'Thrilling, terrifying and fascinating'

Tim Peake, British ESA astronaut

They looked into darkness. The darkness looked back . . .

An utterly gripping story of first contact on a hostile planet from Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of the Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning Children of Time.

New for this paperback edition: Includes the short story 'Sins of the Children', the fascinating prequel to Shroud.

An expedition to a distant star system discovers a pitch-black moon alive with radio activity. Its high-gravity, high-pressure, zero-oxygen environment is deadly to human life, but ripe for exploitation.

They name the moon Shroud. But they never mean to go there . . . until a catastrophic accident forces Juna Ceelander and Mai Ste Etienne to crash-land on its inhospitable surface in a barely adequate escape vehicle. Alone, and fighting to survive, the two women embark on a gruelling journey in search of salvation. But Juna and Mai's tenuous existence is threatened by Shroud's extraordinary alien species. If they can escape, they'll have to explain the impossible and translate the incredible . . .

* * *

Praise for Shroud

'Clever, vivid and terrifying . . . No one has an imagination like Adrian Tchaikovsky' - Jim Al-Khalili, presenter of BBC Radio 4's The Life Scientific

'Crunchy, conceptual SF at its best' - Richard Morgan, author of Altered Carbon

'This is hard-edged science fiction that never loses its soul' - Sue Burke, author of Semiosis

'Makes Andy Weir's vision of Mars in The Martian look like a Caribbean beach resort' - The Fantasy Hive

Format Pocket Omfång 448 sidor Språk Engelska Förlag Pan Books Ltd Utgivningsdatum 2026-01-22 ISBN 9781035013814