Alien Clay

Professor Daghdev is a revolutionary advocate for knowledge and reason who turns up his nose at the orthodoxy of the Mandate. The Mandate corrupts the creed of science, so Daghdev is proud of his role as a political delinquent, right up until he’s deported and shipped off to the labor camp on the remote planet of Kiln. Once there, he encounters signs of extrasolar life, and he collaborates with the other dissident expendables to unravel the mystery behind Kiln’s vanished civilization. Tchaikovsky (Lords of Uncreation) is a maestro of grim and claustrophobic science fiction, and his imagination knows no bounds. This is a prison drama set in a creepy alien world, with a dash of body horror and several parasitical nightmares. Daghdev is a flippant narrator who endures an endless gauntlet of extreme scenarios, and the disturbing imagery enriches the worldbuilding. His role as a free thinker also allows for a novel exploration of xenoscience, symbiotic relationships, and divergent evolution.