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They travelled into the unknown and left themselves behind . . . On the distant world of Kiln lie the ruins of an alien civilization. It’s the greatest discovery in humanity’s spacefaring history – yet who were its builders and where did they go? Professor Arton Daghdev had always wanted to study alien life up close. Then his wishes become a reality in the worst way. His political activism sees him exiled from Earth to Kiln’s extrasolar labour camp. There, he’s condemned to work under an alien sky until he dies. Kiln boasts a ravenous, chaotic ecosystem like nothing seen on Earth. The monstrous alien life interacts in surprising, sometimes shocking ways with the human body, so Arton will risk death on a daily basis. However, the camp’s oppressive regime might just kill him first. If Arton can somehow escape both fates, the world of Kiln holds a wondrous, terrible secret. It will redefine life and intelligence as he knows it, and might just set him free . . .
Publication Year: 2024
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0 0One of my favourite things about science fiction worldbuilding is that, when done right, the world feels like it extends far beyond the boundaries of the story. This book felt like that! A sense of a complete, complex world both on Earth and Kiln, with a rich history, pervades.
The politics were interesting, and unfortunately believable, and the ideas about the scientific orthodoxy of the Mandate made me think about the ways in which current science might have too narrow a view of things to notice all the implications of the information we have access to. And needless to say the biology was fascinating. I also really enjoyed the characters - they're flawed products of the system they come from, and they make sense in their context. The narrating character has a distinct voice/perspective too which I enjoyed. I think this was brought to life well by the audiobook narrator.
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