A review by gwenhwyfar
Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky

dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

I enjoyed this one a lot! It opens with a dissident biologist named Arton Daghdev
being dropped off at a prison on the planet Kiln in a brutal fashion. Earth back home is ruled by a fascist Mandate that the book doesn't get too much into the details of, the point is that people are getting rounded up en masse for being revolutionaries, our hero included. The biology of Kiln is *weird*. I'm not even sure how to explain it. There's a lot more parasitic mutualism involved, like everything's made of Lego pieces that can be reassembled into new structures. It is gruesome at times, and doesn't seem to play nice with human biology. Arton had been diverted to this particular prison to help study the planet, and so is mostly working as a researcher in a comparably cushy job to the rest of the prisoners. Naturally, he immediately gets involved with overthrowing the prison bureaucracy, which goes poorly. He gets demoted to excursions, which means going out into the wilderness and burning back all the vegetation around these mysterious ruins. Decontamination is a treasured resource. Eventually, he and his excursion team get marooned out in the field and have to walk back to the prison. It takes a week. There is a subtle tonal shift when you get to this part. Arton as a narrator becomes questionable. Unreliable? Kiln get inside. And you don't stop reading. I read the last third of this book in one shot. It's got a cool ending, it's a little open ended but in a satisfying way.
I liked how gruesome this got at times, and the revolutionary spirit against the Mandate creates a never-ending tension that makes this an intriguing read. Glad I decided to read this!