2025

The Crawling Terror by Mike Tucker

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The novel “The Crawling Terror” by Mike Tucker was published for the first time in 2014.

The life of what used to be a quiet British village is turned upside down when some of its inhabitants come face to face with giant insects. Poor Alan Travers has it even worse on his way home because he ends up in a giant spider web and the spider that built it is nearby.

The Tardis has detected an anomalous signal resulting in the 12th Doctor and Clara Oswald arriving in what seems to be a normal British village. Very soon, the situation turns out to be very different with the discovery of a corpse trapped in a spider web of truly extraordinary size and strength. The Doctor must quickly investigate to understand what’s happening, and old tales dating back to World War II may offer a clue.

Contact by Carl Sagan

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The novel “Contact” by Carl Sagan was published for the first time in 1985. It won the Locus Award for Best First Novel.

Since she was a child, Eleanor “Ellie” Arroway showed an excellent aptitude for scientific subjects. Her father encouraged her but he died when she was still a child. Her mother remarried and her stepfather had much more conservative ideas about the role of a woman, resulting in a tense relationship between the two of them.

Despite the obstacles, Ellie earned a doctorate and started working in the field of radio astronomy. She ended up becoming the director of the Argus Project for the search for signals sent by extraterrestrial intelligences. A signal from the star Vega is detected showing clear indications of an artificial origin. The consequences are significant and include the problems brought by Christian preachers who try to make their vision prevail.

A predatory protist (Photo courtesy Camille Poirier and David Needham, Worden Lab)

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An article published in the journal “Cell Host & Microbe” reports the results of a study on the widespread symbiosis between predatory protists and bacteria related to species that are pathogenic to various animal species and sometimes to humans. A team of researchers led by scientists from the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) conducted a series of analyses on water samples collected at the surface of the Pacific Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, and the North Atlantic and identified protists that have predatory habits that eat some species of bacteria but are in symbiosis with other species. The results suggest a long and complex history of relationships that sometimes are symbiosis and sometimes are parasitism by bacteria with animals and choanoflagellates, the closest relatives of animals among eukaryotes.

Way Station by Clifford D. Simak

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The novel “Way Station” by Clifford D. Simak was published for the first time in 1963 in two parts in the “Galaxy” magazine as “Here Gathers the Stars” and later as a book with its final title. It won the Hugo Award for best novel of the year.

Enoch Wallace lives in almost total isolation in rural Wisconsin and yet has attracted the attention of an American intelligence agent because he appears to have fought in the Civil War a century earlier. Surveillance is conducted from afar, also because it seems impossible to get into Wallace’s home. There are some tombs near it, and one of them is really strange.

Enoch Wallace’s real job is to run a way station on behalf of an interstellar community made up of a lot of different species. In a century of service, he has learned a lot from contacts with aliens and fears that this may end because of the government’s interest.

The Killing Moon by N. K. Jemisin

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The novel “The Killing Moon” by N. K. Jemisin was published for the first time in 2012. It’s the first book in the Dreamblood series.

Ehiru is considered the best among the Gatherers of the city-state of Gujaareh but when he’s tasked with collecting the soul of a foreigner, something goes wrong. The foreigner claims that there’s a conspiracy that has infiltrated even the temple of Hetawa and Ehiru loses his focus. The consequence is that the foreigner’s soul is destroyed.

Ambassador Sunandi represents the nation of Kisua and is forced to handle on her own a situation that is becoming increasingly complex after her mentor’s death. Her spies reveal to her that Eninket, the prince of Gujaareh, wants to start a war against Kisua and in the city there seems to be a Reaper whose presence is kept secret.