Virus

A critical, annotated version of Narlikar’s iconic novel about a cybervirus attack by an advanced alien species—with updated text and added material.

A year before Robin Cook’s Invasion (1997)––in which an alien force activated a latent biological virus in humans––and almost a decade before Liu Cixin’s The Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy (2008–10)––in which humanity’s scientific progress was curtailed by an alien supercomputer’s “sophon-lock”––Jayant Vishnu Narlikar’s Virus (1996) painted a similar scenario. In his novel, a cybervirus broadcast by an advanced, extraterrestrial species invaded Earth and froze its digital infrastructure: a prelude to an alien invasion. The novel, first published in Marathi, recounts how vast radio arrays on Earth intercept a seemingly innocuous message from an unknown planet orbiting Barnard’s Star. The radio signal, sent six years ago, coalesces into a cybervirus that has the potential to cause a complete digital meltdown and lead humanity into an age of chaos—an alien First Strike to prevent humanity from evolving further.

This book—a critical, annotated version of Virus, edited and revised by Sami Ahmad Khan—reissues Narlikar’s iconic novel with updated text and added dimensions. It includes detailed annotations that locate the technology of the text along the axis of contemporary scientific thought, as well as critical essays that focus on the literary, political, and sociocultural dimensions of the novel; articles on Narlikar’s role in India’s science and science fiction; an exclusive conversation with the author; bibliographical information on his works; and a bonus short story.