Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

Colony, the first novel by Cross, would make a good beach read, especially on a hot day as most of the action takes place in the Arctic. Decent pacing, but perhaps Cross tried to weave in a bit too much here. The story centers on Callum Ross, an archaeologist (Cross's alter ego? after all, that is what Cross does in his day job) who is contracted as part of a large team of international scientists for an environmental impact assessment waaay up in Russia; in fact, the most northerly island in the world. It seems a Russian Gas company has found signs of huge reserves there, but essentially wants to green-wash its actions via the impact assessment (the last Arctic island 'developed' by the company was a total environmental disaster...).

So much for the sitrep; I will not go into the plot more as this is a horror/thriller and much of the fun is reading it unfold. Obviously, however, just given the cover, the team will encounter some beasties and these are a beaut for sure. A good creature feature is always welcome in my book! Yes, Cross did give us that, but he also added in all kinds of cloak and dagger machinations, some love interests, family drama and so forth that bogged the novel down a bit. Like I said above, Cross just tried to do too much here. Nonetheless, it moves nicely for the most part and he does give us some interesting twists and turns along the way. I might have gone 3.5 stars except for the super cheesy ending.