Infestation

Wasn't sure if I should have started this series so soon after reading Crustaceans, but it's awesome and fixes every problem I had with that.

The author has taken part of his story Discontinuity from the collection B.E.M. and reworks it into this one. Now a squad of soldiers sent after a Russian drilling ship find the giant isopods, that emit a blue light, and have venom laced claws. Oh, and they like to eat people...

The isopods are far scarier than the giant crabs and didn't seem as goofy. The action is constant and fast, and the story is never boring. It turns into a great siege tale as well, slowing down a tad and getting to know the characters a bit.

And yes, there are actual characters in this one. No, they aren't deep, and at first, it seems they will be forgettable but as it goes on I got to like them. I'm just gonna keep comparing it to Crustaceans and where I said there the soldiers just had names and shoot guns, and that's all... not the case here. Likable characters. And here the female character isn't a useless crab expert that knows less about crabs than you or I and does nothing but tag along. She knows how to fire a gun, bandage up the team, and figures out key things about the isopods before anyone else.

I see other reviews talking about the abrupt ending, and while that is certainly true, it's part of a multi-book series so I didn't find that to be a problem.

I was going back and forth about how to rate this, but it was meant to be an action-packed fun creature feature and it delivered that in full, so it gets the rare 5 stars from me.