Specimen

Specimen

By: Michael Cole

Narrated by: Matt Godfrey

Science often creates miracles. Every so often, it also leads to unspeakable horror.

Hired by the U. S. government, a team of mercenaries led by Sergeant Major Whitmore infiltrate an island in the South China Sea. Their objective: eliminate the hostile terrorist force known as the Red Lightning and retrieve all data from the laboratory on site.

Their straightforward mission quickly turns complicated as the enemy force is found already decimated by some unknown force. As the team investigates, they quickly learn the truth of the experiments taking place here, and the extent of the danger they are now in.

Something is on this island. A creature so evil, even nature deemed it unfit to exist, until science brought it back.

A specimen.

Armed with razor-sharp claws and a scorpion-like tail, it devotes itself to the slaughter of every living thing in its path. As cunning as it is aggressive, it seeks to escape this island and inflict its wrath on the rest of the world.

Only Whitmore and his men stand between it and the rest of humanity.

©2023 Michael Cole (P)2025 Tantor Media

Enjoyable but derivative

The story is well pasted and it doesn’t move too slowly, but the story feels like the author took the best beats from the original “predator” from 1987 and “aliens” from 1986 and mashed them together. The CIA liaison running the op feels like equal parts Dillon played by Carl Weathers and Carter Burke played by Paul Reiser. Wasn’t sure if that was what the author was deliberately going for or not, but it seems to work. If you feel like this is an enjoyable book for you, go for it, but it wouldn’t be my recommendation.

A Good Read

I liked the characters. The plot was interesting. I will read more of his books.

Predator meets Aliens

I enjoyed this story, it's a mix of both Predator and Aliens if you like those (especially Predator) then you should like this novel.

Poor story line

Cheap sounding narration. I do feel bitter that I wasted a credit. It’s a weak story line.

not as good as others

honestly I was bored through this. The performance put me to sleep.Not as good as his other books.