{
  "path": "/posts/reviews/books/adrian-tchaikovsky/alien-clay",
  "site": "at://did:plc:ephkzpinhaqcabtkugtbzrwu/site.standard.publication/3mdogbputbg2m",
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "title": "Alien Clay",
  "description": "'Alien Clay' by Adrian Tchaikovsky was an excellent read/listen! Compelling & full of thoughtful moments, I can't recommend it enough.",
  "publishedAt": "2024-06-20T11:24:33.125Z",
  "textContent": "{{< book \"9780316578974\" >}}\n\nI 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). <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.\n\nOur 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.\n\nThis 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 my (admittedly rusty) physics and chemistry could spot. It was an absolute page-turner for me.\n\n{{% spoiler \"isbn:9780316578974\" %}}\nI _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.\n{{%/ spoiler %}}\n\nIf 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!",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://www.byjp.me/posts/reviews/books/adrian-tchaikovsky/alien-clay"
}