However, the transmission was garbled. What is that 8-legged abomination on the left, with antennae and three tagma? Such a thing would never manifest itself in my dreams.
My bedtime reading lately has been Spiderlight by Adrian Tchaikovsky, which can partly be blamed for my dreams. It’s a fantasy novel, the usual quest to defeat the evil big bad with a party of a priest, a fighter, a rogue, etc. with one significant twist: they recruit (that is, force) a giant spider to join the team, after magically making it sort of a human/spider hybrid so they can talk to it. It’s entertaining. It’s got spiders in it, so of course it’s fun.
But meanwhile, at the lab: https://www.gocomics.com/offthemark/2019/12/25
Have you read Adrian Tchaikovsky’s “Children of Time”?
I admit to being a fan of Piers Anthony’s third Xanth novel, Castle Roogna. It follows the basic young hero/older mentor trope, with the twist that the mentor is a Phidippus jumping spider accidentally enlarged to the size of a horse. Just how prolific is the giant-spider-as-major-character trope in fantasy?
Of course I read Children of Time! Also the sequel, Children of Ruin, which has lots of squid in it.
He has more spider books?!?! OMG! Need it since I loved Children of Time and I’m only half way through it but Children of Ruin seems just as good.
Ok, you have convinced me to try out Adrian Tchaikovsky.
I started reading several authors that you have suggested, and have enjoyed them all. One of those was Anne Lecke, whose The Raven Tower I am currently reading.
A cheerful animation: The Insects’ Christmas…
Not squid, PZ; octopuses/octopodes/octopi. Just arms; no tentacles.
Talking about plurals, there’s no such thing as a tagmum. The plural of tagma is tagmata (or tagmas).
Loved both Children of Time and Children of Ruin. Definitely had PZ in mind more than once when reading through the first. Thanks for recommending the Ann Leckie book Mobius .. will check it out.