Hybrid: (A Prehistoric Thriller) (Bick Downs)

This is not my first time reading a book by Michael Esola so I speak from past experience with the author. This time the book was disjointed to me. There seemed to be to many little side events going on not that is a bad thing, but when a character in one chapter gets an injury and a couple of chapters later their injury has miraculous been cured then you start to lose me, because sprained or twisted ankles don't just heal in a few minutes. Also these people seem to fall down a lot and don't get me started on going unconscious and then ta-da they regain consciousness in seconds. At time I felt that Mr. Wells was getting paid by the word like the writers of pulp fiction were paid. Now that I have that off my chest what did I like about the book. Well first of all I liked the plot of someone screwing with mother nature and creating a hybrid animal that gets out of control. You know what they say it isn't nice to mess with mother nature. Then there is the team out to catch this hybrid and keep it out of sight from humans. They are a good team of hunters, but they need to be fleshed out a bit more. Although I had some problems with the book, I still enjoyed reading it.

If you're up for a great read and seeking a thriller, you won't be disappointed. The author has put his own spin on marrying historic with modern times, presenting plausible science fiction to the reader. I found myself intrigued with the characters and it is their development throughout the story that kept me wanting to read onward. The descriptiveness of the writing helped me clearly imagine the appearance of each scene, which shows that the author did his homework and put quite a bit of thought into the imagery. Without giving away the story, I'll note that it takes place in the San Francisco Bay Area, and as a Bay Area resident, I found myself quite satisfied with the accuracy of the details. All-in-all, I found this to be quite an engaging book with the ups and downs that make for a solid thriller. It was certainly worth the time spent kicking back and being entertained, as should be the case for any good science fiction story.

This is the last of the latest batch if icky bug I bought from Amazon because I can’t get this stuff in the local bookstores. The big houses shun good B-movie creature feature stuff in favor of literary character studies with bummer endings and stuff I hate to read.I love horror, well…monster horror as in this specific Saturday afternoon Chiller Theater type stuff. However, because it’s considered so low class, most authors have to resort to self-publishing. While some do better than others, unfortunately, Hybrid suffered as a result.First, the good stuff. The story was imaginative and full of likable characters and a good premise. I enjoyed it and liked the ending. In general, I got what I paid for.However, I had to suffer to get there.When I search for books, my number one requirement is it has to be in third-person, past-tense. This story met that basic requirement but that was about it. The other requirement is that there has to be a payoff at the end. I have to be able to close the book with a smile on my face. Score another one, though in this case, it was also with a sense of relief.The writing and editing and cover were obviously self-publishing quality.I’m not all that fussy about covers, but this one stood out as a bit cheesy. Still, that obviously did not deter me from buying the book.My biggest issue was the writing and editing.Wow…where do I start?Though it was written in third-person, the author did the typical self-publishing red flag by having no point of view. Oh, he had plenty of controlling characters, but it was semi-omniscient. He head-hopped and no one character controlled a scene. While Bick Downs was supposed to be the main character, as soon as any other character showed up in any of his scenes, the viewpoint would jump into their head. As in any multiple character story, the author managed to somewhat control the scenes when it changed to those different characters, but only until the next character did something. Then, he’d head-hopped between them or as many other characters as he felt like. It was very irritating to follow that.Next was the author did not know the difference between American and the Queen’s English. “Toward” is American and “towards” is British or Canadian. He used towards so much I saw it everywhere to the point where I also noticed he used that word way too much.That brings up repeated words. His editor, if it wasn’t him, never looked for repeated words and phrases because there were lots and lots of them. Saying the same words over and over again, sometimes within the same paragraph and oh…and repeating the same phrases, descriptions, dialogue, you name it, three or four times within a scene, no wonder the book was four hundred plus pages!Then there were awkward phrases, tautologies, tell instead of show, passive phrases, the list goes on.This book would’ve been so much better with a decent editor and by cleaning up the point of view.As for the reality versus suspending disbelief, I had no issues with any of that, any more than I do with any icky bug novel. After all, what kind of genre is this anyway?Oh, there was a few times when they actually hit the beasts with the darts and they apparently did nothing, then finally hit them again (for real?)…I lost track.Overall, I had a great time with the story. However, I was cringing, almost yelling, and grabbing for an editing pen the entire read. This book needs some serious work. Still, I wish him well and hope he hires and decent editor before his next effort comes out. Still recommended for icky bug fans.

Story is ok, ending was disappointing and kind of short.quick and easy read. This book is not a real thriller but it’s entertaining

Great fun romp, lots of eatin on here, I am calling this chomp 2, because lots of people get chomped, great series, keep on writing, I'll keep readin!

Not written well. The repetition of phrases occur on every two or three pages. Very little depth to characters and conversations.

Bick is back! The survivors from Indonesia are back in this action packed book. They are now the hunters and what they are hunting is just as dangerous as what the escaped. Great characters and a compelling story.

I did enjoy this book. It was interesting and I enjoyed the plot. The story was well balanced with the plot and characters. I look forward to the second d book. This book was well worth reading.

Holly Molly hope these beasts are only fiction or we are in trouble- great reading very suspense-