Book Review: Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky

 I am not a super-fan of Adrian Tchaikovsky.  I've read Alien Clay, and I thought it was OK, but then I read Service Model and it was so horribly repetitive that I decided no more.  

But, the book world had other plans for me!

Shroud is one of the nominees for the Hugo Award in 2026 and since I usually try to read all of the nominees, I had it on my list. 

A friend of mine (who loves Tchaikovsky) started it with me, and was immediately put off by the part where one of the space travelers runs about nude strung out on Space Travel medications.  He has not read more, even though honestly, in the 13 hours of narration, I think that bit was added for color and is maybe 5 min long. 

So.  Shroud. 

Lets give a nod to this amazing cover: Cover Design by Lauren Panepinto; Cover Illustration by Yuko Shimizu

Real people, making real art. 

This book is unique in that is is a dual POV with on POV being a Researcher's assistant, and the other being an alien being.  

We start on a "generation" type ship that is trolling the universe stripping assets off other planets and moons. Our main human characters are part of a special projects team and suddenly- an engineer and the research assistant find themselves catapulted on to the moon. They come close up to the moon and find that there is indeed life, and it seems to be a touch dangerous. Capable of consuming them, and indeed, not all will survive this alien encounter. Readers follow this intrepid crew as they work to reunite with the ship. Our main character imagines that once reunited with the ship they will be celebrated as returning survivors and heroes with lots of valuable intel.  Of course, dedicated readers of Sci-Fi can see where this is going. Interspersed within we are given the POV of an alien being who is trying to figure out exactly what the human researchers are.   And if you are curious, you'll want to read more! 

For me, this was an interesting premise, and a surprising ending. It hinted at the need for a second book, but this is billed as a stand- alone.  Tchaikovsky describes an epic journey across an unknown moon in lugubrious detail. The opportunity was there to possibly flesh out the back story of both the main narrator and the engineer who were thrust together to escape this danger, but while he approaches this with some very fun conversations, in the end, I never could quite find myself to care that much about either person, as relatable as they seemed. I just never quite knew them. I found myself cheering more for the alien creature, but also didn't feel I knew the creature that well either. All that said, I can see that Tchaikovsky's story will appeal to so many that it may be just a me thing. I can see him becoming the Heinlein of a new generation (and I will say, significantly less problematic and creepy than Heinlein!!) 

Will this win the Hugo?  I don't think so. This year's nominees seem kind of weak to me, but I am not done with the list, I still have the Raven Scholar to dip into! 

STATS

First Published  2/27/25

Pages: 436

Available as an Audio Book : ~ 11 hrs 

Trigger Warnings:  violence, blood, body injury, death, Genocide,  Xenophobia

(this is not a full list, read responsibly)