'Infestation' (S-Squad Book 1) – William Meikle (Severed Press)

I love my Kindle but it does make every trip to Amazon a little minefield of books that I never quite manage to negotiate. Daughter's birthday coming up? Get yourself something while you're buying something for her. You may as well, it's only a couple of quid. Sometimes I think I should just give Amazon my wallet and have done with it.

I was after drain cleaner, the other day, and Amazon did it's 'you liked this book so why not try this book next trick?' That 'next book' was something like Book 8 or 9 in William Meikle's 'S-Squad' series and I thought to myself, 'you know what, why not...?' I thought I'd do it properly though and start at Book 1...

It was supposed to be a simple mission. A suspected Russian spy boat is in trouble in Canadian waters. Investigate and report are the orders. But when Captain John Banks and his squad arrive, it is to find an empty vessel, and a scene of bloody mayhem.

Soon they are in a fight for their lives, for there are things in the icy seas off Baffin Island, scuttling, hungry things with a taste for human flesh.
They are swarming. And they are growing...

My favourite bit of the movie 'Aliens' is the bit where the marines find what's left of the colonists and then proceed to come off a very definite second best against the Xenomorphs whose nest they have blundered into. ' Infestation' was all the more fun for me then as it's basically these few minutes of the film turned into an entire novella. The shortness of the tale does work against it, a little, in that the 'Alien' influence comes across a little too heavily in such a tight space. Meikle beats this after affect by making it work for him, having his characters acknowledge it in such a way that it adds to the terror instead of detracting from it. And it's a pulp creature feature where all the stakes are high, a scratch will do for you just as much as being eaten alive will (just more slowly and painfully). The whole point of pulp is that it wears its influences proudly and just goes out to have as much fun as possible with the subject matter. 'Infestation' does this brilliantly.

Right from the start, Meikle is working on your nerves with carnage around every corner and soldiers who know that something is badly wrong but have a mission to carry out. And then it all kicks off and it's all gunfire and questions over whether the Isopods or the freezing water will kill Banks and his men first.

As someone who has grown Triops (and seen what they can do to anything that lands in their tank...), the Isopods are all the more scary as they're just the same, only a lot bigger. They grow to an impressive size and they swarm at the same time, the ideal creature to keep a fast paced plot moving quickly. They do have a weakness though and I liked how it was exploited by Banks and his team.

And it's not just about the creatures; all good pulp tales need a 'strong and resourceful hero' and Captain John Banks is that guy. Sergeant Hynd is his loyal companion and the rest of the team are well fleshed out for supporting characters with a limited life expectancy (no-one is safe here and that little bit of extra character detail gives particular moments added punch). But back to Banks, he is the ideal character, for a book like this, and he doesn't let the reader down.

'Infestation' proved to be a great way to spend an evening and I suspect that I'll be straight onto Book 2 when payday comes round again. If you like that bit in 'Aliens' as well, I'd recommend you give 'Infestation' a shot.