Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I received an advance copy of this novel with an invitation to write a quote for its release. I love Tchaikovsky’s work, so of course I said yes.
I knew from the description that the story would involve an encounter with the dominant life-form living on a moon named Shroud — weird, wonderful life. Because that’s what Tchaikovsky is good at, right?
But as I read, I kept feeling doubt in a good way. How could life possibly exist on such an utterly inhospitable planet? How was Tchaikovsky going to pull this off? Well, he found a way.
Tchaikovsky explores worlds where no one else would dare to go, and he makes the unimaginable become believable with characters who grow to meet their challenges. As the story develops, survival becomes more desperate and necessary. This is hard-edged science fiction that never loses its soul.
And the ending of the novel is breathtaking
In other news, Jo Walton at Reactor Magazine had kind things to say about Usurpation:
“Third in the Semiosis series, don’t start here. Well, I suppose you could, it would probably stand alone reasonably well, but you should do yourself the favour of reading the first two because they’re terrific. All three books are very good, and I really liked this one. Sentient trees from another planet are on future Earth and are trying to deal with Earth’s problems, while still being alien trees. The alien POV is excellent. The future Earth is pretty grim, but overall this is a hopeful book with a lot of fascinating things going on at many levels. Sue Burke is doing really interesting things.”
Semiosis 