{"product_id":"book-oanu","title":"The Mercurian","description":"\u003cp\u003eMercury is supposed to be lifeless rock and blistering heat, a place where men go only to carve uranium from a hostile crust and then hurry home. But when a miner returns from the molten surface carrying an impossible living specimen, curiosity turns to catastrophe and the ship's crew begins to fall into a terrifying, motionless trance. In a matter of minutes, a hardened space crew becomes a gallery of frozen figures, their ship quietly hijacked by a being that does not see them as people at all.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTrapped aboard a drifting vessel under a merciless sun, one young officer discovers that the intruder can slip inside his thoughts, twist his words, and reshape reality itself. Survival will demand more than courage or brute force; it will require deception, restraint, and a desperate gamble against an entity that feeds on human energy and regards humanity as little more than a scientific curiosity. What follows is a high-stakes battle of wills where every thought is overheard and every hesitation could doom an entire crew to a fate worse than death.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrank Belknap Long delivers an imaginative tale that blends hard-edged space survival with eerie cosmic speculation. Best known for his ventures into strange and unsettling fiction, Long brings a sense of wonder and dread to the inner Solar System, turning Mercury into a stage for first contact that is as dangerous as it is awe-inspiring. \"The Mercurian\" stands as a gripping example of early planetary science fiction, where exploration invites not just discovery, but judgment from minds utterly unlike our own.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"INAudio","offers":[{"title":"Audiobook","offer_id":49887982584112,"sku":"BDoanu","price":1.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0879\/2784\/9264\/files\/oanu-Square-cover.jpg?v=1770083755","url":"https:\/\/downpour.com\/products\/book-oanu","provider":"Downpour","version":"1.0","type":"link"}