It is 2071, and Mars is being slowly terraformed by many nations often cooperating in an uneasy truce that reflects tensions back on Earth. The water of the polar ice cap, the most important resource for all the Mars colonies, is jointly controlled by the US, China, Japan and Russia, and doled out to the second-tier colonizing groups (Europe, Canada, Australia, India) only grudgingly. A military build-up is under way as different groups jockey for control of this all-important resource, and then the bodies of what appear to be intelligent aliens are found under the Martian ice. Saya Askai is dispatched from Earth in realtime, separating herself from the virtual reality network that encompasses civilization, to investigate... and finds herself in a battleground of cyborgs, virtual reality plagues, and Schwarzchild traps that she may only be able to navigate through safely with the help of people who probably don't exist... Originally published in 1999, Crystal Silence was promptly voted the best Japanese SF novel of the year in the annual poll run by Hayakawa SF Magazine.

The mummy of a beautiful young girl from Shang Dynasty China is found in an ornate and astonishingly large underground tomb. Preliminary research shows that her cells contain reptilian DNA, and a Japanese research lab is asked to investigate further... Working under the stern Dr. Li, molecular biologist Morishita Anri begins to probe the mysteries locked in the mummy's genetic code, while experiencing strange hallucinations of a different time and place. As Dr. Li hints at prehuman intelligences and huge caverns under the earth, Anri begins to wonder why uniformed soldiers of the PRC Liberation Army are present in the research center in Tokyo. Hallucinations and reality begin to fuse as innocents begin to die in both realities... A classic work of modern horror from the fevered brain of Asamatsu Ken, recognized as a master of weird fiction and horror in Japan. Stunning cover art by Kojima Ayami.