Shroud by Adrian Tchikovsky:

In the far flung future, humanity lives among the stars and exploits any planet it comes into contact with.  On the moon of Shroud, a survey team comes into contact with a primitive society, but one with  the capacity to learn.  When they become stranded, will peace or science win the day?

Well, neither actually. Hard SF fans will lap this up quicker than a second-hand copy of New Scientist, but it’s not dynamic enough to sustain attention.  The writing is heavily factual.  And, yes I’ll admit that is a trope of the genre.  But despite the odd flourish (humanity is genetically engineered for deep space) the crew are the hard-boiled narks that have inhabited SF since the Nostromo in 1979.

The plot picks up a little in the middle eight of the book, but this is what Whovians will know as ‘base under siege’.  The prose style here is choppy, episodic and resolved far too quickly.  The alien race (worm-like, using endoskeletons and sacrificing the injured to their god) is a fascinating concept, but they are seen first as bloodthirsty Lovecraftian beasties and then noble angels at the ends of the novel.  

It’ll have its fans, but it found it too cold and worthy to keep my interest.  It’s published by Pan Macmillan on February 27th, 2025 and I thank them for a copy.  #shroud

The Quiet by Barnaby Martin: 

Hannah is a college lecturer in the mid-21st century, she’s a mum to Isaac, a hearing-impaired child.  She lives in a pre-apocalyptic world, with UV levels so toxic, going out without protective clothing invites skin cancer. Plus, there’s a maddening, ever present hum called The Soundfield.  And then Hannah becomes involved in a conspiracy against the government.  

There is the potential here for a cracking dystopian sci-fi novel. Sadly, potential is what it is.  The novel has a well-realised world, but a lot of the plot devices (censorship, neo-fascism, an underground resistence) have been done before, better.  The odd cracking idea (society lives at night to avoid UV levels, The Last Jedi is a classic movie) seems lost in it.  

The truly revolutionary bits of the novel (a theocratic government and Issac’s connection to The Soundfield) are ignored or not explained clearly.  The flash back, flash forward structure of the novel makes it difficult to follow, plus it’s not exactly clear how to novel ends.  

It might be enough for some people,  it I found it messy, disappointing and unsatisfying.  It’s published by Pan Macmillan on May 15th, 2025 and I thank them for a preview copy.  #thequiet