while honestly accepting their chance of rescue is a small number, just shy of zero. Given their dangerous environment and threatening circumstances they somehow retain their humanity, their morality and also their humour. Quite something in a completely dark world, the environment only slightly illuminated by their vehicles with very limited lighting. Mr Tchaikovsky builds the atmosphere partially from what they see, but largely from what is unseen; often sensed or imagined. The quite frankly, horrific situations, are tempered by humour, sarcasm, human warmth as well as a strong desire to survive. The dialogue and thoughts often made me smile and occasionally chuckle aloud.

A close relationships develops between Juno and Mai as they share this adversity. A more complex, less well-defined relationship develops between them and the entity they encounter on Shroud. Reflecting on these events and outcomes, Juna thinks to herself:

“…just because they were sapient, didn’t mean they were nice.”

And a little later, some light-hearted pragmatism:

“Scientific curiosity is all very well but it doesn’t make you immortal…”

Although Juna is the primary narrator of the book, an alternative narration periodically comes from the entity they have encountered on Shroud. This is a fascinating aspect of the book and allows Mr Tchaikovsky to portray human-like characteristics in a non-human mind. A completely different way of sensory perception, learning, data retention and decision processing. There are less technical, more social aspects as well. Themes such as curiosity, memory, nurturing and self-sacrifice are explored from a unique perspective.

Both the Shroud entity and the human visitors view the other as strangers, from somewhere else. Aliens. Both wonder, at first, if the other is even sapient life, or perhaps some sort of low-level life-form, only capable of reflexive or echoing behaviour. The dynamics of the relationship forms almost a parallel plot, as Juna and Mai endeavour to survive and attempt somehow to leave Shroud. Mr Tchaikovsky explores various aspects of this First Contact. Themes such as communication, comprehension, learning, trust, benevolence and evolution are explored.

I loved this book. The horror is balanced by the humour and warmth displayed by the main characters and occasionally by the ‘kindness of strangers’. Various ‘human’ characteristics such as bravery, curiosity, understanding and tolerance are exhibited by many, but not all, of the participants in the story. The concept of First-Contact with a non-human Lifeform in such a brutal environment has stayed with me well after I have finished reading. One wonders if Mr Tchaikovsky will revisit Shroud again in another book. I’d love to know ‘what comes next’. But if not, this book is quite sufficient. A thought-provoking and very satisfying read. The plot is well developed, with twists and turns. Dryly funny in places. Endearing and credible characters are found throughout. Some ragbags as well ! And the ending is fulfilling, surprising and I think, ultimately uplifting. Although the reader is left wondering and hoping that the future for Juna and Mai, these sometimes lonely, probably damaged characters, is somewhat kinder than their past. A Great Read and a wonderful addition to Mr Tchaikovsky’s body of work. I wish him all the very best with the publication.