Book Recommendation: BIOS

This tightly plotted story is a valiant, smoothly-written science fiction story about the universal prevalence and diversity of life. Focused on the various viral, bacterial, and building-block-proteins of über-microscopic organisms (which are certainly much more deadly and difficult to combat than, say, huge scaly-caterpillars with coral-sharp claws and beady crab-like eyes.) Future space-travelers will more than probably have to deal with deadly plagues long before they will need to squash big bugs.

SF Fans, this book is widely available in paperback.