Imagine 'FarCry' with welcoming islanders, I mean the classic farcry game. Should have read this in school days, a well crafted classic sci fi horror narrative that somehow feels lovecraftian. Or maybe he took influence from here. 
 I later learned this story was written during that period in history where vivisection on animals was a hot controversial debate topic, and we are not given a morally perfect hero here. That lost found narrative accord at intro had me hooked, and kept me on to it till the very end.