Armwrestling the Dead

Oriel is a planet with a roof, a crusted atmospheric ceiling that falls in chunks like oversized snow. The snow is alive, the Ologists joke. It mimics life, but only out of the corner of your eye...or behind your back.

Oriel is a far-flung world whose raw potential is contested, although not understood. A deliberately crashed spaceship throws the planet's atmosphere into turmoil, kick-starting an evolutionary process that accelerates out of control. There is indigenous life on Oriel but in a...