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31 lines
2.6 KiB
Markdown
31 lines
2.6 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: Alien Clay
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subtitle: A book by Adrian Tchaikovsky
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summary: "'Alien Clay' by Adrian Tchaikovsky was an excellent read/listen! Compelling & full of thoughtful moments, I can't recommend it enough."
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type: review
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date: 2024-06-20T11:24:33.125Z
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emoji: 🧱
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topics:
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- Reflections
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tags:
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- books
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- Sci-fi
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- psychology
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- environment
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- audiobooks
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syndications:
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---
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{{< book "9780316578974" >}}
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I really enjoyed this book! I've read quite a few of Adrian Tchaikovsky's books, and they've always engaged me thoroughly with their astute science and focus on the _psychology_ of the protagonists (even [when they're not human](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL32485761W/Children_of_Time)). <cite>Alien Clay</cite> is similarly compelling, _thrilling_ even, full of existential questions set in a dystopian human future that reminded me of 1984 much more than what you might envision from a "Sci-Fi" book.
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Our protagonist is highly educated, and I feel like this was partially so that Tchaikovsky could really lean into the highly intelligent dry humour that comes with academic territory. I loved it.
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This book is _very_ smart, especially in how the camaraderie between the characters is paired with narrative device; like the occasional non-linear timeline, first-person story telling, and plenty of nods to the alert reader (listening to an audiobook it took me a beat to get why "they're only a letter a way" is a grin-inducing reason for our protagonist to miss a gun being shot while someone else is shouting!) — but I never found it inaccessible, nor was there any [technobabble](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Technobabble) my (admittedly rusty) physics and chemistry could spot. It was an absolute page-turner for me.
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{{% spoiler "isbn:9780316578974" %}}
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I _adored_ slowly realising how much our narrator-protagonist had been 'taken over' by the Kiln ecology in the time-shifted central part of the plot. Slowly deciding that Professor Daghdev had been infected 'enough' to be an unreliable narrator for the previous chapter was a thrill; almost as much as having to _walk back_ that assumption when I learned that, as much as Kiln changes people, it also doesn't really change them at all — only neutralising the basic human conflict between needing a sense of self but without an overpowering ego. _Especially_ with the highly egotistical world of academia, and the suppression of the ego in an authoritarian culture, as backdrops to the entire story.
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{{%/ spoiler %}}
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If you're one for a bit of escapism with a very real world undertone, lots of smart writing that doesn't get in the way, and a satisfying plot then I can't recommend this enough!
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