Review: The Iron Garden Sutra - A.D. Sui

Genre: Science Fiction

Published: Erewhon Books, February 2026

My Rating: 5/5 stars

“First there was the fear of being. Fear of being became fear of not-being. Those are the two original fears.”

Consider this a PSA to all sci-fi-fans: mark February 28th on your calendars to go out and pick up this novel upon release. You won’t regret it!

A.D. Sui blends a beautiful, meditative and philosophical science-fiction story with a closed-room-murder-mystery in space, and although that might not sound like it would work, this mélange is a delight!

The Story:

We follow Vessel Iris, a Death-monk tasked with delivering funeral rights to the dead across the galaxy. Iris is send out on a remote mission towards the Counsel of Nicaea, a generationship, found adrift and abandoned without a living soul aboard. Its sudden appearance has attracted a team of academics eager to investigate its archeological history. And Iris has been assigned to bring peace to the crew’s long departed souls.

What they find aboard the Nicaea defies all expectations however. The ship is overgrown – more forest than machine – and teeming with plant-life. As the ragtag team of academics explores the ship, they learn that something else might be alive on aboard with them. Suddenly, the particular make-up of our Death-monk, might be the only chance they have at understanding and survival.

What I Loved:

Genre-blending is always a risk, but when it pays off, it can elevate a book above the crowd. When I heard this book would encompass a philosophical look at religion (inspired by ancient Buddhism), an exploration of AI-sentience, a meditation on death and grief ánd a murder mystery, I have to admit that I feared the book was taking on too many different things. Instead, somehow the author manages to create a synergy in these elements, where they add up to strengthen the thematic depth and balanced out the pacing perfectly.

Keeping this as spoiler-free as possible, I can’t go into depth with regard to the plot or mystery. What I cán talk about, are my two favourite aspects of the novel: the characters and its heartfelt depiction of grief and our relationship to death – which happen to be tightly connected.

I quickly fell in love with Iris – a solitary man who’s haunted past has shaped him to be more familiar with Death than connected to the living. His background, as well as him being on eof the few humans interfaced with an AI, make him such a unique and interesting perspective to view this story from. His approach to this situation of crisis and (mass-)death clashes with that of the engineers, who might be more practically savvy, but are far less accustomed to the proximity of death. These interactions make for fantastic character-dynamics and growth, specifically between Iris and engineer Yan.

Through Iris’ eyes, Sui also provides us with a beautiful exploration of grief and death, on both a macro- and micro-scale, ranging from the personal losses in Iris’ past, to humanities inability to deal with death on a mass-scale. Nailing this theme, is a sure-fire way to launch your novel towards the top of my favourites-list.

There is so much more to be said about this book. About its balance between gentleness and horror, about its impeccable sense of setting, about its themes of existentialism and AI, and so much more. Instead of risking venturing into spoiler-territory though, I’m going to ask you again to just pick up this book upon release. As far as I’m concerned, this is bound to be one of the standout sci-fi novels of 2026 and I would hate so see it fly under the radar.

Many thanks to Netgalley and RBMedia for providing me with an (audio-)ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

You can find this book here on Goodreads.