Shroud

By: Adrian Tchaikovsky

Published by Orbit, 2025-06-03

On a planet shrouded in darkness, a stranded crew must fight for survival. But, the darkness may have plans of its own in this wildly original story from Adrian Tchaikovsky, Hugo and Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author of Children of Time.



They looked into the darkness and the darkness looked back . . .



New planets are fair game to asset strippers and interplanetary opportunists - and a commercial mission to a distant star system discovers a moon that is pitch black, but alive with radio activity. Its high-gravity, high-pressure, zero-oxygen environment is anathema to human life, but ripe for exploitation. They named it Shroud.



Under no circumstances should a human end up on Shroud's inhospitable surface. Except a catastrophic accident sees Juna Ceelander and Mai Ste Etienne doing just that. Forced to stage an emergency landing, in a small, barely adequate vehicle, they are unable to contact their ship and are running out of time. What follows is a gruelling journey across land, sea and air. During this time, Juna and Mai begin to understand Shroud's dominant species. It also begins to understand them . . .