October 2021

The short story “Upgrade” by Manjula Padmanabhan was published for the first time in 2020 by Future Fiction within the anthology “Avatar. Contemporary Indian Science Fiction”.

Sameera bought her grandmother, Mrs Ganapathy, a robot servant that cooks, cleans and washes her clothes, all of which the elderly woman can no longer do on her own because it’s hard for her to get out of her wheelchair. Mrs Ganapathy would like a human servant and her daughters tried to send several women but none of her lived up to her demands. The beginning is difficult with the robot too but after some time Mrs Ganapathy finds the best setup.

The Long Utopia by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter

The novel “The Long Utopia” by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter was published for the first time in 2016. It’s the fourth book of The Long Earth series and follows “The Long Mars”.

By the mid-21st century, the human species has spread over an indefinite number of parallel versions of the Earth. People who don’t want to be found can choose to move to another very distant Earth, on their own or by mixing with another group in which no one knows them. Lobsang tries this path by using a very natural-looking body produced exactly with the purpose of trying to live like a normal human being.

While Joshua Valienté is on the search for his father and ends up uncovering a much more complex past than he thought, it’s not always easy for ordinary humans to live with members of the new species that emerged among them. These are problems that may disappear when Lobsang discovers that he went to live in a world where seemingly impossible things are happening that clearly indicate that extremely powerful forces are at work.

Avatars of the Intelligence by Sue Hampton

The novel “Avatars of the Intelligence” by Sue Hampton was published for the first time in 2017.

Lucy Wilson was only twelve years old when her family moved from London to a Welsh village called Ogmore-by-Sea. For Lucy, it’s a huge change, also because she goes to live far away from all her friends. For her, that’s a new loss following the death of her grandfather, Sir Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart.

In Ogmore-by-Sea, Lucy quickly befriends a 14-year-old local nicknamed Hobo. Soon, the situation in the village becomes far from boring, as the students from her new school start disappearing. Lucy feels inspired by the stories her grandfather told her and starts investigating.

Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert

The novel “Dune Messiah” by Frank Herbert was published for the first time in 1969 serialized in the magazine “Galaxy” and then as a book. It’s the second book in the Dune saga and follows “Dune”.

Twelve years after becoming the Emperor of the known universe, Paul “Muad’Dib” Atreides is the most powerful man in human history, at least in theory. For the Fremen, he has become a kind of deity, and that fueled a jihad that caused over sixty billion deaths. Paul himself ended up being carried away by that jihad, unable to stop it, as it would cost an even greater amount of deaths.

Paul’s power seems impossible to challenge but a conspiracy unites the Bene Gesserit, the Space Guild, and the Bene Tleilax in an attempt to overthrow him. Irulan, Paul’s official consort in a purely formal marriage, is an accomplice as well. A Guild Navigator uses his powers of prescience to shield the conspirators from Paul’s prescience. As the Face Dancer Scytale begins his mission on Arrakis, a gift is brought to the Emperor: Hayt, a ghola of Duncan Idaho.

Terropterus xiushanensis fossils and drawings

An article published in the journal “Science Bulletin” reports the identification of Terropterus xiushanensis, a species belonging to the order of the eurypterids (Eurypterida), the so-called sea scorpions, which lived about 435 million years ago, during the Silurian period, in today’s China. A team of researchers examined several fossils discovered in the Xiushan Formation and concluded that it belongs to a genus from the ones known and attributed it to the Mixopteridae family. It’s the first sea scorpion attributed to that family discovered in China.