Fragment
Where to begin. First of all, I'm so glad I got this for free. Second, I'm now wondering if the publisher waited for Michael Crichton to die before calling this Jurassic Park-like because that is just flat-out blasphemy. JP was a lightning-in-a-bottle masterpiece (you can tell because Crichton's attempt at recapturing that magic (The Lost World) failed miserably). This is anything but.....Onto Fragment, you did research for this book. Good for you. Most authors do. There's no need to beat me over the head with random facts that fit your story. I'm not reading an eco-biology textbook. Not even Tom Clancy can bore me this much with facts and his 800 page books are 750 pages of set-up and military paraphernalia and 50 pages of action. Also, are you hoping not to have to do any Christmas shopping in the future because all the trademarked names you drop in the book will give you free swag? I swear, one paragraph, literally, had a cameraman put on his Banana Republic boxers, JCrew socks, Lucky Brand jeans, Coach belt, Polo sweater, Nike sneakers, and Hugo Boss jacket. Was I reading a novel or shopping from a catalogue?
Onto the plot/story. It was.....okay, at best. In suspense/horror novels that are page-turners, the people are in constant danger and you feel for their safety/well-being. You speed through the pages to see if they make it out of a tight situation. In this, the creatures were SO lethal, the humans all died in seconds (less than a paragraph) and those left were placed in, what felt like, danger-free situations. Like, for the rest of the book I wasn't worried about anyone being in danger. Or if they got into danger, they were slaughtered before you could take a sip of tea while reading. In the same vein, there were about 900 characters, three new ones seemingly introduced per page, and they all had plain names like Joe, Bob, and Nell. So when Pete is alive on page 250 and I'm surprised he's not dead, it's because PAUL had been eaten alive in 3 sentences on page 2 and I got confused. It's hard to get concerned about a character when they all blend together. Except the unnecessarily evil/homicidal scientist who just wanted fame and fortune. He stood out from the rest because he was TOTALLY unbelievable.
I can go on, but I'll just finish with: This Book Sucked. Do Not Read.
PS - I received this for free through the Goodreads' "First-Reads" book giveaway.
