Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky

I would like to thank Pan Macmillan and Black Crow PR for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

On the distant world of Kiln lie the ruins of an alien civilization. It’s the greatest discovery in humanity’s spacefaring history – yet who were its builders and where did they go?

Professor Arton Daghdev had always wanted to study alien life up close. Then his wishes become a reality in the worst way. His political activism sees him exiled from Earth to Kiln’s extrasolar labour camp. There, he’s 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, sometimes shocking ways with the human body, so Arton will risk death on a daily basis. However, the camp’s oppressive regime might just kill him first. If Arton can somehow escape both fates, the world of Kiln holds a wondrous, terrible secret. It will redefine life and intelligence as he knows it, and might just set him free . . .

Science as those of us from the Science Fiction reading community is cool, noble, and hopeful. We love it. But science in our actual world has had a more mixed history. Science can be seen as political and has been used by those in powerful to bring them prestige, authority, and validation. The Race to the Moon or the Bomb shows that uneasy balancing act and when science runs counter to those in power’s worldview then suddenly the knives rather than scalpels will be sharpened. In Adrian Tchaikovsky’s fascinating novel Alien Clay, we have this conflict explored with added commentary on the power and problems of revolution.

The Madate had controlled Earth for over 90 years. Its tight grip on the population now covers not just Earth but has spread out to the three planets felt capable of some form of alien life. But The Madate’s use of science doesn’t spread to the usual orthodox means of exploration. They send to these far off and dangerous worlds the people that the Mandate view as its enemies to never be seen again – criminals, revolutionaries, unionists, and scientists who have not done what was expected of them. One key area of investigation is the planet Kiln which has a vibrant, deadly, and chaotic ecosystem of flora and fauna but also incredibly strange ruins of a vanished civilisation and possibly even remains of a language to translate. Arriving at the prison camp for investigating this is former Professor and dissident now prisoner Arton Daghdev. He finds himself with the attention of a Commandant who wants science to prove his own theories; Daghdev also has former resistance allies viewing him with suspicion while their own plans are prepared and most of all that Kiln itself holds dangers and revelations for everyone.

This is a really interesting and engrossing tale that in keeping with its themes explores an amalgamation of familiar plotlines; but nothing quite goes the way we expect it to. The mysterious alien planet with secrets to explore is a staple of the genre but here it’s also a prison camp of exiled scientists trying to find the answers. But it’s also not pure science as we usually find. Here the Commandant expects the Mandate’s view of reality to be proven and no other answers will be tolerated. Tchaikovsky plays with the idea that often science and politics (particularly dictatorships) want science to prove their view of the world cementing their position in the universe; on earth this has often been regards some form of racial superiority but Tchaikovsky has the idea that when we encounter the idea of alien life that it moves to a belief that humanity (and by definition the Mandate) need to be shown to be the heirs to the universe that all other life must look up to. It’s the next incarnation of Intelligent Design and we get our scientist prisoners dressed up for dinner parties for their Commandant but only his own theories must be explored or else demotion and likely death will occur.

This opens a debate on the morality of scientists – will they put their scientific purity above their desire to live? Our narrator is Daghdev and he definitely is not the revolutionary hero planning to lead people to the next renaissance. Daghdev is a fascinating grumpy and cynical character. He dislikes on principle the Mandate’s way of doing things; has skirted around the resistance groups and now finds himself pretty much dumped out of the world he knew. From a terrifying start to the novel as he awakens from a cryo-freezing then dropped from space onto an alien planet with only 80% survival rates we are soon in a prison drama - this may explain his grumpy nature. But he’s more complex and we find he too has plans. It’s a capricious political system that punishes hard those out of line but also we find threads of resistance, in the first two parts of the book we get the bravery of those who resist and the problems of resistance. Daghdev doesn’t trust anyone and many think he too is a traitor that likely got them imprisoned. The all seeing Commandant above them likes to foster division - some groups valued more than others; some people get special duties and it’s all a cleverly designed political ecosystem to keep control. Tchaikovsky in this book explores how that works and then has an interesting angle on the solution. Daghdev’s voice makes it work with gallows humour, snobbery and mild paranoia to make you feel how dangerous the camp is.

This brings us to Kiln a hotbed of alien life. As always with Tchaikovsky’s work it uses some biological ideas and then runs with them to dramatic effect. From its yellow-blue-black sky to mysterious black flowers this does not feel Earth like at all. It’s a massively invasive system that exposure to could soon see your body growing, carrying and releasing alien growths and yet it’s highly inventive here Kiln is a melting pot of symbiosis as various creatures join forces to create ever more powerful creatures. One gets described as an Elephant but with mantis legs; tardigrade limbs and 12 feet tall and extremely deadly. It’s another way of threatening and punishing the prisoners but it raises the question what happened to those who built the ruins - how did they survive in such a deadly world?

The final third of the book has Daghdev very much dropped in it and here Tchaikovsky knits brilliantly a finale of body horror; biological wonder and revolution with a beguilingly different way of looking at the world. Fear and empathy get explored politically but also biologically with a set up that brings all these elements together and manages to be both empowering and yet troubling at the same time. the metaphors of Kiln and Clay make you wonder exactly what happens next.

Alien Clay is thoughtful Science Fiction at its best giving us wonder; new ways of looking at the world but also wider commentaries on science, political control and puts evolution into the concept of revolution. The kind of book that will make you consider the world ina different way long after reading it like all the best science fiction does. Strongly recommended!