November 2025

Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible by Marc Platt

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The novel “Cat’s Cradle: Time’s Crucible” by Marc Platt was published for the first time in 1992. It’s No. 5 in the “New Adventures” range by Virgin Publishing.

Reality seems to be disintegrating around the Seventh Doctor and Ace, to the point that even the Tardis doors seem to be out of place. Something has invaded the Tardis and begun to cause it to disintegrate, affecting everything around it. The Doctor, too, feels the effects of this disintegration on his mind.

On Gallifrey, the first timeship is making an experimental voyage with a crew aboard. The planet’s ruling Pythia has chosen a man as her successor and has secretly included him in the timeship’s crew. However, instead of returning, the ship collides with the Doctor’s Tardis.

The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula Le Guin

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The novel “The Lathe of Heaven” by Ursula Le Guin was published for the first time in 1971. It won the Locus Award for best science fiction novel of the year.

When George Orr is caught using drugs prescribed to someone else, he’s forced to undergo psychiatric treatment to avoid serious legal problems. Initially, Dr. William Haber dismisses Orr as a disturbed man when he tells him that his dreams transform reality. However, when Haber examines Orr while he dreams using his special equipment, he realizes that the changes his patient has induced are real.

Dr. Haber considers the potential offered by George Orr’s power and wants to use it to improve the situation in an overpopulated world affected by climate change. Orr is frightened by the possible consequences of his dreams, which is why he had resorted to drugs that blocked his dreams. Dr. Haber, however, is determined to conduct experiments to change the world for the better.

Ascension by Nicholas Binge

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The novel “Ascension” by Nicholas Binge was published for the first time in 2023.

When Ben Tunmore discovers that his brother Harold is still alive and locked up in a mental institution after disappearing and being presumed dead for many years, he’s determined to understand what happened to him. However, getting answers from someone who only speaks seemingly nonsense is difficult. Harold’s suicide leaves Ben and his remaining relatives devastated.

Ben Tunmore discovers a series of letters written by Harold and addressed to Harriet, Ben’s daughter, whom he loved. What he recounts in those letters often seems nonsensical, the product of a sick mind inventing absurd conspiracies. Ben decides to make the contents of those letters public so that anyone who reads them can decide if the events Harold recounted during a secret expedition to a mountain that appeared in the Pacific Ocean actually occurred.

Bacteriophage strains seen under an electron microscope, cataloged as: (A) phi330; (B) phi296; (C) phi315; (D) phi345; (E) phi346; (F) phi349; (G) phi367; (H) phi419

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An article published in the journal “Microbiology Spectrum” reports the results of experiments based on the use of genetically modified bacteriophage viruses to combat strains of Escherichia coli bacteria that developed resistance to various antibiotics. These findings offer a way to neutralize these bacteria and new insights into the interactions between bacteriophages and bacteria that may be useful in other medical research.

A team of researchers led by biologist Jessie Vandierendonck of the Free University of Brussels (Vrije Universiteit Brussel – VUB) characterized eight different so-called temperate bacteriophages and tested genetic modifications that enabled these viruses to insert Shiga toxin into enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli bacteria to neutralize them. This proof-of-concept could represent the beginning of a strategy to combat harmful bacteria.

The Genocides by Thomas M. Disch

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The novel “The Genocides” by Thomas M. Disch was published for the first time in 1965.

A few years after the appearance of the Plants, the Tassel community on the shores of Lake Superior struggles to survive. Anderson is formally the village’s mayor, but he’s actually a sort of absolute king, ruling the small group of survivors with an iron fist, using a gun as a symbol of his power.

When another group of survivors, traveling in search of stability, approaches the village, its members are mercilessly killed. Only Jeremiah Orville, a mining engineer, and nurse Alice Nemerov, considered useful to the community, are spared. The Plants are making it increasingly difficult to grow crops and raise animals, and the arrival of spheres that set buildings ablaze triggers an even deeper crisis, especially as Anderson grows weaker.