Hey, everyone…
You may have noticed that I’ve been conspicuous by my absence lately. (Narr: for “lately” read “the anthropocene.”) It’s been for a variety of reasons–some health stuff (now OK, thanks for asking); some mental health/self care as we confront the barbarism of the US today; and, more than anything else, seemingly inexhaustible deadline pressure.
Some part of that pressure is finally getting its release–which is the longwinded way of saying that the publication date for my new book So Very Small is upon us. One week from today (4/29) in the US; 5/1 in the UK. (UK info here.)
It’s good, I think. Early readers and reviewers seem to think so. Publishers Weekly and Kirkus both gave it starred notices, which is very comforting, and the blubbers blurbers (I do love this autocorrect flub) wildly exceeded my imagination.* For example:
“So Very Small is very large and fascinating. Thomas Levenson expertly combines storytelling and big questions, most notably: Why not? Why wasn’t the germ theory of disease formulated 200 years earlier? Why, in general, are huge scientific discoveries delayed until they happen? This is exactly the sort of book that a literate citizen, keenly interested in science, reads for enlightenment, perspective, and fun.”—David Quammen, New York Timesbestselling author of Breathless
(Quammen is one of my writing heroes, so when he has something nice to say about my work, I kvell.)
One more:
“By peering through the lens of the modern germ theory, and our protracted battle with disease, Levenson has crafted a vivid, engaging, and timely reminder that we are not as omnipotent nor as clever as we often believe ourselves to be. So Very Small is a deeply researched and thoughtfully compelling exploration of our successes, failures, and precarious future with deadly pathogens.”—Timothy C. Winegard, New York Times bestselling author of The Mosquito and The Horse
I blush! There’s more like this at the Random House link. ;-)
As these two blurbs indicate, So Very Small is ostensibly a history of the discovery that microbes cause infectious disease. The story of the results that added up to germ theory is usually told as a tale of a compressed explosion of discoveries in the second half of the 19th century, but when I started on this project I found myself wondering about what happened to get to that moment. Microbes were first observed in the 1670s, after all–and yet it took almost exactly 200 years to get to the first conclusive demonstration that a particular bacterium lay behind a specific diseases (Robert Koch’s identification of B. anthracis as the pathogen causing anthrax, achieved in January 1877.)
As I tried to piece together why it took so long to get from point a to point b, I realized I was onto a bigger story–one that extended forward from the discovery years to the present day. I argue that the biggest obstacles to making the connection between microbes and disease wasn’t scientific. They were cultural, religious, and social. And those same roadblocks obtain (in different form but recognizably kin to the ideas that went before) still–and help explain why so much of the benefits humankind gained from the insights of germ theory are now at risk.
I have to say that when I started to work on this book (first discussion in 2012; work in earnest starting in ~2021) I had no idea it would be so timely. I wish it weren’t. But with RFK Jr., wreaking havoc on the US public health and biomedical research infrastructure, So Very Small definitely looks forward by looking back.
If y’all are interested, I’ll ask Watergirl if we can set up a post and/or Zoom book talk sometime after the pub date. In the meantime, if you’d like to hear more about it, the excellent Sean Carroll and I talked about it (at length, but what else would you expect from me? ;-) on his Mindscape podcast.
That’s enough. To make up for such naked self-promotion, I promise a good food/cooking post a bit later in the day (maybe tomorrow if the rest of the afternoon eats me alive.)
And with that…this thread is as open as a Hesgeth Signal chat.
*The question of blurbs and blurbing is a vexing one, and some publishers (and lots of authors) want to get away from the practice. Happy to talk about this issue in another post if there’s interest.
Image: Guercino, Philosopher with book, 1635
PS: one more thing. As is their wont, my US publisher, Random House, and my UK folks, Head of Zeus, chose radically different cover designs. Got a preference?
(Images below the fold)
US: 
UK:
The World Is Burning, What Can We Do?
Baud
Sir RFK, Jr., Lord of Measles?
Congratulations!
NeenerNeener
I like the US cover better, for what it’s worth.
Tom Levenson
@NeenerNeener: Thanks.
There is sharp disagreement. I did this a/b test at the closing dinner of the Oxford Literary Festival a couple of weeks ago. The folks were all Brits and to a woman they preferred the UK cover.
There really are major differences…two cultures separated by a common language.
locanicole
Love the UK version. Cant wait to read it!
Wapiti
I like the US cover; I think it will catch the eye of potential US readers.
My local library has 3 copies on order, so I put down the first hold request.
TaMara
So very looking forward to reading this! Congrats!
scav
Whichever one has the people in front. Absolutely. (the other isn’t bad, it’s just more generic and lacks the fun of the playing with size implied by the projection.)
twbrandt
I am very much interested in a zoom discussion. Amazon tells me my copy arrives on May 5, so after that please :)
FWIW, I prefer the US cover. The UK cover is fine, but it looks a little cartoony compared to the US version, which is a little more abstract.
Dmkingto
My initial reaction was a strong preference for the visuals of the UK version and a mild preference for the US subtitle. But on further reflection, I think the US graphic has some depth to it. Whether or not that’s a plus for a cover to catch someone’s attention, I don’t know.
clay
Cover aside, I think the UK has the better subtitle!
Trollhattan
IMO US cover has “shelf appeal” while UK version is wittier (not Whittier as in California).
Just finished Galileo’s Daughter, which has the recurring theme of the ebb and flow of plague, and the various quarantine schemes they threw at it. All are based on theories so very far from the bacterium that travel in the flea that travel on the rat that delivers all, right to you*.
Sounds like a great read, congratulations!
*Fun fact: once worked with a gal who was diagnosed with plague, which she caught while on a fishing trip in Colorado. Talk about a bar story.
frosty
I like the UK, strictly because of the word “deluded”.
Tom Levenson
@Trollhattan:
Yikes!
CaseyL
I prefer the US cover, too. It just seems more about the microbes.
I’m currently reading Mukherjee’s “Song of the Cell,” which traces a similar journey, but about the discovery of cells and the development of cell biology as a science.
catfishncod
Honestly, each one looks perfectly tailored to the culture it is designed to market in. I’m going to take a third option and appreciate them both as a shiny apple and tasty orange.
Fair Economist
I really appreciated “Money for Nothing” and I’m really looking forward to this new book.
HinTN
I loved the circuitous journey in The Search for Vulcan to arrive at Einstein and relativity. I expect much the same here.
SiubhanDuinne
Just went to pre-order it, and discovered I had done so already, back in the High and Far-Off Times (i.e., October 2024). I’m very much looking forward to reading it.
Trollhattan
@Tom Levenson:
What I’ll never know is how her doctor diagnosed it. Guessing it became a sort of medical bucket list triumph.
Another Scott
Congrats! I like the UK cover better, myself. Always the contrarian!
Looking forward to adding it to my pile of books to read!
Best wishes,
Scott.
Tom Levenson
@Trollhattan: doctors in the west know about endemic plague. Especially in more rural areas. If your friend was diagnosed in a big eastern city, that would be a trick.
karen gail
I like the UK cover better.
Talk about plagues; Trump is once again pushing the idea of third term, he must believe that he is doing such a great job people will beg him to continue.
Aimai
Well done Tom!!
PaulWartenberg
Thanks for the heads up on your book, Tom. I placed an order for it to my public library, and by the by it’s extremely popular in the Demand column for Baker Taylor (318 to the South region alone!).
Gin & Tonic
@Trollhattan: And, of course, the conclusion of the “Beat the Reaper” game.
Another Scott
OpenThread – Meanwhile, … PhysicsToday – The Secrets of the 32 Minute Egg:
Now you know!
Best wishes,
Scott.
brantl
@karen gail: He just thinks he’s worn us all down enough. by the end of four years will have us worn down to a pulp.
Trollhattan
@Tom Levenson:
True, plague and unfortunately, hantavirus. Was stunned to learn that’s what killed Betsy Arakawa, Hackman’s wife. The entire sad affair warranted an episode of House.
oldster
I pre-ordered this, but now I’m going to return it.
Who cares about germs? Based on the title, I thought it was going to be about Trump’s hands.
Baud
Did someone say germs?
StringOnAStick
At some point I am going to have to clean up the western Colorado property that my 94 years old father lives on; that includes several sheds that he stored his engineering reports and rock samples in. I know that mice have been having a field day in the sheds for decades, so Hanta virus is a given. I need to research what level of respirator and eye protection I’m going to need. If they weren’t metal I would just burn them down. I’m just this side of feeling the same way about the house, but I will do the right thing there.
Gin & Tonic
@Another Scott: And nobody can replicate the results because they can’t afford the eggs.
Bupalos
@karen gail: Via Vlad Vexler, there is a tactical reason Trump has to talk about a 3rd term – in leaving democracy, authoritarians are entering into a pre-democracy politics dominated by looming succession crisis. Talking about a 3rd term is a way to tamp down the internal chaos that would come if people started thinking about who holds the MAGA crown next.
The 1st rule of actual 3rd Term Club is you wouldn’t talk about 3rd Term Club. Not now anyway.
The other reason Vexler states for Trump’s inability to shut up about 3rd term is related but secondary – that even if he were confident that challenger chaos won’t arise, he physiologically cannot stand people invoking a world in which he is not at the center.
Jacel
@Gin & Tonic: A link for the benefit of anyone who doesn’t already get your reference to the FIresign Theatre’s “Beat The Reaper” game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3zZ_ih0Jpc
PJ
The US cover is more eye-catching, but the UK cover tells you something about the content.
Bupalos
@brantl: I get the normalization/exhaustion angle but I don’t think that’s what’s at play here. If you really were thinking about a 3rd term, the clear way to do that is not talk about it and have a surprise emergency crop out of nowhere and make it necessary.
I don’t think this is even subject to the universal “but Trump is so stupid he does the dumb thing not the smart thing….” objection, because in this case it’s just tried and true route that both smart and stupid alike would take.
West of the Rockies
Congratulations, Tom! Your new book sounds fascinating. I will be visiting B&N soon!
karen gail
@Bupalos: Personally, I think it isn’t about a third term but the holding of rallies that feed his ego. He isn’t doing the job, he doesn’t want the job what he wants is ego feeding. Sure he surrounds himself by people who feed that ego but it isn’t the same as the crowds of his cult worshipping him.
Bill Arnold
Pre-ordered, just now.
Ohio Mom
Many years ago, as an art major, I decided (like anybody bestowed upon me the title of She who Decides) that the main difference between art and science was how predetermined the field was.
Cubism or ballet or jazz didn’t have to develop, art and culture would have just gone in different directions in their absence, but with science, eventually someone was going to discover DNA or the optics of light or whatever, it was just a matter of when. Now I have an inkling of how complicated arriving at that “eventually” could be. I’ll be looking for “So Very Small” at the library.
catclub
@NeenerNeener: I knew the US cover before noticing the labels. The UK cover seems amazingly old-fashioned.
Next: Check where it sells better.
zhena gogolia
@NeenerNeener: Me too.
Congratulations!
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
Very good point about how culture, among other things, will postpone adoption of beneficial, proven techniques. I’m thinking here of how hard it was to get doctors to wash their damn hands before examining a patient, especially a woman who had just given birth. So many women died of “childbed fever”
I agree the two covers match their countries. I personally like the UK one better, giving a sense of what the book is about, but the US one is more shiny and eye catching
Congratulations, Tom!
Tom Levenson
My thanks to everyone for their kind words and interest in the book.
I’m grateful to everyone who buys the book, of course, and I’m ecstatic to see the library stuff. Books are expensive; libraries are the essence of civil society. Great to hear that people are asking for So Very Small there, and that local libraries are getting copies.
True fact: I once got to spend a little time with the great biologist John Maynard Smith. He’d just put out a book on great transitions that occured on the road to the emergence of that technologically sophisticated species, us.
I’d read that as I was thinking about how some many different subdisciplines of biology were narrowing the distinction between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom. We’re not the only tool users; other species have some level of language; our DNA is strikingly similar to that of primates, etc. With trepidation I asked Smith if my attempt to come up with a valid marker made sense. We are, I said, the only species that stores a lot of our information–much more than what our DNA encodes–outside our bodies. That is, we are the singular creatures that construct and use libraries.
To my great and surprised pleasure, Smith agreed.
Tom Levenson
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): That story gets a long look in So Very Small.
WaterGirl
Congratulations, Tom!
I hadn’t even gotten this far:
… when I thought I would write to you and ask if you would like me to put up an Author’s post. I suggest a post and a zoom. Some folks on BJ love zooms, and others are allergic to them. :-)
Drop me an email and we’ll figure out the details.
I am terrible at self-promotion, so I figure some other folks are that way too and I like to offer to do the promoting for them. :-)
P.S. Based on the cover, I would pick up the US book in a heartbeat, but would not give a second glance to the UK version. Once again BJ reminds us that we are not all the same! :-)
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Tom Levenson: Good to hear! I’m watching Wolf Hall: the mirror and the light right now and thinking how different things could have been if Jane Seymour had lived after giving birth to Edward VI.
Trollhattan
@Baud:
Since we’re now all “eating healthy” like the good secretary, germs can’t touch us neener-neener-neener.
Anybody want some of this raw bear?
Jackie
O/T Good news! (for now, anyway)
The link is to the actual ruling. The heroine is Judge Charlotte N. Sweeney, District of Colorado.
satby
Preordered quite a while ago so excited that it will be arriving soon!
And I normally don’t care much about different cover versions, but I really dislike the UK cover. It would actively discourage me from picking up the book in a store had I no previous knowledge of it, though I like the subtitle.
sab
I mostly read on my e-reader, but I might just request it at the library also. I prefer physical books, but I am old and have long since passed the point where I have space for any more, especially the ones I might reread. I reread most books that I like. I have hundreds on my e-reader, all available within seconds.
p.a.
No to UK. The people look like Hogwarts washouts.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@sab: I know, me too! I just upgraded my Kindle because I was running out of space; must have close to 1,000 books on it.
Allen Henderson
Really excited to see this! These kinds of takes on history of science – I’m a protein biochemist and general science enthusiast – are super informative.
A common if somewhat mixed example is Guns, Germs and Steel, of course. I also loved:
Nature’s Robots: a History of Proteins (Tanford/Reynolds);
The Social transformation of American Medicine (Paul Starr);
The Gene: an Intimate History (Mukherjee);
Probably others I’m forgetting but those really stuck out to me.
Spanky
Or to paraphrase Max Planck, “science progresses one funeral at a time”.
NaijaGal
Congratulations!
Amalthea1
Just pre-ordered it on Audible- I knew I was saving that credit for a reason!
Hob
Tom, I’m eager to read this, so my question might be answered then anyways, but I’m curious: is the title from a particular quotation? I mean I know it’s a pretty general idea, but the specific wording “so very small” struck me as maybe being from a writer in an earlier era. The one place I know for sure I’ve seen it is in Jack London’s novella The Scarlet Plague, where the narrator, trying to explain diseases to some post-apocalyptic children, says evocatively: “the germ, being so very small, goes right into the blood of the body.”
Tom Levenson
@Hob: The title comes from Hillaire Belloc’s poem “The Microbe” — which appears in full as the epigraph for the book.
And here it is:
by
Hilaire Belloc
You cannot make him out at all,
But many sanguine people hope
To see him through a microscope.
His jointed tongue that lies beneath
A hundred curious rows of teeth;
His seven tufted tails with lots
Of lovely pink and purple spots,
On each of which a pattern stands,
Composed of forty separate bands;
His eyebrows of a tender green;
All these have never yet been seen–
But Scientists, who ought to know,
Assure us that they must be so …
Oh! let us never, never doubt
What nobody is sure about!
Kristine
Just preordered!
Hob
@Tom Levenson: Thanks! I wouldn’t be surprised if London had read that – the timing is right, and there’s at least one other unattributed quote from a poem in the novella (could also just be a coincidence of course).
Trivia Man
Visually, as art, i prefer the us cover. As a teaser saying “pick me up and look inside!” The UK cover would be much more likely to grab my attention.
sab
@p.a.: I had thought myself an anglophile, but I really really prefer the US cover.
The contrast in reactions here is very interesting
ETA Late tonight the Aussies might weigh in.
Matt McIrvin
@Jackie: Well, I guess he’s just going to have to make an actual or impending war.
Motivated Seller
The second one looks like it was designed for the audience of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, but my vote is for cover #1 (with the concentric circles image). DISCLAIMER: Monty Python and the Holy Grail was possibly the very first movie that I could quote from at length.
hope
The microbes in the UK cover look very Seussian to me
HumboldtBlue
So now I gotta spend MORE money! OK, ok, I’ll do it.
Scrounger
Personally I prefer the US cover and blurb, but I can see why the British would prefer the other – there were many things they thought they had conquered, but turned out they hadn’t, really.
Oh, and as far as ‘anthropocene’ goes? Nah. Given that the pre-human era was called the “Holocene”, I have a much better term:
the “Assholocene”. Thx.
MazeDancer
If you would like your own e-book copy, but are boycotting Amazon, and don’t want a Nook, head to Bookshop.com
It is a site that provides online purchasing – physical and digital – for local bookstores.
You choose your “local” – which can be around the corner or across the nation – and just order.
Now, many of you may be quite familiar with Bookshop.com. I am not. Tom said on Bluesky he had never e-ordered from them, so I will report next week if it worked.
Also, as a heavy Libby user, I support Libraries. Went and clicked “notify me” about “So Very Small”, which could also describe library resources in these troubled times.
But one of my Libby Libraries is the New York Public Library, which I get free because I live in NY State. If they get enough interest, maybe they’ll procure more copies.
Gretchen
@Tom Levenson: Microbiology lab tech here. Once you have the isolate, you just see what sugars and such it can and can’t use and go from there. You don’t have to be thinking specifically of what you’re looking for. I once isolated cholera from diarrhea someone caught on vacation to Mexico, and I certainly wasn’t expecting to find cholera.
KSinMA
Yay!!! Congratulations, Tom! Can’t wait to read it!
Gretchen
I like the US version better. The UK one makes me itch.
Tony Jay
Huh.
To mine eyes the US version has the look of a cold-war space saga, with the hypnotic alien eye swarming with microbes staring down at us from the Big Black, while the placement of the writing has a very American feel to it – I AM CALLED – I AM ABOUT – I AM BY.
While the UK one is going for a more “Don’t be afraid, dear, this is one of those ‘complex things made understandable’ books” cover, complete a visual clue to the historical span image, saying “We’ve been trying to understand these buggers for HOW long? Well, at least THIS long. Isn’t that interesting?” It’s playful. While the writing has a different flow. Who is telling us this story? What is the story called? What is your story about?
Different strokes. Whatever moves product.
Chief Oshkosh
I like the US cover. But then, I’m a USAian.
The subtitles vary, too, though they’re both negative. Could’ve gone with “And we’d still be kickin’ ass if it weren’t for all the cranks and con-men!”
lowtechcyclist
I like the US graphic better. The UK graphic looks like the cover of a book that I’d have seen in my grandfather’s attic when I was a kid.
OTOH, I strongly prefer the UK subtitle on account of the “deluded themselves” bit.
And David Quammen’s been one of my nonfic heroes since The Song of the Dodo, so when he gives a book that sort of praise, I want it.
@Trollhattan:
She Beat the Reaper!
ETA: According to my careful prosthesis, G&T and Jacel both beat me to it, dammit!
sab
@Tony Jay: Brit and USians are very different people. Y’all have such weird tastes.
As a Brit descended mostly WASP I am somewhat surprised. I thought we had colser ties to the mothership, but you guys do feed marmite to your children.
sab
@lowtechcyclist: Back in the days when grandmother had books in her attic. I read the entire Oz series then repeatedly.
My grandkids have nothing. Everything is on e-books. And I was late to Harry Potter but I was appalled when I read it. Those kids trust no one even each other. They lie every time they open mouths. House-elfs are slaves. And they all grew up to be, basically, ICE.
Narnia was a bit misogynistic, but Potterworld is appalling.
artem1s
I love your title.
It is a strange fate that we should suffer so much fear and doubt over so small a thing. Such a little thing.
artem1s
@karen gail:
Na, I think he’s already anticipating more criminal trials and possibly Roberts backtracking on the immunity ruling from last year. He know he’s gonna have to spend the rest of his miserable life raising money for a defense team – running for office is an easy con. Always Be Grifting!
Anyway
@Another Scott: 32 minutes to cook an egg is a Hard No. Give me my 7or8-minute jammy egg… YMMV
Congratulations, Tom. Your book sounds very interesting will check it out
sab
@artem1s: Are you coming to the Columbus meetup? I am. If not, would you come to a NE Ohio one this Fall?
I think we should spell it oHIO. Or OIHo. Backwards and upside down, like Ginger Rogers dancing. Or Oiho.
sab
@Anyway: 17 minutes at hot, 20 minutes cooling is perfect hard boiled eggs. Other cooking has differemt timing.
sab
Thomas Levenson, as always, I really love yor headpiece photo.
bluefoot
Congrats! And this sounds great – I am looking forward to reading the book! A zoom once we’ve had a chance to read the book would be great.
I’ve had similar thoughts around the discoveries in physics in the early 20th century. It was a very interesting time in classical music, art, world events, etc. I think all those things together were an environment that fostered the kind of thinking for things like relativity, quantum mechanics, etc. (It is of course much too simplistic to think of those things as linear cause and effect; scientific discoveries also fed into the milieu that creates art, etc)
The cultural etc aspects around discovery and creativity are part of what has given me pause about ML/AI. While useful tools, they essentially rely on statistical models of what already is. But that’s a whole other discussion.
BigJimSlade
@Another Scott: And it still tastes like an egg and needs some salt and pepper ;-) I once read that you can tell how serious a chef is by how carefully they can make an egg.
BigJimSlade
Congrats Tom!
This is just the sort of thing I read before bed (just finished We Are Electric by Sally Adee – it’s good!) – I’ll check LAPL for it :-)
Joy in FL
My copy ships from Bookshop dot org on publishing day. I look forward to reading it. I’m so glad you’re getting good recognition for your research. I feel lucky to have you as a fellow Jackal.
If you had time to do a Zoom, I would love that. Hopefully I can read a bit of the book before then.
Pete Downunder
@sab:
This expat living in Oz prefers the US version. I don’t care for the cartoonish people in the UK version
Tom Levenson
Running out to something now. Once again, thanks to everyone. I’m verklempt at the kindness shown in the comments above.
Satanley (aka weasel)
So excited! Not normally one to sit in on a zoom, but I might plug in for one about this :)
And I like both the UK cover and the sub title better than the US versions.
KenK
Tom, what? You’re on Sean Carroll’s podcast?! You, have hit the Big Time
wonkie
I pre-ordered it.
stinger
Happy owner of several Levenson titles, and will participate in a zoom if offered.
As far as the cover designs, the US design makes a better use of white space (black space, in this case), but once past the catchy title and flashy image you have to read the smaller subtitle to see what the book is about. The UK design is more approachable and fun, the image says more clearly what the book is about, and the subtitle is better, both in content and in font.
I think the US version would catch my eye, but the UK version is the one I would pick up — even before noticing the author!
NutmegAgain
Looks great! Can’t wait to dig in.
Gretchen
Ordered the book, would be interested in a zoom. Are you going to do a book tour?
Gloria DryGarden
In considering the 2 covers, I realize the USA one depicts the history of the amazing and mysterious world of microbes, while the uk one seems to depict the history of how humans can be idiots even when faced with scientific facts and oodles of data, or, the history of human denial, the triumph of diseases, and our interesting potential demise.
while I understand it’s a book about the history of how information about disease gets accepted, I do like the USA cover, the crisp circular graphic. And I don’t know enough about the differences in each nations sense of humor and worldview, which might connect to your publishers choice of graphic.
baud could have said all that in two sentences
Gloria DryGarden
for two days my YouTube has news stories, on the breaking news selection row of choices, that are not about him, and don’t show his photo. It’s a relief to my eyes. It took the pope dying to get him off the top headlines. Nearly everything’s about the pope, RIP
ToesInTheSand
I like the graphics of the US version but the text and layout of the UK version. The ‘deluded’ verbiage drew me in. Will definitely be ordering it. Can the germy book covers have a hook-up (migration) and assimilate?
Miss Bianca
@Tom Levenson: Just put in a request at my local library to purchase this. Looks great, Tom, congratulations! And so timely, too…yay? Yay-ish? :/
ETA: I know I must be American because I too prefer the US cover. Pretty colors! The UK one just looks weird to me. Is it based on some extant British illustration from days gone by?
4D*hiker
I probably prefer the UK cover, not only for the cover text (“deluded themselves”), but for an odd transference from an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation entitled “The Realm of Fear.” In this episode, Lt. Reginald Barclay has hallucinations of a creature in the transporter beam. That pink circle with creatures “swimming” around on the UK cover just instantly brought to mind that scene of the transporter beam containing unseen horrific creatures and the overwhelming fear Reggie had in response.
The “microcosmos” is populated with more than our human hallucinations, but it certainly is a “Realm of Fear” which has not been conquered. Respect is warranted, not hubris and willful ignorance such as the current Secretary of HHS displays.
Congratulations on your book! May it prosper.
Miss Bianca
@Trollhattan:
@Tom Levenson:
Plague – yes, good ol’ bubonic plague – is not unknown out here in the Mountain West. Prairie dogs, I believe, are a principal vector.
hitchhiker
Well done, and I’d be very interested in a chat about this book. Big fan!
I’ll order a hard copy through my local bookstore, along with the audible version.
sab
My American husband voted for the UK cover, but only because he votes against whatever I like, always.
sab
@Miss Bianca: Every rodent out there is a vector, poor little guys.
sab
I loved your last book. I always associated Isaac Newton with gravity amd physics. I had no idea he knew about money and currency.
Those numeric people do get around.
lowtechcyclist
@sab:
Ah, the wide-open vector spaces of the American West!
Miss Bianca
@4D*hiker: the UK cover is growing on me a little more, I confess…I think it was the color scheme (or would that be ‘colour scheme’?) that I found a little grating.
CapnMubbers
@HumboldtBlue: I’ve missed seeing you here, even left a very late comment on the Absent Friends post. Good to see proof of life.
Etv13
Am I the only person the “themselves that we” in the UK version bothers? Shouldn’t it be “ourselves that we”?
Wolvesvalley
Congratulations, Tom!
I’ve placed a pre-order, too. Looking forward to reading it very much.
Wolvesvalley
Etv13:
You are not the only person bothered by it!
Redactor
Congrats! Only this morning the NYRB put up a nice review. https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2025/05/15/measles-gone-wild-booster-shots-adam-ratner/
Betsy
I am so excited about this book. It sounds wonderful.
My father, a public health microbiologist, turns 90 soon, and I always try to find a nonfiction book he’ll enjoy for his birthday present.
My mission appears to be accomplished early this year! I just know he’ll love it.
And I look forward to reading it, too!
Le hasard, ne favorise que l’esprit préparée. – Louis Pasteur
(imperfect translation — Chance favors the prepared.)
Central Planning
I just pre-ordered it. Should be here probably on the day of release. I’m looking forward to it!
Tom Levenson
@Redactor: Cool! Hadn’t seen that. Thanks for the link.
Kayla Rudbek
@sab: yeah, there’s a doctoral thesis to be had for the person who compares the Calvinist view of Harry Potter to the Universalist view of Diane Duane’s Young Wizards series (and maybe I would do it if I could figure out whether the analysis belongs to the English department, the Religious Studies department, or the Theology department).
Duane kicks off the very first book in her series with ***spoilers***
the climax being an edit of the source code of the entire universe to give even the Devil [the Eldest, Fairest and Fallen, aka the Lone One, etc] a chance to redeem, and proceeds from there in the Young Wizards and Feline Wizards series. Since time is decidedly not linear in the series, there are plenty of chances for your average wizard to face down the Lone One even after redemption becomes possible for the Lone One. (**end spoilers**)
Maybe my second youngest nephew is old enough for the Young Wizards series now; not sure about the Feline Wizards series yet.
Fr. Andrew Greeley would have said that Duane shows the Catholic Imagination aka here comes everybody.
I was reading Duane, Greeley, Pratchett, and Bujold around the same time, and you could do much worse in life than to pull ideas about God and politics from those four authors. Probably need to add in non-white authors as well (Nnedi Okorafor, Octavia Butler, P. Djeli Clark to start with in the SF and fantasy genre, and I always want more recommendations) in order to have a wider field of view.
Kayla Rudbek
@sab: oh, yeah, I had about the first fourteen Oz books in paperback, and it was pretty good on having strong female characters (Dorothy, Glinda, Ozma, the Wicked Witches, the princess who changed her head every day, etc). Another series that I need to introduce my younger nephews to. Then they can properly appreciate Gregory Maguire’s take on Oz later once they have the canon under their belts.
mvr
Congrats!
I think you just need a fold out corrogated cardboard dual display for every bookstore to use to sell them side by side. Then see which one sells out more quickly. Some people might want one of each.
How do we get one with an autograph?
Kayla Rudbek
@sab: three to five minutes boil and then 10 minutes off the burner while the boiling water cools down, that’s a good hard-boiled egg.
jame
UK cover is better, gives an idea of what’s inside, does help in judging a book by the cover.
Yutsano
I have sometimes wondered if you’re the spiritual successor of David Burke, although from what I understand he was just a presenter*. I do know that my scientist father enjoys your books very much.
*I actually don’t know his biography enough to know for sure, & as I need to awaken early tomorrow not going to look it up tonight.
BellyCat
Looking forward to this, Tom! Glad to see the positive reviews but not surprised in the least. (Voting for UK cover)