Symbiote

The thought of travelling to space and living on the International Space Station has no interest to me. Stuck in a metal box, isolated, miles away from civilisation with only the same people as company sound like a one-way ticket to madness. You do not need to go into space to create such a feeling. The cold months in Antarctica mimic the same, a group of scientists and technical support staff stuck in a remote series of labs for months on end. And one more thing. A Symbiote, whose only goal is to multiply and thrive. 

When the winter season starts at an American research base it is the same as usual for the 30 odd staff. Study the ice and try not to get on each other’s nerves, but then a vehicle from a Chinese base arrives. Within are three frightened men and the remains of another. In this near future tale from Micheal Nayak, America is at war with China, so have they brought with them a murder victim or a new weapon? Whatever it is, the crew are starting to act strangely, and their inner feelings are coming violently to the fore. 

Any book set in a remote snowy landscape in which people are picked off by an enemy within is instantly going to bring comparisons to the classic John Carpenter's The Thing. There are similarities, a strange killer that hibernates unknown within victims, but it is also a very different book. Symbiote is horror, but it is also strongly a science fiction book with near future elements. 

It is the science that separates the book and gives it a unique voice. Nayak spent time in a similar research base, and this comes across on the page. The make up of scientists and support crew feels real. A nice mix of cook, mechanics, and biologists. Add these varied characters to an enclosed environment and months of darkness and poor comms and you have a powder keg. You could write a murder mystery just with these ingredients, but Nayak adds the symbiote. 

The symbiote is a character within itself. Something with a primaeval sense of intelligence. At first it is just a gross virus but like with all viruses it begins to mutate, in this case into something far more intelligent and dangerous. The book is staggered into parts, it ebbs and flows as the scientists take the battle to the virus, only for the virus to react. 

The science in the book feels heightened, but plausible. The book is also about the characters. It is an ensemble piece, the crew put aside grievances to battle a common enemy, it has moments of Aliens about it. It was interesting how much Nayak used the internal machinations of the characters to drive them; personal feelings are blown out of proportion in a remote location and the virus takes advantage of these. 

Symbiote is a mash up of tension, horror, and action. The book flows from one state to the other, giving the reader a chance to calm down, only for the action to reignite. The setting is excellent, and you get a sense of what it must be like to live remotely for months, this is testament to the author’s own experiences. The large ensemble cast means that the start of the book is harder to follow as you meet new characters, and it bounces around. However, as the symbiote takes hold the cast is reduced and we start to see who the real protagonists are and get a more settled tale. An entertaining and tense horror tale that uses intelligent science to enhance the scares.