Shroud Audiobook By Adrian Tchaikovsky cover art

Shroud

 Preview
Get this deal Try for $0.00
Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm PT.
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just $0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 audiobook per month of your choice from our unparalleled catalog.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Shroud

By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
Narrated by: Sophie Aldred
Get this deal Try for $0.00

$14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime. Offers ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm PT.

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $28.79

Buy for $28.79

LIMITED TIME OFFER. Get 3 months for $0.99 a month. Get this deal.

On a planet shrouded in darkness, a stranded crew must fight for survival. But, the darkness may have plans of its own in this wildly original story from Adrian Tchaikovsky, Hugo and Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author of Children of Time.

They looked into the darkness and the darkness looked back . . .

New planets are fair game to asset strippers and interplanetary opportunists–and a commercial mission to a distant star system discovers a moon that is pitch black, but alive with radio activity. Its high-gravity, high-pressure, zero-oxygen environment is anathema to human life, but ripe for exploitation. They named it Shroud.

Under no circumstances should a human end up on Shroud’s inhospitable surface. Except a catastrophic accident sees Juna Ceelander and Mai Ste Etienne doing just that. Forced to stage an emergency landing, in a small, barely adequate vehicle, they are unable to contact their ship and are running out of time. What follows is a gruelling journey across land, sea and air. During this time, Juna and Mai begin to understand Shroud’s dominant species. It also begins to understand them . . .

©2025 Adrian Tchaikovsky (P)2025 Orbit Adventure First Contact Science Fiction Space Opera Solar System
adbl_web_adaptive_pdp_alc_button_t1

Critic reviews

"The most inventive alien world I've ever encountered in SF... Pure Tchaikovsky. I swear the man is some kind of genius."—Peter Watts, author of Blindsight

"Adrian Tchaikovsky explores worlds where no one else would dare to go, and the unimaginable becomes believable... This is hard-edged science fiction that never loses its soul."—Sue Burke, author of Semiosis
"Crunchy, conceptual SF at its best...the best alien contact novel I've read since Peter Watts' Blindsight, and that is high praise indeed."—Richard Morgan, author of Altered Carbon
Unique Alien Perspective • Fascinating World-building • Excellent Narration • Original Biology Concepts • Pleasant Voice

Highly rated for:

All stars
Most relevant
Tchaikovsky’s writing style allows for easy listening while simultaneously building a world of visuals inside your head that keep you entertained throughout.

Engrossing Visuals

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Adrian Tchaikovsky is one of the best SF writers active today and Shroud is one of his better works. Really enjoyed this one.

One of Tchaikovskys best

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This guy doesn’t miss. How does he do it? He is this generations Stephen King. Give me more.

Your favorite rappers favorite rapper.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
New and different life forms, and interesting processes to understand each other and trying to devise a way

Novel ideas! A tad long

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The depth of the storytelling, and the descriptions of the landscape and life on the moon, Shroud.

An in-depth story of survival, teamwork, technology, human connection, and friendship.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Another Tchaikovsky masterpiece of science fiction. Readers of his Children of Time series will absolutely love this tale of an unintended trek across a fantastically deadly worldscape populated by mysterious alien life forms, one of which shows a keen interest in the stranded human arrivals.

A road-trip buddy story about the worst vacation ever

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I wish Adrian would change his mind about a sequel, this is the first book of his I read and he has a fan for life. If you enjoyed project Hail Mary, this book is for you.

Best interpretation of contact with alien life I’ve ever read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Tchaikovsky always does such a great job with the unknown that is space and with space’s inhabitants. Such a lovely writer and able to create truly new ideas about what it means to be an “alien” or a “human” for that matter! Loved it!

Typical Tchaikovsky in that there is nothing “typical” about it!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Shroud offers a unique take on alien intelligence. On a planet deemed unable to support human life, a group is exploring for possible resources. A team gets stranded on the surface and learns that dangerous lifeforms abound. They race to a location on the other side of the planet that offers a rescue. Along the way, they encounter intelligent life forms. What follows is both sides figuring each other out with direct communication nearly impossible. While the rescue is successful, the greedy corporate backers of the endeavor push a bit too much and the aliens very quickly ‘learn’ to stay one step ahead.

Tchaikovsky takes a classic sci-fi element of alien first contact with truly alien lifeforms, not simply their biology, but also their mental processes which are shaped by the unique environment in which they have evolved. All too often, aliens are anthropomorphized, but more likely it’s the environment that shapes intelligence, rather than biology.

The narration is quite good with solid character distinction. Pacing is a tad brisk.

Alternative alien intelligence

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I loved the pace of the story, the dichotomy of perspective, the characters and narration, and above, the brilliant depth of imagination.

Another superbly written piece of science fiction

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews