The speed in which I blasted throughout this book should give you a good indication bas to how much I enjoyed it. Whilst it wasn’t quite worthy of the full quota of stars (it was close!) due to a little pace dip in the middle, ‘Primordial’ sure is a hell of a lot of fun and an easy to read horror/thriller.
Now, I’m a big fan of dinosaur books. Whenever a mission is hatched to search for some sort of prehistoric beast I’m on board immediately and ‘Primordial’ is a great example of how to write a top dino-thriller. ‘Primordial’ has got a lot going for it. From the ancient myth surrounding the monster and the strange hooded figure that worships the beast, to the inclusion of a missing Nazi search party that was sent to capture the beast for Hitler long ago. The characters are strong and the location is original too.
The quest to find the beast comes about due to a series of mysterious disappearances and some found footage of an attack. The footage brings a small town in Finland to the attention of Ellis Holloway-a Jurassic Park, John Hammond type character crazy and desperate enough to make a name for himself by capturing the beast and showing it off to the world. Holloway enlists the talents of marine biologist, Sam Aston-a man keeping a low profile in North Queensland and one who is in some trouble financially, he sees no other choice than to join Holloway along with documentary maker Slater and a couple of others on their quest to find out the truth about the existence of this prehistoric monster.
I found the characters in ‘Primordial’ to be engaging and entertaining. Aston, particularly, is a roguish protagonist with a little Australian charm and an eye for the ladies ; ). Slater provides the eye-candy for Aston. She is pretty good, too. Not the damsel in distress type but not full-on Sigourney Weaver either. Billionaire nutter, Holloway gets more and more bonkers as the story progresses and his crazy plan to capture the beast is doomed to fail.
Like I said earlier, the pace dipped just a little around halfway with little monster action but things ramped up and the final third of the book is great fun. There are a lot of dinosaur books out there but ‘Primordial’ is definitely one of the better ones. It reads like a thriller but also has enough to satisfy horror fans I feel, too. Some great characters, bloody monster action and an original location in Finland mean that ‘Primordial’ is a winner for this reader. Also, considering the book was co-written I didn’t notice any glaring stylistic differences, meaning it was a smooth and easy read. Nice cover too! Great stuff!
4/5 stars
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