Experimental Field 312

A family fights for survival in this outlandish story about corn coming to life to terrorize a small American town.

In the summer of 2009, everything seems normal in Lloydsville, Pa. In the shadow of Three Mile Island is a crop of freshly planted, genetically modified corn. Susan, a nurse at the local hospital, has gathered her family and the friends of her teenage children to watch a rainstorm. Little do they know that massive lightning strikes into the GM corn can bring the crop to life. The vicious corn monsters attack people with their long claws and huge teeth, and the wounds they inflict cause deadly infections. The town falls under attack as millions of creatures form ranks to take down the humans. In an attempt to battle the monsters, local police try guns, water hoses and fire blasters, burning down crops rife with secret marijuana gardens and getting the whole town stoned. With police efforts failing, it’s up to injured Susan and her family to figure out a way to defeat the corn. After driving to the GM crop to investigate, the family gets separated; a few of them are wounded with bad infections, but they’re determined to fight back. The children and family pets hole up in the family house while Susan and her husband escape to the movie theater at the mall, where police instruct them to stay put. But how can they conquer millions of evil corn monsters while separated, stoned and trapped? The story attempts to chronicle a variety of town members but loses focus and shifts toward the central family, separated during the attacks, allowing for two storylines. Moving between the children’s story and Susan’s, pleasant moments of strength gained through love are lost in repeated descriptions of the corn’s appearance, rants about genetically modified organisms—not to mention the Vietnam War, World War II, Iraq, drugs, parenting and technology—and looks at the well-being of the family’s many pets.

A quick, quirky sci-fi story that suffers from an unfocused narrative and repetitive descriptions.