Back Cover Blurb
They travelled into the unknown and left themselves behind....
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 became 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.
Review
ALIEN CLAY's description had me immediately wanting to read it. To me it sounded a lot like Jack McDevitt's Academy series which I absolutely love and is an amazing space opera that has heavy elements of alien archeology and an underlying lost civilization mystery. I have to say that when it comes to sf books, alien archeology is among my very favorite themes. So based on that this book caught my attention from the very first time I saw it marketed on social media. It also didn't hurt that it was written by an author whose books I've appreciated and enjoyed for over a decade now. All of these things pointed to an excellent chance that I would be more than enamored with this story. Ultimately though I thought this was a decent book that just didn't have that wow factor that I had hoped.
This book sets up like it's going to be one heck of a deep dive alien archeology mystery and I was totally here for it. We are introduced to the main players, and main character Arton in particular. Arton is a very accomplished professor and an expert on all types of ancient civilizations. In this case Arton is part of a prisoner group that has been sent on a mission to discover the purpose and origin of a number of structures discovered on the enigmatic planet of Kiln. Seems Arton rubbed all of the wrong people the wrong way with his ardent political activism and found himself on the bad side of the ruling organization called the Mandate. Yeah the Mandate doesn't like people who rock the boat. Let's just say they are an authoritarian extremist faction that expects total subservience for their cause.
All of this captured my curiosity in the first 100 pages of so and boy was I getting excited for the intense exploration to come and the increasing intensity of that early promise. Sadly, although the story itself is fairly interesting, I found myself getting lost in an over-abundance of conversation and dialogue that had me skimming some pages (which I rarely if ever do). Skimming some pages soon became putting the book down for long stretches because I just couldn't totally get into the plot. I finally did manage to finish the book and while the final 50 pages or so were exciting and satisfying, it didn't completely redeem the 200 pages or so before that where I found this book tough sledding. I think I expected a book that was more alien mystery and what I actually got was a more political struggle and social commentary book. Which is fine, but it wasn't the story I was in the mood for unfortunately and thus I enjoyed it far less as a result.
That's not to say that this isn't a good book with the tight writing that we have all come to expect from Adrian Tchaikovsky. There are some really shining moments where his outstanding storytelling shines through. I just would have liked more focus on the exploration aspect and a little less on the character relationship dynamic. Although I was slightly disappointed, I am sure this book will appeal to a great number of SF readers, so don't let my lackluster reaction dissuade you. I am always going to pick up anything Tchaikovsky writes because overall he's written way more hits for me than misses. This one was just okay for me though.
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