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Alien Clay

An incredible science fiction tale of first contact with the unknown, shortlisted for Best Novel at the 2025 Hugo Awards

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Alien Clay

By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
Narrated by: Ben Allen
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They travelled into the unknown and left themselves behind . . .

Alien Clay is a thrilling tale of alien encounter – from the acclaimed Arthur C. Clarke Award-winner Adrian Tchaikovsky.

‘Unputdownable’ – Stephen Baxter, author of Proxima

Professor Arton Daghdev has always wanted to study alien life in person. But when his political activism sees him exiled to the planet Kiln, condemned to work under an unfamiliar sky until he dies, his idealistic wish becomes a terrible reality.

Kiln boasts a ravenous, chaotic ecosystem. Its monstrous alien life means Arton will risk death on a daily basis – if the camp’s oppressive regime doesn’t kill him first. But, if he survives, Kiln’s lost civilization holds a wondrous, terrible secret. It will redefine life and intelligence as he knows it – and might just set him free.

This audiobook edition includes an exclusive interview between Ben Allen and Adrian Tchaikovsky.

‘Heart-in-the-mouth fantastic’ – New Scientist

‘Restlessly brainy and utterly involving’ – Daily Mail

‘The perfect gateway into what makes Tchaikovsky great’ – SciFiNow

 First Contact Genetic Engineering Hard Science Fiction Science Fiction Space Exploration Space Opera
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Critics' reviews

‘This is what it's like to be sentenced to Transportation in a fictional futuristic world . . . The regularity with which Tchaikovsky delivers great books is astounding. Highly recommended (Tade Thompson, author of Rosewater)
Alien Clay is convincing, compelling on human and cosmic levels, and unputdownable. With work like this, Adrian Tchaikovsky is fast becoming the voice of his generation in British SF (Stephen Baxter, author of Proxima)
One of our finest writers of SF right now . . . an excellent story told with Adrian's trademark skill and flair (James Oswald, author of the Inspector McLean series)
A hell prison on a hell planet with a thrilling, important message: only connect. Adrian's firing on all cylinders in this one (Ian McDonald, author of New Moon)
Is Tchaikovsky propping up the science fiction industry single-handedly? He is so prolific and reliably excellent that I think he might be
Restlessly brainy and utterly involving, Alien Clay is as morally engaged as 1984 and as immersive as Avatar
[Adrian Tchaikovsky] has created a wonderfully strange new world as the basis for an intriguing puzzle with plenty of thrills
Imaginative, horrifying and always amusing, it's the perfect gateway into what makes Tchaikovsky great.
[A] brilliant, gripping standalone novel, which reconstitutes numerous familiar SF tropes to create something thought-provoking, unexpected and at times unsettlingly weird
All stars
Most relevant
A.T. is an innovative writer when it comes to speculating what other forms a sentient being can come in. What is intelligence can it emerge without sentience, like an pheromone driven computational ant colony, or a pair of ravens, they are coming always in pairs, and denying being sentient even though perfectly understanding the question. In this book it's something else entirely. And yes, the settings are dark and brutal, not unusual for A.T. to pour his ideas into a dystopian form.

what is sentience? Yet another brilliant deep dive into the question

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I really like the setting of the book. You get a feeling for the desperation of living under an oppressive regime. As always, Adrian Tchaikovsky does a great job at world building which to me is the most essential part of Science Fiction.

Excellent setting

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A lot of world description as well as very detailed thoughts on how life of the world works. Unfortunately over that the story is very slow and gets lost under exposition sometimes. Still an enjoyavle story.

Not his best work-still great

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Once again, a super exciting new concept of extraterrestrial life! As you'd expect from Adrian Tchaikovsky <3 The narrator was also great.

Astrobiology at its finest

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The author clearly had done some research into the scientific concepts he is touching on. As a scientist I appreciate this tremendously while simultaneously wishing for more in depth descriptions of the world in this regard. One has to realize though that the wider audience may not appreciate this as much as I do.
Besides this, the book uses the medium of science fiction to its fullest, contemplating concepts of great relevance by asking ‘what if’.

Great book with really interesting ideas.

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