Title:	Shroud
Author:	Adrian Tchaikovsky
Category:	Fantasy / Science Fiction
Rating:
Date Reviewed:	April 22, 2026

he amazingly prolific Adrian Tchaikovsky never seems to run out of interesting ideas. In Shroud, Tchaikovsky imagines a world with crushing gravity and a toxic atmosphere of methane, ammonia, and carbon dioxide. Shroud is actually a large moon of a gas giant. It is the gravitational attraction of that large planet (which Shroud circles) that keeps Shroud's core molten. Life began around volcanic vents in the deep ocean, just like here on Earth. But unlike Earth, Shroud is too far from the solar system's sun and so never developed photosynthesis. Without photosynthesis, the CO2 in the atmosphere is never converted to oxygen; this means that the surface of Shroud remains totally dark beneath the thick clouds. Life evolves, but without light, the creatures on Shroud use electro-magnetic pulses to perceive their environment (similar to bats using echo-location to fly in the dark). Shroud is a cacophony of electro-magnetic emissions as the creatures use every frequency of the spectrum.

To the Shroud system come the humans of the Concern. Humanity is expanding rapidly across the galaxy, and it is eager to mine natural resources to build habitats for forthcoming colonists. The humans begin mining the other planets in the solar system, but the bizarre life forms on Shroud require study. A team of Special Projects scientists, under Director Bartokh, is thawed from hibernation and given the directive to understand the Shroud life forms. Is there anything here that can be exploited?

Juna Ceelander, a Special Projects administrator, narrates the story in first person. She describes the difficulty in analyzing Shroud when the atmosphere is too thick to penetrate, the EM bands are blanketed with noisy transmissions, and the gravity is crushing. Special Engineer Mai Ste Etienne designs drones and probes for the hostile environment. But only a trickle of information is retrieved - most of the probes never return. Opportunities, the class of humans that command the entire ship, wants better and faster results. What if probes were designed that allowed humans to descend to the surface and investigate first hand? It would be a highly risky venture, but anyone who survived such a mission would be rewarded with high status and likely would not be returned to the hibernation racks.

The commanders are in a hurry. More results are demanded, sooner. Things get sped up. Corners are cut. Not everything is double-checked. This leads to an inevitable disaster. Ceelander and Ste Etienne find themselves stranded on the surface of Shroud, unable to contact the ship and no way to return. They quickly discover that Shroud is inhabited with monsters. A harrowing tale of survival results.

This is a fun book. Tchaikovsky imagines a different world, where creatures only "see" with EM pulses. He then extrapolates an entire world with creatures that live in absolute darkness with crushing gravity and toxic atmosphere. This old-school science fiction, focusing exploration, aliens and man's place in a hostile universe. Tchaikovsky has plenty of ideas and his talent is on full display here.