TO CHALLENGE A KINGDOM

In this SF novel, strange creatures start attacking the human race.

The United States has been overrun by Operational Taxonomic Units. The radio and news stations keep calling them “prokaryotic organisms”—peculiar entities that seem to take over everything. And it seems as if nowhere is safe. Ruth, Ben, and Urie are forced to hike through a forest to try to find somewhere to hide out and locate a radio to call for help. The signs of the OTUs are everywhere—an eerie green moss; bacterial-looking bugs, which eat the moss; and then larger creatures, which devour the bugs and even larger quarry, like humans. Jakob heard stories about a few cities being quarantined but he felt safe enough to take his two daughters to the county fair—until a young girl is attacked and consumed in one of the tents. Officer Venera and looter Dennis flee the local precinct after strange worms start coming out of all the sewers and plumbing. Mason and Melanie escape their summer camp with two young students and hope to stay alive despite the odd, jellyfishlike creatures that float around the building they’re hiding in. News stations say the OTUs are tearing through the Midwest. Considering how fast the herd of creatures is traveling and swarming, there may be no place left for humans in this world. Ventocilla pens a riveting SF tale that will leave readers giving every bug a worried second glance. With a similar haunting tone as Jeff VanderMeer’s novelAnnihilation (2014), the book describes the creatures just enough to be terrifying—eyeless, crowlike growths; segmented bugs that look like strains of bacteria; even “hellish chimeras.” The story moves quickly, jumping from group to group as various characters try to survive the onslaught. The graphic descriptions of assaults may leave some readers wanting to close their eyes to avoid the gore, but the hope for the survival of the human race against the invaders will likely keep them turning pages.

A graphic but addictive tale of eerie organisms running rampant in the Midwest.