I was looking for something light and easy to read and found Ancestor on my bookshelf. I have no idea how it got there or whether I put it there or whether one of my boys did. In any case, I had no read it and the blurb sounded interesting.
On a remote island in the Great Lakes, an unusual group of scientists are using extinct DNA to create the perfect organ donor. It could save millions of lives and win Dr Claus Rhumkorrf the Nobel Prize he craves. The donor animal is genetically the ancestor of all species on the planet - but Nature wiped it out two hundred million years ago. Rhumkorrf and his team are about to find out why.
I saw it described as "Jurassic Park meets Predator in a bloodcurdling thriller from the bestselling author of INFECTED and CONTAGIOUS" and I think that's pretty apt.
This is a high-octane, fast paced scientific thriller that does a better job than many in this genre. It quickly develops into one long chase filled adventure romp, reminiscent of Michael Crichton or Matthew Riley. And I am reminded of The Cats by Berton Roueche. Let's call it Cats on Steroids!
But it's not all good. The characters are ridiculously flawed. Perhaps such a scientific endeavour might harbour one such person but nearly all of them? Come on! It might add to the frenetic story line but it detracts from the novel overall.
I note that his books Nocturnal, Infected and Contagious are generally very well regarded so I might keep an eye out for them.
Anyway, Goodreads give this 3.9 stars out of 5, which is pretty good. I would give it perhaps 3.5. It is hard to put it down after the half way mark but the silliness of the characters does stop me going higher. But recommended for that quiet weekend in front of the fire.
Scott Sigler seems a very interesting author who releases his books as ebooks or as chapters via podcasts. Reminiscent of Charles Dickens who released much of his material in bits and pieces in newspapers.
