Symbiote
(Libby/OverDrive eBook, Kindle)

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. (Jan.)

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

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

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. (Jan.)