2025

Timewyrm: Genesys by John Peel

0

The novel “Timewyrm: Genesys” by John Peel was published for the first time in 1991. It’s No. 1 in the “New Adventures” range by Virgin Publishing.

The Seventh Doctor is trying to sort out his memories, but accidentally erases Ace’s. He manages to fix them, more or less, but during the operation, he triggers a message from the Fourth Doctor, who mentions a mythical creature known as the Timewyrm. After the Doctor finishes restoring Ace’s memories, the TARDIS lands in ancient Mesopotamia.

A clash between two spaceships causes damage to both. A woman with cybernetic implants manages to land near the city of Kish. Gilgamesh, the king of Uruk, is trying to spy on his rivals in Kish, and the woman tells him she’s the goddess Ishtar and seeks his help. Gilgamesh refuses, and she vows to take revenge on him by exploiting the inhabitants of Kish and their devotion to Ishtar.

Steal Across the Sky by Nancy Kress

0

The novel “Steal Across the Sky” by Nancy Kress was published for the first time in 2009.

An expedition carrying three Witnesses reaches the Kular system. The aim is to observe two human populations that have lived on two twin planets for about ten thousand years. They’re the descendants of humans transported to those planets by aliens who call themselves the Atoners, who want to somehow remedy a grave injustice.

Camilla “Cam” O’Kane and Luca Maduro take the two shuttles to descend to the two planets while Soledad Arellano remains on the mother ship to coordinate the operations. Something goes wrong and Luca’s shuttle lands violently, causing him to break a leg. He’s rescued by the natives, and after some time, he realizes that they’re convinced they can speak to people who have recently died. Initially, things seem to be going better for Cam, but on the planet, she discovers that she has ended up near a city ruled by a decidedly unfriendly king.

Lords of Uncreation by Adrian Tchaikovsky

0

The novel “Lords of Uncreation” by Adrian Tchaikovsky was published for the first time in 2023. It’s the third book in The Final Architecture series and follows “Eyes of the Void”.

Idris has discovered a secret of the Architects that could be crucial in confronting them. However, it seems that this has further divided the different species that have been their victims, and even the human factions seem to find new reasons to fight each other instead of joining forces.

While power struggles that sometimes result in open war consume resource after resource, only a few understand the meaning of Idris’ discovery. The future of many species may be hidden in unspace and in mysteries not yet revealed within it.

The Harbin Cranium (Image courtesy Fu et al. (2025))

0

Two articles, one published in the journal “Cell” and one in the journal “Science”, describe two exams conducted on the so-called Harbin Cranium, a fossil discovered in Manchuria, northeastern China, dated at least 146,000 years old. A team of researchers led by paleogeneticist Qiaomei Fu of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing and Qiang Ji of Hebei University recovered fragments of mitochondrial DNA from the dental calculus still present on the skull and proteins.

The Crack in Space by Philip K. Dick

0

The novel “The Crack in Space” by Philip K. Dick was published for the first time in 1966.

The discovery of a portal that opens a route to another planet that, at least in appearance, is identical to the Earth has political ramifications. The presidential election is coming, and Jim Briskin wants to become the first Black president in an election campaign that is becoming more out of the ordinary than ever.

Seventy million people, most of them non-white, have entered cryogenic sleep waiting for a job to become available for them. The other Earth could become a new frontier much more attractive than the colonies on Mars to be opened for colonization by the sleepers, who could finally wake up.