The Naturalist - Tapa blanda

Not every European experiment in the New World ended in success. Companies failed. Expeditions were lost. Whole colonies vanished. Sometimes the cause was starvation... Sometimes it was simple miscalculation... Sometimes it was...something else. “In the distance, I could hear men shouting, and heard two pistols fired in quick succession, but from my seated position, I could not see past the trembling grass heads. I got to one knee, and started to search along the road for my companions, but before I could spot them, a situation much nearer to hand caught my attention—the liquid was surging closer. And it wasn't liquid. It was a boiling mass of insects...” Amateur naturalist Calvin Brown dreams of the day he can pay off his debt and finally claim the land his parents have left him. Land that should provide him with enough income to live, if not in luxury, then at least in comfort. But when disaster strikes an outlying town, Brown discovers that sometimes, thoughtless destruction of the rainforest might have unforeseen circumstances. Circumstances that will have Brown, and everyone he knows, fighting desperately for their very survival. Sometimes, you don’t want to wake up what slumbers in the deep jungle. Not if you want to live.

Mark is the author of a bunch of novels, lots of short stories, and essays (full list). His novel Devil’s Tower was nominated for the World Fantasy Award, and his News from the Edge series was turned into a TV show called The Chronicle, which aired on the Syfy Network. Under the name Kenyon Morr, Mark and Marella co-authored two novels for Boulevard Books, Kingdom of Sorrow and See No Weevil. Mark has held nearly every job known to man, including coal miner, USGS cartographer, newspaper photographer, and database architect. He has dug for dinosaurs in South Dakota. And he used to know the genus and species of every freshwater fish in the United States. When he isn’t writing or working or blogging, Mark enjoys paddling out on the lake in his kayak and watching the resident osprey hunt for his breakfast. The lake used to contain a lake monster, but Mark hasn’t spotted him in a while.