The novel “Needle” by Hal Clement was published for the first time in 1949 in the magazine “Astounding” and in 1950 as a book.

The Hunter is chasing the fugitive in space to bring him to justice on their planet but their spaceships fell to Earth, in the Pacific Ocean. Both belong to a symbiotic species living inside hosts that belong to other species. On reaching the beach, the Hunter finds Bob Kinnaird, a boy of fifteen, and takes advantage of the fact that he is asleep to enter his body.

For the Hunter, taking care of his host and not hurting him is one of the most important laws, but humans are an unknown species for him and must proceed with caution. Slowly he learns enough about his host to establish a form of contact with him, which is essential to begin the search for the fugitive, who could have entered the body of any large Earth’s organism.