The Humanx Commonwealth: Book Five.

He was smart. He was good. He was backed by the Commonwealth's best equipment. So what could possibly go wrong?

'In the midst of life...' thought Evan Orgel.

A whole lot of life. Alien life-form upon alien life-form, crawling, floating, wriggling, darting and oozing. The entire unexplored surface of the planet Prism was unimaginably alive.

'...we are in death.'

His death. His Mobile Hostile World suit - the very latest, state-of-the-art, off-world protection gear - had just failed. Attacked in just about the only way its proud makers hadn't thought of.

So there he lay, a hermit crab trapped in his own armour, while the myriad alien life-forms of prism crawled, floated, wriggled, darted and oozed about him, getting ready to open him up like a tin of upmarket cat food.

Evan Orgell was full of misery.