Nether Station

Anderson (Gods and Dragons) begins this Lovecraftian science-fiction epic by setting up an intriguing premise, describing the discovery of a wormhole at the edge of the solar system. A team of scientists, headed by the egomaniacal businessman Benedict Noor, leaves to explore and understand the anomaly, hoping that the wormhole will be a bridge between galaxies. The tension increases as problems plague first the crew and then their spaceship, leaving them stuck at the edge of known space with a grim and disturbing mystery. The joy of Anderson’s novel is in watching how far it pushes against the horrors of the universe, including tentacle-headed ancient gods and bug-driven alien civilizations. The narrative’s pitch-perfect ending delivers on its atmospheric buildup, leaving as an open question whether humanity will survive its brush with the cosmos’s hidden dangers.