7 Billion Needles, Volume 4

Modern day Japan is the stage for a new form of hard science-fiction, as author Nobuaki Tadano revisits one of the genre’s Grand Masters, Hal Clement, in his debut work 7 Billion Needles. Loosely inspired by Clement’s golden age title Needle, 7 Billion Needles follows the life of a teenage girl whose quiet boring days are dramatically changed when her body is possessed by an alien life form caught up in an intergalactic manhunt.

In this final volume, life on Earth is on the brink. Hikaru finds herself in a battle with an organism bent on defining Earth’s ideal life-force. By going through the a few million years worth of genetic makeup from Earth’s history, this new threat quickly is breaking down the very fabric of life as time and space have developed.

With now two aliens residing in her, Hikaru’s purpose is clear. She must prove that humanity is at the top. And she must do this on her own. Her future will be forever tied with the two parasites living in her bloodstream, but as a young person capable of expanding the gene pool with her own make up, she alone is at the top of the native food-chain.