More fun with Banks and his buddies, this time with a Jurassic Park-style setup.The mission starts with a touch of luxury, courtesy of a billionaire sponsor who wants to show off his genetically rederived prehistoric animals. Of course, the creatures get out of control, and the squad have to battle for survival.

The story moves at a good pace, and the science (plausible or otherwise) isn't too obtrusive.

An enjoyable couple of hours escapism.

As Dr. Ian Malcolm stated in Jurassic Park "Life finds a way!" S-Squad are sent to Siberia to escort some scientists who are due to inspect an unusual Zoo. As usually happens in these scenarios, the Zoo is soon overrun by all manner of Human ineptitude, technical issues, and general mayhem from the Beasties. This is Meikle's third S-Squad book and I am thoroughly enjoying this series. The adventures of S-Squad remind me somewhat of the comic books of the 1980's like Battle and Victor. Great stuff and I finished this one in a few nights. ( )

It’s not a spy mission but an escort mission that brings the S-Squad to Siberia. Three scientists have been sent by the UN to see if Russian oligarch Volkov has complied with all international conventions in creating what’s basically a Pleistocene Park.

He probably hasn’t, but he certainly has brought back a lot of megafauna: mammoths, dire wolves, big lions, big birds, and some kind of hominid.

Volkov’s has been as lax about his security as his legal compliance, and, the next thing you know, the animals have escaped from their glass dome cages and start killing people.

The strengths of the novel is Meikle’s obvious love for his megafauna. Even at the end, we sense their grandeur as opposed to the ugly menaces of the proceeding installments in the series, Infestation and Operation Antarctica.

And that hominid? Well, let’s just say Meikle does something interesting with that.

There are frequently characters in Meikle stories bound by duty. Here, it’s not only the S-Squad, but the scientists who want to know more about Volkov’s hominids.

However, one quibble I have is that, at some points, Meikle’s prose is a little too sparse and economical; it doesn’t go for the full spectacle it might. For instance, there is one scene where some “thunderbirds” bring down a transport plane. The scene is quickly described, but I think the drama would have been better if more details, sort of a slow motion description of disaster, were given. I also would have liked more details on how that security system fails.
However, I suspect the writ from Severed Press, publishers of the series, is a lean story under a certain page count, so Meikle may not have had room to do that even if he wanted to.

Still, I liked this one more than I thought I would.

The S-Squad series is good modern pulp ideal for resting your brain with a few hours of monster slaying. ( )