Symbiont

By: Mira Grant

Narrated by: Christine Lakin

From New York Times bestselling author Mira Grant comes the second book in the terrifying Parasitology series.

The SymboGen-designed tapeworms were created to relieve humanity of disease and sickness. But the implants in the majority of the world's population began attacking their hosts, turning them into a ravenous horde.

Now those who do not appear to be afflicted are being gathered for quarantine as panic spreads, but Sal and her companions must discover how the tapeworms are taking over their hosts, what their eventual goal is, and how they can be stopped.

"A riveting near-future medical thriller that reads like the genetically-engineered love child of Robin Cook and Michael Crichton." —John Joseph Adams on Parasite


More from Mira Grant:

Parasitology
Parasite
Symbiont
Chimera

Newsflesh
Feed
Deadline
Blackout
Feedback

Rise

Critic reviews

"A riveting near-future medical thriller that reads like the genetically-engineered love child of Robin Cook and Michael Crichton."—John Joseph Adam on Parasite

"Readers with strong stomachs will welcome this unusual take on the future."—Kirkus Reviews on Parasite

"Fans of [the Newsflesh] series will definitely want to check this new book out. But fans of Michael Crichton-style technothrillers will be equally enthralled: as wild as Grant's premise is, the novel is firmly anchored in real-world science and technology."—Booklist on Parasite

"Grant extends the zombie theme of her Newsflesh trilogy to incorporate thoughtful reflections on biomedical issues that are both ominously challenging and eerily plausible. Sally is a complex, compassionate character, well suited to this exploration of trust, uncertainty, and the price of progress."—Publishers Weekly on Parasite

"It's a well-grounded medical wariness that gets at the heart of the what the Parasitology series will be asking: What happens when the cure is worse than the disease?"—NPR Books on Parasite

"An exceptionally creepy medical-horror thriller that's the perfect spine-tingling read for Halloween...[a] roller coaster ride."—RT Book Reviews on Parasite (4 1/2 stars)

"Deft cultural touches, intriguing science, and amped-up action will delight Grant's numerous fans."—Publishers Weekly on Deadline

"The zombie novel Robert A. Heinlein might have written."—Sci-Fi Magazine on Feed

"A masterpiece of suspense."—Publishers Weekly on Feed (Starred Review)

Good but 1st was better

You must read these books in order. I liked the first book better. Not sure if that is because of the fun of discovery or if the premise is getting old. Could just be 2nd book fatigue and the 3rd will be exciting again. Did make me remember and compare a Deep Space 9 story arc.

Not good

I didn't like this book, the main charter gets really annoying worrying about killing the sleepwalkers, then right after worrying they always try to eat her. Not only does the second book fail to move the plot line anywhere, it feel like this is just a money grab extention of the first. I will not be buying the third, heard it's bad anyway.

The story isn't bad.

I did finish. It wasn't bad. Sections of the book were beautifully written, but there's the problem. I really like Mira Grant, and I plan on listening to three book in the series, but...

Parts of the book were clearly not line edited properly. This is a publisher mistake, not a writer mistake. In one particular chapter a character was referred to as "amiable" or "blithe" so many times that I lost count. this wasn't done on purpose.

As a writer certain characters are certain things to us and it can be difficult to find other words in a split second to describe them, other than our perfect words. A line edit is specifically designed to prevent exactly this from showing up in a finished product. They find the words that we overuse and we take the time necessary to fix it.

I mention this in particular, but it happens a good bit. Several things that a line edit would catch are simply ignored.

I had to force myself to finish listening

(Spoilers maybe?) The storyline had promise but I was really disinterested in this book because of the sappy lovey-dovey nonsense between Sal & Nathan - gag - & it was really obnoxious listening to overly detailed descriptions of Sal's every single injury. I tried to like Sal but she's just too needy & helpless in my opinion. And she argues with everyone about everything & asks too many questions & I just don't like the character. It was also annoying to listen to Sherman's "voice" since part of the time he sounded Australian & the other part British, often in the same line of dialog. This whole book seems unnecessary & the entire plot line of the sleepwalkers eating people was lame - humans turning into psychotic killing machines because of parasites they willingly put into their bodies? Sure. Having them turn into flesh eating zombies? Been there, read that. I'm also so tired of listening to quotes from 'Don't Go Out Alone' which is just a creepy nonsensical "children's book".

Decent sequel

Great performance but the story was too introspective and felt like filler to get from book 1 to a book 3

Not As Good As Book One

Sigh. I gave a raving five star review for the first book in this series, and purchased this (book 2) without hesitation.

This book doesn't seem near as well put together as the first book. Yes, it's a continuation of the story, and it's not an awful read, but by the time I finished this one I had decided I'm done with this.

Reader is OK, story is very good

The reader had some odd pronunciation quirks, but overall I very much enjoyed the book.

YESSSSS!!

Love this series! The story AND narration!! Brilliant performance, I couldn't stop listening. Will be listening to book 3.

A Middle Book

I have loved all of her books but this series was supposed to be 2 and became 3 books and this entire boo read like filler crap I didn't really need to know.

I don't do spoilers so I can say - yeah it was good and kept me on some pins and needles. I even just stayed up til 4 am to finish it but could have just saved it for tomorrow.

Great Book!

If your a fan of Mira Grant then you will love this book, such a cliff hanger too...