Review: SUBHUMAN by Michael McBride

 

SUBHUMAN  by Michael McBride  (Pinnacle Books, October 2017)  Paperback, 424 pages.  ISBN# 0786041587/9780786041589.

 

Summary from the Goodreads website . . . . .

 

THEY ARE NOT HUMAN.

At a research station in Antarctica, five of the world's top scientists have been brought together to solve one of the greatest mysteries in human history. Their subject, however, is anything but human . . . 

THEY ARE NOT NATURAL.

Deep beneath the ice, the submerged ruins of a lost civilization hold the key to the strange mutations that each scientist has encountered across the globe: A misshapen skull in Russia. The grotesque carvings of a lost race in Peru. The mummified remains of a humanoid monstrosity in Egypt . . . 

THEY ARE NOT FRIENDLY.

When a series of sound waves trigger the ancient organisms, a new kind of evolution begins. Latching onto a human host--crossbreeding with human DNA--a long-extinct life form is reborn. Its kind has not walked the earth for thousands of years. Its instincts are fiercer, more savage, than any predator alive. And its prey are the scientists who unleashed it, the humans who spawned it, and the tender living flesh on which it feeds . . . 

 

My review on the Goodreads website . . . . .

 

     My first impression of this novel after reading the back cover information and promotional blurbs was that it might be a clever spin on early man stories. 

 

     It seemed like McBride was going to suggest another forgotten race that competed with Neanderthals, Cromagnons and Homo Sapiens, et al. back in ancient times, and then mix that postulation in with lost civilization mythos and a mysterious current day discovery.  

 

     It turns out my presumptions were only partially correct.  Add a bit of ufology, crop circles, Egyptian and Peruvian alien influence theories, and those bad Nazis tampering again with things better left alone and unknown.  It’s a heady mix, and McBride runs it through the blender.

 

    I was expecting a horror-themed action thriller and looking forward to some evenings spent in entertaining escapism. The problem with Subhuman is that only part of the book meets those expectations, and the buildup takes too long and requires a commitment to keep going that I feel many readers aren’t going to comply with. 

 

   I’m sure that McBride spent many hours in research on this one, and did his best to link all these disparate elements together in a theory about the monstrous threat to mankind that seems rational. It’s extremely hard to mix academia into a horror tale, and very few authors are able to pull that off. 

 

 The novel is divided into three sections, labeled Book I, II, III. Following a prologue that hints at the terrors to come, there are seven chapters each introducing a different character.  This takes up over 50 pages at the beginning, and is loaded with scientific jargon, multiple locations, and not much characterization. Normally, if I’m not engaged in a book by page 50, I quit, put it down, and pick up something else.  If I was not already participating in a Horror Aficionados group read on Goodreads I would be done.   I kept going, wishing for a good reason for all the intricate details about crop circles, measuring methodology, hoping that author McBride would justify the reason for all that info dump.

 

     After 128 pages, things began to pick up a little but the info dumps continue. These characters get involved in conversations about the details, and all come off as sounding like professors.

 

      Rather than encourage me to keep reading, I became discouraged as the constant references really slowed and bogged the action down. I didn’t get a good feel for the flow of the novel, so I wasn’t fully engaged and was having difficulty finding any character to empathize with. 

 

    Some things do occur near the end of Book II to hold my interest. Then, Book III reverts to action, suspense, thrills and real horror. It took this long for me to find a good reason to finish, besides my commitment to commenting on the group reader forum.

 

      It wasn’t until this point that I could see a valid reason for all the explanations throughout the novel. McBride was building the case for a rational basis to all the events he put in motion.  However, I think he tried too damn hard - - and it still comes off like pseudo-science.  McBride could easily have cut 100 pages out of this novel and made it a faster, better reading experience.   Too often I felt like an elementary school student assigned in error to an advanced placement science class.  I wonder how many potential readers walked away because of that.  I almost did.

 

   The last 25 percent of the novel moves at a quicker pace, and is quite engaging. Finally, I began to feel some concern for many of the characters.  It seems a little late to start developing them. 

 

   I like the premise, but feel that McBride spent way too much time on set-up. I wish that he could have used some other way than info dumps and character dissertations to get the main points across. Subhuman is the first book in the Unit 51 series, and I’ve heard that the second book is much better.  

 

   I’m also not entirely satisfied with the ending. Too many books like this end the same way, which is disappointing. I'd prefer if someone broke the mold at least once. Subhuman did not meet my expectations - - below average.