They looked into darkness. The darkness looked back . . .

An utterly gripping story of survival on a hostile planet from Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of the Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning Children of Time.

A commercial expedition to a distant star system discovers a pitch-black moon alive with radio activity. Its high-gravity, high-pressure, zero-oxygen environment is deadly to human life, but ripe for exploitation. They named it Shroud.

Under no circumstances can a human survive Shroud's inhospitable surface - but a catastrophic accident forces Juna Ceelander and Mai Ste Etienne to make an emergency landing in a barely adequate escape vehicle. Alone, and fighting for survival, the two women embark on a gruelling journey across land, sea and air in search of salvation.

But as they travel, Juna and Mai begin to understand Shroud's unnerving alien species. It also begins to understand them. If they escape Shroud, they'll somehow have to explain the impossible and translate the incredible. That is, if they make it back at all . . .

Praise for Adrian Tchaikovsky

'The smartest evolutionary worldbuilding you'll ever read' - Peter F. Hamilton, author of Salvation on Children of Time

'Compelling on human and cosmic levels, and unputdownable' - Stephen Baxter, author of Proxima on Alien Clay

'Heart-in-the-mouth fantastic' - New Scientist on Alien Clay