Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky - A Review
Adrian Tchaikovsky has done it again. Fans of his work love to immerse themselves in the marvelous descriptions of alien life that flow from his keyboard like Niagra Falls. Shroud is no exception to this trend. Warning: there may be some spoilers as I introduce the story. If you'd rather avoid these, go read the book and come back to this blog post later. In this far-flung future scenario, a ship called the Garveneer arrives at a moon with such a dense atmosphere that no light reaches the surface. As such, it is named Shroud , as everything there is shrouded in darkness. The ship builds a space elevator and begins exploration. They send probes and are surprised to find it is inhabited by huge creatures - some of them almost sauropod sized - which defy description. They are crustaceans, of a sort, except their skins are made of metal, not bone. As they do not think this life is intelligent, they begin extracting the moon's mineral resources. They also design and build pods to ...