As confusing and horrific as the first chapter of “Infected,” by Gregg Luke, is, it’s possibly my favorite part. It begins with a frightening and awakening statement: “Mother Nature. A mass murderer. No one is more creative…” Considering hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis… yeah, I believe it.
“Infected” deals specifically with mother nature’s killing mode of infectious diseases as a couple scientists in the Amazon discover the mushroom that creates “the zombie ant” (a real thing) has morphed to effect humans.
Mother nature is not the only villain though. This book makes you deeply despise extreme environmentalists. Similar to most books of this publisher, you get the perspective of the villains, which is helpful, because I thought they were completely insane, but from their own perspective, they’re trying to save the world, not destroy it. Unfortunately, because of this, I understood the lives and motivations behind the villains more than the protagonists (almost making them Byronic heroes – if they weren’t twisted and callous about human life).
Not similar to other books from this publisher, it’s not cheesy romantic or Disney clean. There’s a lot of beer and even some sleeping around, but thankfully it’s done off screen. It’s PG13 for the sheltered people, like me.
I really wanted to skip ahead a few times, though Mr. Luke does a decent job of keeping the conflict rising. Strangely, I wanted to skip parts of the ending, as the resolution seemed to drag in order to answer every question.
I’m still giving this one ***3.3 Stars*** because it was creepy when it wanted to be, and the plot felt realistic.
C. Rae D'Arc 