Zombie Dirt

BIOHELL
by Andy Remic

http://www.solarisbooks.com/
p. 400

Review

Before you crack open this novel you should ask yourself: Do I enjoy violent sci-fi coupled with disgusting mutants and a creatively forged universe setting? If you can check: "Positive!" to any of those qualifiers I highly recommend checking out Andy Remic's novel "Biohell". If your reading tendencies trend towards cuddly creatures that hug out their emotions, steer well clear of this book.

The novel opens with a focus on Franco Haggis, a retired member of an elite combat unit known as Combat K. Franco resides on a massive world known as "The City" which is an interesting soup of sex, drugs and technology, where anything goes and everything is for sale. Nano tech bio-mods have permeated the world and allow the populace to alter their flesh shells at will, but somewhere a cog slips, the machine breaks down, and the human and alien forms that dot the landscape begin to quite literally break down. The book follows Franco, Keenan and some other.. interesting characters.. as they battle their way across the monster riddled City.

The book refers to the mutations of the creatures as zombies but I never really felt in reading the zombie they were zombies in the classic sense. They definitely fulfill a sufficient goo factor, but they are more along the lines tech driven mutations than the traditional 'zombie' you might picture. Biohell was an interesting novel for me because it combined elements of science fiction, with elements of horror and manages to combine for a story that's depicts its setting well, while not getting too bogged down in a sea of tech descriptions that seem to plague some sci-fi novels. One, memorable scene comes to mind when the party gets its hands on a bio-tech war machine that was constructed in a humanoid form and contains an access ramp positioned in a rather uncomfortable place.

The novel was written well, the characters were interesting and the scenery was clearly explaining. Biohell was a good blend of sci-fi tech, monster, horror and some light comedy that all melts together for a very good read, and I look forward to exploring future Combat K novels.