Scott Sigler, that guy, you know? He just keeps on doing stuff. And I keep liking it. How much, well, so much that I listened to this novel, in its entirety, when he had self-published it in podcast form several years ago. Then I decided to pick up this 600 page printed version of his novel and read it again. 
 I remember how much I liked it way back then. Nowadays I'm a bit untrusting of things that younger me liked. Like the time I went out and got The Neverending Story, the movie, because I kept telling my son that it was the greatest thing ever and he just had to see it. 
 Yeah, so I got it, way back when he was still pretty young, and we sat down to watch I and I was stunned with the two hours or so of "what the f**k" that was happening in front of me. Like I said, it was a long time ago when I had the moment. Since I experienced this thing as an adult, I figured I was pretty safe. Granted, I still think there is about a ten-year window on anything that I experience where I can go back and enjoy it, more or less, the way it was intended. After that window I sorta have to add disclaimers like, 'for its time' or 'when this was made.' 
 Well, that tends to be for TV shows and movies, for novels it tends to be a bit longer that ten years. Whatever, I'm getting a bit off topic. 
 Part of me was curious about the changes I would see from the version I heard and the one that was eventually published. Honestly, I don't know. I can't remember the details well enough to compare, save to say that I think the monsters were introduced earlier in the podcast version, and the print version had more contemporary references. 
 Regardless, like all his other novels, Sigler blends genres in a way that nobody else does. His sweet spot is Hard Science Fiction and Stephen King style monster-mayhem. 
 As it stands, this not my favorite of Sigler's works. That honor goes to Pandemic, the third in his Infected trilogy. 
 That isn't to say this wasn't real good. It was. But not my absolute favorite. My major complaint is that while Pookie Chang is one of the best characters I've read in a novel in some time, his partner, the story's protagonist, is almost unreadably annoying (in fact, I can't remember his name, except Pookie always called him Bri-Bri). He's been labeled 'The Terminator' by other cops on the force because he's good at killing bad guys. 
 Also, I believe he's called that because he's also got the personality of a machine. The book covers his behavioral issues, kind of hangs a hat on it, in fact. It's the reason he and the one true love of his life broke up, but it's also the reason that I, the reader, had such a hard time identifying with him. 
 In other words, more Pookie, less Bri-Bri. 
 If there were a sequel, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't going to read it. I'm pretty much reading anything Sigler produces. I might complain from time to time, but he's still one of my top 5 guaranteed good reads. Like I said before, this isn't one of my favorites, but it's still pretty damn good.