Invasive

***.5
Although listed as a sequel, this is pretty much a stand-alone book, with different characters, themes, plot, and style. Which is good, because the first one was rather mediocre, and this one a lot more fun. Instead of the cheesy hackers, we have killer ants, a shady billionaire with a secret island lair, and a damaged but likeable protagonist.

Yes, the Bond villain plot is a bit silly, but considering the actual headlines these concerning the shenanigans of our IRL billionaires (and what they get up to on their secret island lairs), it's perhaps not really that much of a stretch.

Anyway, it's gross and exciting and given how awful humans can be, maybe the killer ants have a point…

If I graded this along with my favourite books, I might drop half a star, but basing this novel on its own merits and the genre, it’s a solid 4/5. One review on the cover claims it to be one for fans of Michael Crichton and I can understand why. Its fast pace and solid imagery makes for a book a reader can plough through. The threat feels real, as does the inevitable countdown to time running out. The march of endangerment is as inexhaustible as the unrelenting insectile invasion, though this is no B-Movie. There’s a disturbing note of truth on the evolutionary, environmental, and genetic interference scale that’s all too sadly believable. Of course, this is a stretch of the imagination, but in this type of story, that’s what show more the reader is looking for. An enjoyable read, though not for anyone suffering from Myrmecophobia (fear of ants). show less

Do you want a phobia of ants? This is how you get a phobia of ants.

Absolutely crawling with gratuitous, detailed descriptions of getting eaten alive by ants. I suppose someone, somewhere, wants to read about that. And certainly the book isn't shy about what it's about. I wouldn't have read it at all if I weren't quarantined with nothing else left I hadn't read.

But it's not bad if that's what you're into. Fast paced, everyone's about to die every second, some level of mildly plausible science. I guess if you like science thrillers this might be your kind of thing.

But totally circle your property with ant traps first.

**This book was reviewed for San Francisco Book Review**

Wendig's Invasive sinks its mandibles in from the start and refuses to let go. Terse, yet eloquent, it'll keep you up all night. Whether it's to finish it, or because you're too afraid to sleep, well now, that's a different question altogether. And now I have the Pink Panther theme stuck in my head….

Hannah Stander, a futurist consultant for the FBI is in her way home to visit her survivalist parents when she's called away by Agent Hollis Copper to a remote cabin in the woods with no other information than that it contains 'over a thousand bodies’. Not human bodies, as it turns out. The cabin contains one badly mutilated human corpse and thousands of wee ant corpses. Like an show more army of tiny Ramsey Boltons, these ferocious beasties flayed him alive before falling to the coming winter. Okay, falling to an early spring frost.

Hannah's job is to try and discover what the blazes went down here, and if a crime had even been committed. She learns the ants contain proprietary genes from one Arca Labs, so off to Hawai'i she goes, to the remote Kolohe Atoll. What she uncovers is a far more sinister than she ever could have imagined. And she can imagine a great deal! Its part of her job after all.

I love the language. Descriptive, yet minimal, Wendig gets his point across in graphic detail, proving you do not, in fact, need a thousand words to paint a picture. Sometimes the right four or five will do just fine. To whit: “-the eyes bulging white fruits against the muscles of his cheeks and forehead.” Yeah, forget everything else, that right there freaked the bejeezus out of me. I’m very eye sensitive, having lost one. It's clear a great deal of research went into this novel. Given the propensity today to play god and create chimeras in the lab, Invasive rings a great deal more plausible than my beloved Jurassic Park.

🎻🎻🎻🎻🎻 Highly recommended, especially if you like the works of Michael Crichton, Douglas Preston, and Lincoln Child. show less

Evil. Evil. Evil. I finished this book hours ago and I still can feel my skin crawling from the ants. Imaginary ants but they're the worst! Just what I needed, another insect to feel completely terrified of. Thanks so much! Seriously, this book is great though. The tension and build-up are perfectly done and the characters are so very real. The ants in the book kept making me jump too -- even though I knew they would be there after the first chapter. Great book is you like creepy, crawly, scary, freak-out books. Just make sure you have a can of raid nearby while reading!

Sequel to the Zeroes. While AI was topic of Zeroes, Invasive concentrates on genetic tailoring of living forms to counter species that are deadly to the humanity as disease transmitters or in general poisonous life forms and of course dangers associated with playing the life giving entity. Of course question one might start asking is how far should genetic combination game go and where we should stop (just imagine that Simpsons' episode where lizards are introduced to kill off pigeons but then horned gorillas are required to control the lizards :) etc etc), but you will not find it here, route seems to be more or less decided.

Story is well written, very lean and very filmesque. You can just imagine this one being converted into the show more movie in a second (for some reason I constantly see Hollis played by Samuel Jackson :)) And as such there are cliches here , some of which i unfortunately start to notice ever more and thus get annoyed :)

So, our protagonist Hannah is daughter of preppers - people expecting a cataclysm every day now so they live in isolation and living using what they find at hand, because they do not want to be part of decaying (or doomed) society that they see turning on its own with the first crisis/hiccup encountered. To make things interesting, Hannah is futurologist in the way that she tries to see what does future bring to people - doom or better life. And of course you can guess that she sees doom. We already have several cliches here.
Hannah's view how her parents are not that good in the head, and constant jabs at conspiracy theorists (as is now so popular to call everyone who, you know, needs to be ridiculed - to a degree that there is meme now that all conspiracy theories are just spoilers for events 6-12 months ahead :)) because they think how rich and powerful will cause a mayhem that will bring the entire world into the apocalyptic situation. Of course they are funny and silly people, because it is not that this book is about Hannah coming across the rich and unscrupulous people with God complex trying to create the crisis to continue earning money :) I mean, wtf :) Of course this does not affect our heroine for a second because hey, they just showed her how to survive in the wilderness, survive in gunfights and patch herself up with whatever is at hand - did they teach her basics of experimental genetic treatment or showed her how to plug the multiple bullet holes and just through the feel of her hands be able to identify what internal organs are damaged and how to heal them. I mean, how more backwater can you be - right? :D

Only healthy reaction (that of course ends up as a part spoiled kid's war against the parents - because hey if you do not have trauma caused by your parents it seems you are not part of the society (cliche, again!)) is to her mother's slowness to seek medical assistance when required. Everything else - forced mother daughter relationship and utterly sick move towards the father - shows Hannah imbued with all the modern child-parent "trauma", little genius completely unable to behave normally in society, living with irrational fears just for the sake of suffering, on the constant verge of despair and questions does it make sense to continue living (but of course not even contemplating any self harm because she loves herself more than anyone else, and just enjoys suffering through these morbid fantasies to be able ..... to talk with herself?) but more than capable to take care of herself in case of physical danger, from weapons to hand to hand conflict (thanks to her parents that she thinks so little about, I mean bloody hell).

In other words template of almost any female protagonist of action movie in the last two decades.

Then we have antagonist and of course "plague of humanity" talk. I mean....... only remaining thing is having maniacal laughter, mandarin outfit, white fluffy cat and twirling mustache :) I know this is for the sake of the plot and easiest reason for doing anything bad - but I mean, isn't it weird that this entire concept of hating humankind (it is oh so parasitic etc) is so entrenched? And the very fact that this discourse is treated as a common point between protagonist and antagonist is a sad way of things. We are the only species that hates itself, or at least likes to talk about it but of course it is always the others that need to be "educated" :D As far as I remember nobody ever rushed to the end - as a matter of fact they cling to this world as long as they can, even if it means living with assistance of the technological wonders. So that is that cliche and regurgitated theme all over again.

Ending of the book is very good. People died, lives are destroyed...... why? Oh, apparently, you see, culling is required from time to time for progress (not that any financial gain is in play, oh nooooo :)). This unfortunately is not so much a cliche (although it is, same as the use of the above mentioned theory of humans as viruses, as motivation for these misguided geniuses) because very influential people are talking about depopulation as something good (wtf?) and they see how they can use the situation to propel the humanity (what humanity if numbers are dwindling?) (again, not for materialistic reasons, no, never! :)).

Taking all of that into account, ending is very contemporary and very good. Only ending I find better (because it is more satisfactory at least for me) is ending of Rainbow Six (novel, not the game).

With all of the above being said, I find the novel very engaging, fast-paced and very cinematic (those blimey ant drawings startled me quit a few times :)) Same as like to watch thriller movie like Dan Brown's novel ecranisations or James Bond movies, I like to read novels in the same genre. They are entertainment, not educational materiel, and they are very good to get the reader immersed, enjoying the ride and constantly wondering what now!

For fans of adventure and thrillers highly recommended. show less

Invasive by Chuck Wendig is a highly recommended thriller featuring killer ants.

Hannah Stander is a futurist and consultant for the FBI who assists with cases that feature advanced technological and scientific advances. She identifies unseen threats, whatever they are, and determines the cause. When FBI Agent Hollis Copper has to investigate a dead body with no skin surrounded by the bodies of over a thousand ants found in a cabin in rural New York he calls Hannah in to assist with the case. The investigations leads Hannah to visit entomologist Ez Choi, who determines that the ants were engineered, and have genetic markers from the biotech lab run by biotech billionaire Einar Geirsson. Hannah is invited by Einar to visit the island lab show more off the coast of Hawaii.

The plot is fast paced, science -based, and suspenseful. It will grab your attention from the start, especially if you like Michael Crichton's novels, and not let go until you have finished. The threat looms large in the plot and Wendig makes sure you will feel all of it. He thoughtfully provides the word for one of these sensations, formication, which is the feeling of insects crawling across or under your skin. This sensation will haunt you, as it does Hannah, throughout the novel. Still, Hannah is a tough, intelligent, determined, and complex protagonist. Raised by parents who were survivalists, she uses the skills (and the distrust she was taught) to her advantage as she interprets the information and the people she meets during the investigation.

Because Invasive is a science fiction thriller, I can set aside disbelief easily, however there were two things that bothered me. I did greatly doubt Hannah would be stupid enough to sleep with Einar, part of the group she is investigating. Also, since I was reading this several years after it was published, I noticed several political statements that dated the novel. This was a perfect example of why you leave the opinions out so the novel has more longevity and because we can't all be futurists. These are trivial though in comparison to the enjoyment found in reading Invasive.

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