Reviews - Alien Clay | The StoryGraph

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1.46k reviews for:

Alien Clay

Adrian Tchaikovsky

4.0 AVERAGE

cobaltgalaxy's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

astevens37's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: N/A

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

jenthebest's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

abandonedmegastructure's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Alien Clay is an amazing, well-paced, memorable, and entertainingly biochemical work that provides a fresh spin on the well-worn genre of first-contact sci-fi, adding in a solid dose of political thought as well as a healthy dose of body horror. The characters are distinctive and entertaining, the xenofauna vividly described, and the prose wonderfully sharp.

On a structural level the novel is simply dense with self-reference, with lots of little throwbacks and throw-forwards that reward a reread. The beginning is incredibly strong - the ending echoes it beautifully. It's like poetry, it rhymes.

If I had to name a single flaw, it would be that for the diehard Tchaikovsky fan, Alien Clay will offer less novelty than they might have hoped. Indeed, a certain cynic could remark that Tchaikovsky took two of his best-received series (Children of Time and The Tyrant Philosophers), mixed their themes and settings a little, gave Alien Sky's the midpoint climax of one and the ending of the other, and packaged the whole thing as a new work. And that's with my limited knowledge of his works - I don't know how much in here is from all the other

Then again, if it's still able to keep my interest, what's the harm in recycling themes? Isn't that just an authorial style? Does "very similar to the author's other great works" truly work as a criticism? Probably not. It's not making me dock points from this review, that's for sure.