"An intriguing puzzle with plenty of thrills." The Guardian
A thrilling, page-turning standalone adventure, set in the distant future, from master sci-fi author and Arthur C. Clarke Award winner Adrian Tchaikovsky.
The planet of Kiln is where the tyrannical Mandate keeps its prison colony, and for inmates the journey there is always a one-way trip. One such prisoner is Professor Arton Daghdev, xeno-ecologist and political dissident. Soon after arrival he discovers that Kiln has a secret. Humanity is not the first intelligent life to set foot there.
In the midst a ravenous, chaotic ecosystem are the ruins of a civilization, but who were the vanished builders and where did they go? If he can survive both the harsh rule of the camp commandant and the alien horrors of the world around him, then Arton has a chance at making a discovery that might just transform not only Kiln but distant Earth as well.
Adrian Tchaikovsky is the author of the critically acclaimed series' Shadows of the Apt, Echoes of the Fall, and The Final Architecture Trilogy. In 2017, the first book in the Echoes of the Fall series, The Tiger and the Wolf, won the prestigious British Fantasy Award for Best Novel. Adrian is also the author of Children of Time, winner of the 30th Anniversary Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, Children of Ruin, winner of the 2019 British Science Fiction Award for Best Novel, as well as Children of Memory and The Doors of Eden. He lives in Leeds, England, with his wife and son.