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As World War III rages, the scientists in Antarctica are thankful for the isolation – until a group of Chinese scientists arrive at the American research base. In their truck is a dead body, the first murder in Antarctica. The potential for a geopolitical firestorm is great, and, with no clear jurisdiction, the Americans don’t know what to do. But they soon realize the Chinese scientists have brought far more with them than the body…
Within seventy-two hours, thirteen others lie dead in the snow, murdered in acts of madness and superhuman strength.An extremophile parasite from the truck, triggered by severe cold, is spreading by touch. It is learning from them. Evolving. It triggers violent tendencies in the winter crew, and, more insidiously, the beginnings of a strange symbiotic telepathy.
Exhausted by suspicion and fear, with rescue impossible for months, the desperate crew members turn on each other. A small group of survivors try to resist the siren call of the growing hive mind and stay alive long enough to solve the mystery of the symbiotic microbe’s origins. But the symbiote is more than a disease – it is a biological weapon that can change the balance of power in a time of war.
The survivors cannot let anyone infected make it to the summer season, when planes will arrive to take them – and potentially the symbiote – back to civilization.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
February 11, 2025 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9781915998439
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9781915998439
- File size: 2964 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Starred review from November 1, 2024
DEBUT The 40-odd American scientists, engineers, and support staff overwintering at the South Pole are happy to be away from the potential World War III that seems to be heating up between the U.S. and China in this near-future sci-fi thriller--until they find their base invaded by a crew of desperate Chinese scientists and one seething corpse. Scientist Rajan Chariya, the only military officer at the U.S. station, fears that the situation is related to his own top-secret assignment, turning his crew into collateral damage in a clandestine operation that was designed to leave no survivors. Bioterrorism is just one of the terrors in this compulsively readable and utterly chilling SF thriller by DARPA researcher and polar scientist Nayak. The tension increases on every page, as the threat shifts from a distant war to a murderous man on the ice and gets both larger and paradoxically smaller as the polar scientists determine that it's not the extreme conditions affecting the crew's sanity: it's an engineered microbe with a mind of its own--and out for theirs. VERDICT Highly recommended for readers of sci-fi thrillers, cli-fi, and bioterrorism thrillers, and Tom Clancy fans who enjoy a bit of SF in their political thrillers.--Marlene Harris
Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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November 4, 2024
Nayak sets his high-octane debut in 2028, as the U.S. and China wage war. At the ice-bound Amundsen-Scott Station in Antarctica, a U.S. research team is preparing for four months of complete darkness when a Chinese convoy blips on the radar. The only military person on site is soft-spoken Rajan, who ventures out to meet the unwanted guests: three Chinese scientists and one mutilated body, the apparent victim of Antarctica’s first murder. Shortly after their arrival, a plumber on the American crew experiences strange heat flashes and begins stalking one of the Station’s female scientists. After her bloodied body is found in the snow, the station’s doctor discovers the cause of all the weirdness: a fast-mutating microbe that thrives in the cold and controls its hosts’ minds. Within days, the station is overrun with zombies and Rajan must find a way to stop the hive. The plot feels ripped from John Carpenter’s The Thing, but Nayak enhances the familiar setup with sparse but effective scene-setting, much more gore, and a fascinating focus on the psychological effects of isolation and sun depravation. It can be hard to keep track of the large and hastily drawn cast amid the relentless, testosterone-laced action. Still, readers looking for thrills and thrills alone will find plenty of them here.
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