A team of scientists awakens an organism that has lain dormant beneath the ocean floor for millions of years.
“This is Dr. Mira Stone at Academy Station…”
When the Air National Guard receives an emergency call for help from a remote arctic research station in Greenland, Senior Master Sergeant Dan Cameron is chosen to lead the rescue mission. All he and his team know for sure is that the facility has lost primary power and the integrity of the complex has been compromised.
“Something is in here with us. Six of us are already dead.”
In an attempt to combat climate change, the scientists have genetically engineered an aquatic biofilm capable of generating oxygen and lowering the temperature of the underlying seawater, producing environmental conditions that awaken an organism that has lain dormant beneath the ocean floor for millions of years.
“Academy Station is lost. Do not—I repeat—do not attempt to reclaim—”
By the time Cameron arrives, the scientists have abandoned the smoldering ruins of the station. He discovers their trail leading across the glacier, but theirs aren’t the only tracks he finds. Something inhuman is hunting the survivors and he needs to find them before it does, because the most terrifying thing about the creature is…
You’ll never see it coming.
Chimera by Michael McBride. Narrated by Joe Hempel. Audiobook is published by Fireside Horror, September 2021. Runtime is 9 hours and 24 minutes.
Man….. I really…. REALLY wanted to love this book. I have enjoyed everything else I’ve read from McBride so far! Chimera just was not on the same level as his previous books. This isn’t a terrible book! Just not his best?
What I loved:
The premise is straight up my alley! I love science gone wrong creature stories. The plot was so much fun! I absolutely loved all the creatures. Um, spider BEAR? YES! YES! YES! How can you NOT want to see that?? All of this was just so much fun.
So what was it that I disliked?
Well, for starters, the main female character, Mira, was extremely frustrating. I’m trying to keep spoiler free, so sorry for being a little vague. There were just a TON of red flags that she missed or straight up ignored. I know she was blinded by science and saving the world, blah blah, but these red flags were NOT subtle. Like, at all. She should have had more of a clue to what was going down. With her ignoring them or missing them just made this very intelligent lady look so very stupid. 
Also making her look dumb was how she acted when confronting the creature in the last half of the book. UGH! She kept talking about saving it and healing it, even after she watched it kill everyone again and again. She knew it was too dangerous. It was obvious there was no “fixing” it or returning it to normal. She also knew it could destroy every ecosystem in the WORLD if it escaped… yet time and time again she interfered with people trying to stop it or kill it.
As if this character was not frustrating enough, she goes on and on about saving her friend. Ok, I get it, you had a work friend you shared a lab with and you want to make sure she’s ok. But about half way through the book, the main character starts to act like Sammy is her BFF times 1000. However there was no build up of this friendship whatsoever! It is built up like a working friendship and once they meet up at the station, it never EVER felt like close friends. No closer then any of the other scientists at the station. It just felt so odd at the end how Mira talked about their friendship because I never once felt like it was anything more then a friendly work relationship. I can’t say more without spoilers, sorry!
I think for me, the flaws with the main character, Mira, is more frustrating than anything else. Then you had a few little minor hiccups with clunky science expositions and the story being a little predictable…. Sadly Chimera was just a miss for me. I really want to like it though! This is a talented author, and this book has a lot of fun stuff in it…
Creature From The Book Lagoon 