Adrian Tchaikovsky: Alien Clay

The last of the Hugo-nominated novels this time.

Professor Arton Daghdev has been sentenced to forced labor on the planet Kiln. Earth is ruled by a tyrannical regime known as the Mandate, which tolerates no dissidents. While it is nominally pro-science, it only supports research that confirms its rule and upholds the andromorphic principle, the belief that the human form is the pinnacle of evolution.

Daghdev has conducted research not approved by the Mandate, and it later emerges that he has also been involved with rebels opposing the regime.

Life has been discovered on a few other planets, but nowhere is it as diverse as on Kiln. Though not fully compatible with Earth-based life, the differences are not extreme. Kiln’s organisms are inedible to humans, and while most of their poisons don’t affect us, they can live on and inside the human body. One example is an older scientist who lives in a cage, apparently driven mad, occasionally screaming as Kiln life thrives on her. Yet surprisingly, she remains alive.

Kiln also contains several ruins that appear to have been built by intelligent beings. One of the camp's goals is to discover who built them and decipher their inscriptions. So far, there have been no results—no signs of intelligent life, no tombs, no remains of any builders.

Daghdev is assigned to study the planet’s strange life forms. Most of his work consists of dissecting specimens and performing repetitive statistical analyses. Kiln’s life is bizarre: its animals are assembled from other organisms in an intricate web of symbiosis and parasitism. It’s as if they’re built from biological LEGO bricks, modular, adaptable, and capable of forming nearly infinite new life forms.

Daghdev eventually joins an organized mutiny, which ends in complete failure. As punishment, he is assigned to the “Excursions”—teams sent out from the camp to explore new ruins. The work is extremely dangerous, and everyone on it eventually dies. On one mission, everything goes wrong, and their copter is destroyed. No rescue will come; the camp doesn't value the lives of a few prisoners. The group decides to attempt the long, deadly walk back through the jungle, teeming with alien, poisonous, and hostile life.

But Kiln harbors more than anyone has realized. For those willing to accept it, the planet’s life may offer unprecedented benefits and a strange sense of completeness.

A very good book, with a truly fascinating vision of evolution and alien biology. The writing is solid, the characters may be slightly caricatured, and the ideology of the Mandate could have been explained in more depth—but overall, it’s a strong novel that delivers a real sense of wonder. It gave me a déjà vu of Isaac Asimov’s Misbegotten Missionary. This will be my top choice on the Hugo ballot.

390 pp.