Alien Clay

4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars | 3,061 ratings

Price: 24.95

Last update: 02-03-2025


About this item

From Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author Adrian Tchaikovsky comes a far-future epic that confirms his place as a modern master of science fiction, in which a political prisoner must unlock the secrets of a strange and dangerous planet.

The planet of Kiln is where the tyrannical Mandate keeps its prison colony, and for inmates, the journey there is always a one-way trip. One such prisoner is Professor Arton Daghdev, xeno-ecologist and political dissident. Soon after arrival, he discovers that Kiln has a secret. Humanity is not the first intelligent life to set foot there.

In the midst of a ravenous, chaotic ecosystem are the ruins of a civilization, but who were the vanished builders and where did they go? If he can survive both the harsh rule of the camp commandant and the alien horrors of the world around him, then Arton has a chance at making a discovery that might just transform not only Kiln, but distant Earth as well.

This audiobook edition includes an exclusive interview between Ben Allen and Adrian Tchaikovsky.


Top reviews from the United States

  • Kelda
    5.0 out of 5 stars very good
    Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2024
    I’m a fan of the author and read most of what he writes. He is erudite and inconceivably clever. Although this book started a little slowly, it quickly became a page-turner. To the well-educated, he includes references to twentieth-century horrors and the horrors of today, including demagoguery, anti-scientific reactions like those in anti-vaxxing and rejection of climate change, quashing of dissent, anti-intellectualism, intentional cognitive dissonance, and enforced groupthink. Some of his musing seems repetitive at times, but the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
  • NYC Reader
    4.0 out of 5 stars Well written but not his very best
    Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2024
    Like any book by this author, it is well written, with vivid world building and deft characterization. It is just a bit too grim for my taste. I also found the big secret to be a reasonably familiar SF trope and the conclusion unoriginal. Still, props for another well-written Tchaikovsky book. It just didn’t measure up to some of his best.
  • Dragon--Slayer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommended Book
    Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2025
    The author is very true to science in his science fiction. A multitude of disciplines are represented. The story is compelling and current. I absolutely loved this book. Every human being on Earth should read it.
  • Cubicle Bill
    3.0 out of 5 stars not one of their better books
    Reviewed in the United States on November 25, 2024
    After a promising start, it becomes clear this is not one of their better books. The narrative relies on a style of inner monologue of the main character that goes on for pages and pages (nearly entire chapters), briefly interrupted by a short interaction with other characters, before returning to another long series of inner monologue. Even other story elements revert to this style, with the main character describing the action rather than participating in it. Interestingly, this style is necessary as the plot evolves...but only for about the last ten-percent of the story. The rest just makes reading tiresome. The introduction of non-binary characters seems both forced and perhaps added as an afterthought, making the characters seem less authenticate. The author is one of my favorites, and I hope they do better on their next releases.
  • Pam&Larry Wilt
    5.0 out of 5 stars Core concepts and story line both great
    Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2025
    The world painted here is wondrously complicated and frightening. Our hero enlightens us gradually as tension grows within the small colony of humans there. It is an engaging read to the end.
  • RavenousReader
    4.0 out of 5 stars Good story though somewhat predictable at times.
    Reviewed in the United States on September 17, 2024
    Adrian writes a good story. He creates fascinating worlds with characters that are well developed and often thought provoking. This story is no different there. We have our main character who is a political prisoner and highly educated academic being sent to a death colony of a planet to be forced labor. The trip takes decades, the prisoners sent through the atmosphere like the disposable fodder they are onto a world that appears to actively hate them and seeks to destroy them by whatever means necessary. On top of that the Warden is a rather sadistic individual who fancies himself an academic. Since the majority of other prisoners are also academics and even if they escape they are lightyears from home with no real exit plan we have the makings of a quandary. While some parts of the plot are predictable, the strange science of the planet itself is fascinating in the thought provoking way of the authors that explores humanity, sentience and freedom of thought. It really is a good book and while not in the league of others Adrian has written it definitely deserves a place on the shelf. Thank you netgalley and the publishers for allowing me to read this book so I can write an honest review.
  • Free Thinker
    5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic as it is timely
    Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2025
    This wonder-filled novel works on many levels. The world building and prose are second-to-none. The characters are fully fleshed out, complex, and engaging. The Mandate, the authoritarian state of the novel, is horrifyingly realistic with echoes of the Gulag Archipelago and solidly founded in historic and present-day societies.
  • Susan B. Iwanisziw
    5.0 out of 5 stars Fear the autocrats and fascists? Here's a novel twist.
    Reviewed in the United States on November 28, 2024
    Here is "1984" set in the far future on the exoplanet Kiln. Yes, there are borrowings from Orwell. Pay attention to foreshadowings. Mr. Tchaikosky is generous with them.
    In the chimerical vein of Attwood, Taylor, and authors I have not yet had the pleasure to meet, this novel is the ultimate in unusual life forms wound up with humanity's desire to escape from historically familiar mandates of brutality and fear.
    It's a compelling, quasi-scientific exploration of the unexpected consequences of our clumsy attempts to colonize other worlds and exploit alien cultures.

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