Review: Literate thrills
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 9, 2011
The thrills in this thriller feel very real, because Phoenix Sullivan built a world so real I felt I was there. And being in the SECTOR C world was a truly unsettling experience.Sullivan pulled off the nifty trick of educating the reader in the necessary science, seemingly on the fly. Because I cared about the characters, and was freaking worried about what threatened them--indeed, threatened most of the world--I wanted to KNOW what was causing this mayhem. So I grabbed every fact that Sullivan doled out, trying to see behind that security wall in Sector C.The convincing science, the cool concept, and the twisty plot made for a page-turner, and the layered characters gave it depth. Neither the vet nor the analyst were superheroes, instead using their skills and fallible human motivations to do good in a world gone very bad. The secondary characters were also well-drawn, especially the rancher whose stoic anguish at the destruction of his cattle was truly moving.Highly recommended.