This Green Hell

This was a fairly enjoyable little horror thriller about a flesh-melting microbe discovered in the Paraguayan jungle. It is the 3rd in a series featuring Alex Hunter, a super-soldier in the vein of Valiant Comics' Bloodshot character.

While not a bad story, my enjoyment of the book was tempered by some confusion over the origin of the microbe, and the silly "pure-evil" characterization of the antagonist, along with its depiction as a howling, slobbering, excessively dentitioned (with dozens of rows of needle-sharp teeth) crazed carnivore (or, should I say, "carbovore"). It's that type of over-the-top depiction of horror that, for me anyway, works counter to the intended effect. The narrative never instilled any fear or dread in my mind, show more and I never had any doubts as to the story's ending.

The climax itself was less than thrilling, as it ended up being less about solving the main conflict of the story, and more of a hacknied race-against-a-ticking-bomb. For that matter, the conflict is not fully resolved, at the end, leaving the readers to make their own assumptions about the ultimate outcome. show less

This was a much better story than books 1 or 2... mainly because the monster was a bit more realistic (and the monster was different from those in the first two books, which were very similar to each other) and the non-monster storyline (i.e. the search for gas deposits) was believable. Alex Hunter was also more believable than he was in book 2 where he brushed on the edge of supernatural (yes, he did here too, but it was a bit more understated).

There really isn't much else to say. If you read the first two books and liked them, you should like this one at least as much. If you didn't read the first two, well...I don't think you really need to in order to follow this story, it is pretty much standalone, although Alex is a recurring show more character. There is no sex, I don't recall any swearing, but there is some intentional gore (which I didn't think was as over-the-top as intended).

Beick has smoothed out a lot of the rough edges and I am planning to read the next book in the series. The story is wrapped up here (no cliff-hanger), but the future of Alex Hunter might be questionable... show less

By far the best book so far in the Alex Hunter series - lots of action and suspense, especially with a 400 year old priest/super-human villan, but it finished with many questions unanswered. Looking forward to "Black Hills" to find out what happens to Alex, Sam and Aimee. Great escapism!

Just okay! Seemed short and a bit weepy...but I am the queen of not finishing a book and I did finish. Miss a good Adrian McKinty or man do I miss Clinton McKinzie! He dropped out to write some non fiction...Antonio Burns, Come back!

Not as good as the first one, but decent.