Subhuman
-
-
3.8 • 60 Ratings
-
-
- $6.99
Publisher Description
At a secret Antarctic lab, scientists make a shocking discovery—one that is ancient, terrifying, and very hungry—in this horror thriller series debut.
Five of the world's top scientists have been brought together to solve one of the greatest mysteries in human history. Their subject, however, is anything but human. Deep beneath the ice of Antarctica, the submerged ruins of a lost civilization hold the key to the strange mutations that each scientist has encountered across the globe: A misshapen skull in Russia; the grotesque carvings of a lost race in Peru; the mummified remains of a humanoid monstrosity in Egypt . . .
When a series of sound waves trigger the ancient organisms, a new kind of evolution begins. Latching onto a human host—crossbreeding with human DNA—a long-extinct life form is reborn. Its kind has not walked the earth for thousands of years. Its instincts are more savage than any predator alive. And its prey are the scientists who unleashed it . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Building on the success of 2015's Subterrestrial, thriller powerhouse McBride begins his Unit 51 series with meticulous quasiscientific conceptual groundwork, drawing readers into a satisfyingly slow-building, intellectualized mystery. A group of experts who have made strange discoveries in archaeology, microbiology, crop circle research, and acoustics are brought together at a secret Antarctic underground government research facility to puzzle out the biology of nonhuman hominid skulls and the mechanisms of ancient alien artifacts. McBride neatly executes a sudden shift of mood and tone toward frantic horror when the story flips into a race to escape from savage human-alien hybrid predators in a confined space, evoking feelings of shock and terror. McBride brings this episode to a clear conclusion but provides plentiful material for the next volume: teasers about Nazi research into alien involvement in recent human history, and characters with personal agendas whom he leaves alive to continue their explorations.
Customer Reviews
Fun, predictable, bloody, but I’ll bite…!
Exciting creature stuff! Secret impregnable military establishment (dinosaur resort, biology lab, etc) turns out to be quite pregnable. An internet rabbit-hole full of mysteries easily researchable as debunked are woven together to give us the origin of life, the universe and all these malevolent creatures trying to eat us down here in Antarctica.
Little high-strung but good read
By high-strung, I refer to the continual change of character perspective chapter to chapter which takes some getting used to and can cause confusion in the story line if you don’t track who the character is. Great story and very fast-paced once you get passed all of the introductions. Thinking the second McBride book will be easier and better. Hard to say that about sequels or follow ons, but I’ve heard good things.
Flows through your head like a movie!
I admit, it took some adjusting to the changing perspectives, but once you get used to that, the writing and detail of this book really helps it flow like a movie as you read. It’s like actual scenes flash through. Very well written, 10/10