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