“Robinson puts his distinctive mark on Michael Crichton territory with this terrifying present-day riff on The Island of Dr. Moreau… One of the best Jurassic Park successors.” –Publishers Weekly, starred review
Mark Hawkins, former park ranger and expert tracker, is out of his element, working on board the Magellan, a research vessel studying the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. But his work is interrupted when, surrounded by thirty miles of refuse, the ship and its high tech systems are plagued by a series of strange malfunctions and the crew is battered by a raging storm.
When the storm fades and the sun rises, the beaten crew awakens to find themselves anchored in the protective cove of a tropical island...and no one knows how they got there. Even worse, the ship has been sabotaged, two crewman are dead and a third is missing. Hawkins spots signs of the missing man on shore and leads a small team to bring him back. But they quickly discover evidence of a brutal history left behind by the Island’s former occupants: Unit 731, Japan’s ruthless World War II human experimentation program. Mass graves and military fortifications dot the island, along with a decades old laboratory housing the remains of hideous experiments.
As crew members start to disappear, Hawkins realizes that they are not alone. In fact, they were brought to this strange and horrible island. The crew is taken one-by-one and while Hawkins fights to save his friends, he learns the horrible truth: Island 731 was never decommissioned and the person taking his crewmates may not be a person at all—not anymore.
Why read this book? I was intrigued by the historical significance behind this book which is the existence of an actual island where the Japanese experimented on prisoners of war (POW) during WWII. It made me curious as to how the author was going to spin his story around this and hoped it wouldn't be too gory. Unfortunately for squeamish people like me the author was pretty much graphic in his descriptions.
Cons of the book: (Potential spoiler) I really really dislike how in thrillers most of the characters die and this one is no different. I mean can't I read one where everyone actually survives such an environment. Okay so it's unrealistic but I'd really like to find an author who finds plausible ways of keeping his characters alive till the end of the book instead of being very creative on how to kill them off.
Pros of the book: Like I said it was pretty graphic and not just the gory parts. I could actually imagine the layout of the island from the author's description which is pretty rare for me. Oftentimes I end up glossing over details of the scenery because the narration was just too tedious. I am not the most patient of readers obviously. The characters also had something going for them that made you want to root for them or want them to be the monster's next meal.
What really struck me about the book is the chilling thought that, even with advanced mapping and radar technology, there could be an island somewhere out there that dealt with that kind of horrific experiments as I write this. It could be privately funded or cloaked by clandestine government organizations. This isn't an attempt at a conspiracy theory but simply a thought that came about because of the news that many scientists are feeling pressured by all the stringent measures put in place by human rights advocates. Who's to say that they aren't experimenting out there? We all want cures to all the diseases that plague us and not everyone is willing to respect fundamental laws of nature in order to achieve it. Maybe they will end up with the results they were aiming for but at what expense? So this book should serve as a warning of the consequences that might arise from playing GOD.
(Book image and description from Amazon.com)
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