I bumped this up a star after the second read. It's not the author's fault that I'm too dumb to appreciate this in its full five star entirety. Some (a lot) of this was far over my head but I can honestly say I've never read anything like it. 
 Hard sci-fi and horror haven't crossed paths like this since Who Goes There?. Some of that was also far over my head until John Carpenter turned it into THE THING and then my dumb ass was like 'oh yeah, that's terrifying.' If you are a fan of this genre combo you should at least give this a shot. You owe it to yourself. 
 As of now, this is still available FREE from the book's Goodreads page. If the book turns out to be smarter than you are, I promise I will only mock you a little. If you were smarter than the book, I don't wanna hear it. 
 To all: smart and dumb included - there's a sequel :) 
 And kids, stay in science class.