⭐⭐⭐.5 Stars Review
From the Book Blurb
100,000 years ago the object hit the lake at the deepest point, quickly sinking into its mile-deep stygian darkness. The sheets of ice closed, time moved on, and the land forgot.
But over the centuries, legends grew of people vanishing, of strange, deformed animals, and of an unexplained luminescence down in the lake depths.
When Marcus Stenson won the lucrative contract to create a sturgeon fish farm on the site of a disused paper mill on the shore of Lake Baikal, he thought he had hit the jackpot. He refused to listen to the chilling folktales, or even be concerned by the occasional harassment from the local mafia. But then animals were found mutilated in the frozen forest, and people started to go missing. And worse, some came back, changed, horribly.
In the depths of the lake, something that had been waiting 100,000 years was stirring. And it needed the warmth of mankind to survive.
The Siberian Incident Review
I became a fan of Greig after I read "The Fossil" a short story with a combination of archaeology, science fiction and time travel horror. Subsequently I have savored most of his other stories.
This is my second reading of this book after a gap of nearly two years.
Got stuck onto the story and this was for me a marginal improvement to 3.5 stars considering that the book is eminently readable as compared to numerous others that I found very difficult to complete.
Too much of a Sci-fi style channel inspired and weaved story of aliens from dawn of time who wake up after centuries of hibernation and start to wreak havoc in Lake Baikal.
I picked up this book after reading the book blurb and What Beck sold me was a prehistoric ancient event, a genuine resurrection effort for a widely loved and famous fish, the enigmatic Lake Baikal, largest freshwater lake, crossed with John Carpenters The Thing. Good enough for me and fast enough for me too.
As is usual for a creature feature we also have a Hollywood movie style Rambo-Commando combo with a hint of family. The special forces as usual are better than everyone else, which is a par for the course.
I liked the description of the creature.
The Bratva or Russian Mafia are weak here and appear as a side story to get eaten. They are amongst the most feared of gangsters and have a ruthlessness made famous in numerous movies and have a code of their own. The story could have had some more exploration there to improve the intensity and readability.
The story on steroids and is at high speed, predictable but not much waste of words or works. I had finished this in a couple of days the first time and in days the last time around. On this occasion, I savored the pace and story and the prose moved smoothly and it never felt too forced reading this book, although setting it aside was never easy.
The story pursues one mans ambition to salvage and rejuvenate the numbers of the endangered Beluga sturgeon through farming in the lake. With the famed fish going extinct the Russian govt. was pursuing ways of resurrection of the species and Marcus bags the breeding program order.
South Siberia is a secluded area and like in all of Russia and most of the Soviet bloc countries, the bratva call the shots whether it is a private or a govt. enterprise. They have their fingers in every pie and no one who crosses them is ever hear of again.
The prologue of the book arms us with the information of a historical meteor in the area and how the area has been off-bounds for most animals.
Neither Marcus nor the bratva who get themselves at odds are aware of the malevolent entity that resides in the area and is at the top of the food chain. Enter the protagonist Carter, older brother to Marcus and a special forces man with Afghan tours under his belt and we enter the war zone all guns blazing.
Would recommend this one as a solid read from a star writer.
The epilogue leaves the book open for a sequel.
Would love to see the main character cast in some other adventure.
Recommended.
⭐⭐⭐.5 Stars
Recommended
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