The Caloris Network: A Scientific Novel
About this audiobook
The year is 2130. The first-ever expedition is sent to Mercury to search for the cause of an unknown source of electromagnetic radiation that can destroy space ships passing by the planet. Thought to be inhospitable and lifeless, the surface of Mercury provides startling surprises for the crew that endanger their lives and challenge their established notions of what it means to be a sentient being. And some of the crew members have their own separate agendas. The scientific appendix introduces listeners to the wondrous world of Mercury and how it has been portrayed in literary fiction up to the present time. The author then uses scientific literature to present a concept of life that is not based on carbon chemistry or the need for water. There is also a discussion of consciousness based on electromagnetic wave theory.
About the author
Nick Kanas is an Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, where he directed the group therapy training program. For over twenty years he conducted research on group therapy, and for nearly twenty years after that he was the Principal Investigator of NASA-funded research on astronauts and cosmonauts. He is the co-author of Space Psychology and Psychiatry, which won the 2004 International Academy of Astronautics Life Science Book Award, and the author of Humans in Space: The Psychological Hurdles, which won the 2016 International Academy of Astronautics Life Science Book Award. Dr. Kanas has presented talks on space psychology and on celestial mapping at several regional and Worldcon science fiction conventions. A Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, he has been an amateur astronomer for over fifty years and is an avid reader of science fiction. He is also the author of two nonfiction books (Star Maps: History, Artistry, and Cartography and Solar System Maps: From Antiquity to the Space Age) and two science fiction novels (The New Martians and The Protos Mandate).
Kate Mulligan has acted with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for more than ten seasons in productions including Hairspray, Alice in Wonderland, and Sense and Sensibility. Her film and television work includes Being John Malkovich and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
Steven Crossley is a multi-Earphones Award winner and twice-nominated Audie finalist who has narrated over two-hundred audiobooks. He graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and has established an acting career on both sides of the Atlantic in theatre, television, film, and radio drama. A member of the internationally acclaimed company Complicite, he has performed with distinguished companies in New York and London.
