Alien Clay (preorder)

(preorder—to be published this Fall)

Dust jacket illustration by Alex Ries.

Interior illustrations by Simon Roy.

Humanity has never before encountered a world like Kiln:  seething with deadly lifeforms and littered with the ruins of a vanished intelligent species, the planet poses an immense challenge to science.

But it also serves as the perfect prison.

Professor Arton Daghdev, specialist in alien ecologies, is about to get a brutal lesson in the rigors, mysteries and, ultimately, the transcendent possibilities of Kiln.

Back on Earth, under the authoritarian Mandate, Arton was a dissident.  Not an outspoken hero, or a fighter, nonetheless, he’s been sentenced to exile in the off-world labour camps. His dream of studying alien life has come true in the worst way.

Now Arton will be forced each day to meet the alien life of Kiln face-to-face. Rampaging monsters, infectious microbes, shoddy equipment and the merciless regime of the camps will test him to his limits. But Arton is about to uncover the ultimate secret of Kiln—and in doing so, threaten the very stability of the Mandate.  But victory will entail an almost unfathomable cost.  And is political victory worth the loss of one’s very humanity?

Lettered: 26 signed, specially bound copies, housed in a custom traycase

Limited: 500 signed numbered hardcovers, housed in a custom, foil-stamped slipcase

From Publishers Weekly:

“Imprisoned dissident scientists struggle to understand alien ecology in this mind-expanding planetary romp from Arthur C. Clarke Award winner Tchaikovsky (Service Model)… Tchaikovsky’s philosophical musings about identity and the individual against the collective will feel familiar to science fiction readers, but his resolution will surprise even longtime genre fans. Tchaikovsky continues to impress.”

From Kirkus (Starred Review):

“The biological aspect of the story is a tool to support Tchaikovsky’s primary message, which is a vivid illustration of how suspicion can undermine both an authoritarian regime and any potential resistance to that regime. In this novel, a lack of honesty and poor communication can literally kill. But at the same time, all talk and no action is no path to success, either.”

From Booklist:

“Written in a gritty, first-person style, Tchaikovsky’s latest (after Service Model, 2024) reveals that the clash is more than just between human and alien but between ideologies that can blind one from harsh realities.”

From Library Journal:

“Tchaikovsky (Lords of Uncreation) is a maestro of grim and claustrophobic science fiction, and his imagination knows no bounds. This is a prison drama set in a creepy alien world, with a dash of body horror and several parasitical nightmares. Daghdev is a flippant narrator who endures an endless gauntlet of extreme scenarios, and the disturbing imagery enriches the worldbuilding. His role as a free thinker also allows for a novel exploration of xenoscience, symbiotic relationships, and divergent evolution.”