Alien Clay cover art

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

Written by: Adrian Tchaikovsky
Narrated by: Ben Allen
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About this listen

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

What the critics say

‘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
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This book is just amazing science fiction story telling and is a must read for fans of Adrian's other works.

More Legendary Sci-fi from Adrian

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The novel is very slow to unfold. The real scifi is dribbled out in small doses through the book in the context of a penal colony on an alien world. Too much of the text is focused on this penal setting and the politics of a theocratic / fascist state. We are told very little about what this state is like, back on earth. We also get seemingly little description of the alien planet other than we are told repeatedly that it is teeming with life. As a result, the story feels unanchored. It is entirely a psychological setting of the interactions in the camp.

The main narrator in the story is an effete professor. The writing channels this professor's style and is overly precious. It is tiring, especially when certain things are repeated. I don't know if we are supposed to like this character but, in real life, we've probably all met someone like this and are aware of their arrogance and their tendency to be unlikeable. This is probably the author's intent but it takes the focus off some good scifi ideas and drags the story out. The audio book narrator also delivers the text in a posh style.

The book reminds me greatly of Herbert's Pandora sequence novels with also fall short of expectation. The book ends with an author interview so his intent is somewhat explained. It's all a bit underwhelming. I'm surprised to see this was nominated for a Hugo award.

Good concept but is dragged down by the politics

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The book is set in a creatively designed ecosystem, but it seems to be less about exploring that world and more about drawing forced parallels between symbiosis and political ideologies. The metaphor work often feels about as subtle as an Elephant's Dad in a china shop. That being said, it does get the message that authoritarianism is bad across quite well with terms like "jackboots kicking in doors" and variations appearing more times in this one book than I've seen across a dozen other whole series. There are chapters worth of exposition about how Daghdev was treated poorly by the Mandate, but it could have just as easily been set on earth for 3/4 of the book. I would have loved to see more focus on the world and ecosystem of Kiln, or even more about the interactions between the Kiln mind and The Mandate hinted at in the epilogue. I've seen others liken this to Greg Egan's work, but if you enjoy his writing for worlds like Dichronauts or The Arrow of Time series, I'd recommend other books instead.

Great worldbulding

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Usually a huge fan of this author so I purchased this book as soon as I heard about. Unfortunately, this book is … rough.

The main character’s first person narrative is just a repetition of the same seven sentiments over and over and over and over. “The mandate is bad” “Trust is hard” “I like quality silence” “what is this biology” “We are hopeless” “Maybe we can trust”

repeat and repeat and repeat


The biology mystery is painfully obvious so there’s not even that to look forward to unraveling.

Repetitive and Tedious

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I tried. I really tried. Audible's synopsis made this book sound really interesting. However, I had to slog through the first 6+ hours before the writing style and content stopped putting me to sleep. At 6 hours and 42 minutes, I gave up. Life is too short to keep reading ;-P (N.B. The first bunch of Dune requires stamina from the reader, but then the book becomes VERY interesting and exciting :-) Dune = worth slogging through the first part; Alien Clay = NOT worth the effort.

Slogging through the first 6 hrs is torture

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