The Vibration Wasps

Frank Belknap Long's The Vibration Wasps opens with a vision of cosmic dread: colossal, Jupiter-sized beings and a sense that humanity is trespassing in a realm of unimaginable danger. Richard and his daring young wife Joan are bound for Ganymede when an argument over Jupiter's hazards and the fate of lost expeditions gives way to disaster. Their ship's instruments fail, they plunge through the planet's cloud layers, and crash-land on a world that proves solid, immense, and far stranger than legend suggested. But Jupiter is no barren marvel. A horizon camera reveals signs of life, and soon gigantic wasp-like creatures invade the ship, paralyzing the crew with eerie ease. Richard awakens trapped in a web-like prison as the aliens pass through walls, abduct and immobilize their victims, and implant glowing larvae into human bodies. Only by piecing together the creatures' bizarre nature—translucent, oscillating beings of energy that can shrink and expand at will—can the survivors find a desperate chance to fight back. Blending pulp-era science fiction, survival horror, and cosmic wonder, the story turns Jupiter into a lethal, alien ecosystem where curiosity and terror collide. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.