I read this novella for the indie novella competition, SFINCS. The following review is my own personal opinion as a judge and does not reflect the views of the team as a whole. Find out more about the competition here and my team, The WIPs, here, and read all my reviews for the competition here!
The Nome King and the Shroud by Tim Pratt is a quick-paced, classic sci-fi feeling novella that follows the journey of a spaceship carrying thousands of human colonists towards their new home, escaping a chaotic, ruined Earth. During the travel, the ship’s AI, Tug (as in Tugboat) detects a strange occurrance: an unusual infrared source. Tug wakes Mazha Sun, designated “troublesolver” to get to the end of this. But the strange artificial structure starts causing problems even before the ship could approach it, and it is going to be on the ingenuity and courage of the human crew and whatever Tug is evolving into to save the remains of humanity from something sinister…
Well. What you need to know about me is that one of my favourite sci-fi genres is the “let’s check out that weird space objects over there!” and so this novella already started from a great place for me. Mazha’s characterisation, the ship she wakes up in, her interactions with Tug all gave me a really classic sci-fi vibe, with ideas we have mostly seen before, but in such arrangement and presentation that they felt anything but tired. The mystery of the alien Dyson-sphere and Shroud’s (the AI inhabiting that sphere) first interactions with our heroes were very intriguing. I also appreciated how well the ‘sci’ part played together with the ‘fi’, which can be a hard balance to reach especially in a short-length writing. I really loved the AI personalities we get to know, and although their characterisation isn’t very deep, the humans, too: capable, brave (or occasionally less brave) space-people I could easily root for as they started to unravel the secrets of this huge habitat they found. And just imagining the sphere itself was cool, I love Dyson-spheres too. I also liked the idea behind the two AIs relationship and the way it evolved.
As the story progressed and we discovered the different alien structures and systems (and started to really truly suspect that Shroud isn’t as friendly as it showed itself) I also had Rendezvous with the Rama vibes, alongside with Asimov’s Robot stories. I’ve read all these books quite a long time ago, but I felt like the themes, the settings, and the writing style were all in line with how I remember those and must have been inspirations for the author. I wouldn’t have minded some more exploration of Mazha’s, Rhose’s, or Bertie’s personalities, pasts, and relationships with each other to increase my involvement, or some more time spent around the later twists of the story (the revelation of what truly happened on the habitat is a bit fast and easy, evaporating all the tension, although I liked the resolution of the problem a lot), and the last accords of the story made me smile with their grandiose-ness (I don’t think this story is space opera, but that last part did harken back to the style), but I consistently enjoyed myself and had a great time with the novella.
The Nome King and the Shroud will be a quick, entertaining read for everyone who loves smart sci-fi with aliens, AI, and exploration.
Helyna L. Clove 
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