Alien Clay

Alien Clay is a thrilling tale of first contact and those who are irrevocably changed by what they encounter - from the acclaimed Arthur C. Clarke Award-winner Adrian Tchaikovsky. An intriguing puzzle with plenty of thrills Guardian They travelled into the unknown and left themselves behind . . . On the distant world of Kiln lie the ruins of an alien civilization. Its the greatest discovery in humanitys spacefaring history yet who were its builders and where did they go? Professor Arton Daghdev had always wanted to study alien life up close, but his wishes become a reality in the worst possible way. His political activism sees him exiled from Earth to a penal colony based on Kiln. There, hes condemned to work under an alien sky until he dies. Kiln boasts a ravenous, chaotic ecosystem like nothing seen on Earth. The monstrous alien life interacts in surprising and sometimes disturbing ways with the human body, so Arton must risk death on a daily basis. However, the camps oppressive regime might just kill him first. If Arton can somehow escape both fates, and glimpse the planets interior, Kiln holds a wondrous, terrible secret. It will redefine life and intelligence as he knows it, and might just set him free . . . Heart-in-the-mouth fantastic New Scientist Restlessly brainy and utterly involving, Alien Clay is as morally engaged as 1984 and as immersive as Avatar Daily Mail Imaginative, horrifying and always amusing, its the perfect gateway into what makes Tchaikovsky great SciFiNow