Alien Clay
This is my 3rd Tchakovsky book of the year, with the first (House of Open Wounds) being still one of the best books I’ve read this year, and the second book (Service Model) being only serviceable. This 3rd book bridges the two, and wound up being a fairly good book ONLY because the last third of the book was so good.
The book is split into 3 sections, the first section introduces you to the characters, the situation, the world. The second part book starts to let you see the ecology of the world, and what it looks like from the human perspective. The last part of the book is pretty much everything good about tchaikovsky. The revelation, the twist, the view of humans FROM the perspective of the aliens, and of course, the tchaikovsky mandated happy ending.
The first part of the book will be familiar with those who’ve read his WH40k short story Day of Ascension, deals with a lot of scientists and their little peculiarities. Mostly the politics of being a scientist who’s been declared a heresy, or constantly in danger of being considered a heresy. A lot of the diction and mannerisms is basically straight out of that short story and unless you know how PhDs and faculty politics work, this is the part that will bore you the most. Even if you know how PhDs and faculty politics work, you’d still roll your eyes. =) There is a little bit of world building here, but you scarcely get to see the alien world, other than through one or two glimpses.
The second part of the book starts become more interesting, because the main character gets to visit the alien planet, and starts becoming more intimate with how the world works. This is where Tchaikovsky starts to get really going because who cares about ancient human societies a few hundred light years away? The alien world is populated by fauna that to our human viewpoints is immensely grotesque and hideous. Everything is a parasite and parasitical in nature, and when dissecting an alien being, you can see how parts of it is basically more than 50% parasites. Much like our own parasites (our gut biome), they are necessary to the survival of the alien being, but in a much more macrobiotic scale. For example, there are some animals that basically outsource their stomach to a being that can digest foods better, or their foot are essentially just a parasite that doesn’t mind doing the walking for sucking on nutrients from the host.
Yah, exactly.
The last third of the book is Tchaikovsky at his best. This is when all the ideas that were seeded in the first two thirds of the books are tied neatly together. You get the big reveal you’ve been waiting for, along with a healthy implication of philosophy (never 100% obvious, its still fairly subtle), and the entire story comes together with a literal and metaphorical bang.
It leaves room for a sequel or trilogy, but as it stands its quite nicely wrapped up. In a way, its complete like the Doors of Eden was. The narrator was serviceable for this book and the author interview at the end was a very nice cherry on the cake.
Mildly recommended. If you had time for one Tchaikovsky book, make it “House of Open Wounds”. Otherwise you can semi skip this one because he has better stuff from his library.