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Sleeper
The Pentagon holds many secrets, but none are more deadly than what is kept hidden beneath the basement in a cryogenic freeze. It has claws that could cut a man in half and an insatiable appetite for human flesh...and someone just woke it up.
After half a century of sleep, the beast is loose in the very heart of national security-making easy work of its prey. And tracking it through the catacombs of the fortress won't be easy, because this is no ordinary beast...it's a living weapon.
After half a century of sleep, the beast is loose in the very heart of national security-making easy work of its prey. And tracking it through the catacombs of the fortress won't be easy, because this is no ordinary beast...it's a living weapon.
336 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published February 4, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
April 3, 2022
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. One of the characters had a disability that I had never really thought much about before, and it was eye opening. The main story was interesting and exciting. Hard to put down once the action started.
January 4, 2021
When a canister containing a Nazi experient is discovered under the Pentagon, the contents of the container escape and begin eating construction workers. Navy Seals and an animal expert are brought in to capture or kill it.
This reads like an episode of the x-files. There's not a ton of the monster in most of the book, it's mentioned heavily but we don't get a real appearance until about 2/3 into the book. This book is about the characters that are there to protect the Pentagon and hunt the monster. Unfortunately, the characters are fairly one dimensional and are mostly act like angsty lovesick teenagers instead of competent professionals.
The monster is fun and the setting is very cool. I learned a lot about the Pentagon building that I didn't know. The characters and the slow nature of the buildup, were a letdown but the cool Nazi monster kept me going.
This reads like an episode of the x-files. There's not a ton of the monster in most of the book, it's mentioned heavily but we don't get a real appearance until about 2/3 into the book. This book is about the characters that are there to protect the Pentagon and hunt the monster. Unfortunately, the characters are fairly one dimensional and are mostly act like angsty lovesick teenagers instead of competent professionals.
The monster is fun and the setting is very cool. I learned a lot about the Pentagon building that I didn't know. The characters and the slow nature of the buildup, were a letdown but the cool Nazi monster kept me going.
August 27, 2016
Something was hidden behind the walls of the pentagon. Something that has been asleep for a long time, but now someone has accidentally woke it up. Now it is loose in the building, making easy work of the people inside.
I loved this book! A great creature story. Nazis, science, and genetics. FUN! Great all the way through to the end.
I loved this book! A great creature story. Nazis, science, and genetics. FUN! Great all the way through to the end.
May 1, 2011
Truly great monster movies always find a way to convey the sense of loss or tragedy beind the monster. In the process of discovery, the viewer begins to feel sorry for this frighteningly hideous being and the circumstances it has suffered, often times at the hand of man. The moments of frenzy are nicely coupled with moments of pathos. In the end, one could argue that the viewer comes to a greater understanding of the monster than any other character, and, perhaps, the viewer even secretly despises the hero who must inevitably vanquish the beast.
That said, Harriman's debut novel, "Sleeper," almost feels crafted as an homage to the great monster movies of today and yesterday.
Meersohn, the "Sleeper" awakened, is the end result of Nazi scientists early tinkerings into research with genetic tampering, a bit of a stretch since DNA hadn't yet been discovered, but this is nicely smoothed out by the author (in a debut novel, nonetheless!). Of course, the same fate that tempted the Nazis tempts Meersohn's father, and the story that began over six decades ago flashes forward to a future ... where the aftermath from monsters of the human variety (the terrorists of the historic 9/11 events) is being dealt with in the renovations to the Pentagon.
Ed Jeffers, the Pentagon facilities manager, is posed with a unique problem: a constructor worker has gone missing under curious circumstances that point to a saboteur or, worse, a wayward crocodile nesting within the massive walls of the building. Jeffers seeks out the counsel of Dr. Andrea DeLuca, a herpetologist, to provide answers to some questions, but what she discovers only raises the stakes ... and Dr. DeLuca insists upon joining the search for what could possibly be a thousand-year-old species long thought extinct. As matters continue to escalate, Terrill Hodge, America's finest Navy SEAL, is brought in to eradicate the creature ... and thus begins an odd love triangle between the three principal characters.
"Sleeper" doesn't exactly move along at a brisk pace. Like the unravelling of any "X File," the story has a fair amount of events, largely told in flashback, that need to be explained, and this keeps the narrative slow during the first half of the book. However, the novel has its share of surprising plot twists, and the author occasionally strays into areas that other authors would've avoided or found unnecessary. And, while others might take issue with the string of coincidences that eventually binds this house of cards together, the author deftly manages to keep the story on track, moving forward, never sacrificing the human element ... even that of the vicious Meersohn.
So many other themes are explored in "Sleeper" that it's difficult to wrap your arms around them all. Genetic engineering. Alzheimers. Disability. Attraction. Revulsion. The author went to great pains to pen a human story in the world of monsters, and the result -- while some moments involve too much internal character angst -- is still a well-deserved beast that deserves to be found by a wide audience.
The clever moral of the story here is that, through purely inadvertant chance, one monster (terrorists) ultimately unleashed another (Meersohn). That's a lesson for the ages.
That said, Harriman's debut novel, "Sleeper," almost feels crafted as an homage to the great monster movies of today and yesterday.
Meersohn, the "Sleeper" awakened, is the end result of Nazi scientists early tinkerings into research with genetic tampering, a bit of a stretch since DNA hadn't yet been discovered, but this is nicely smoothed out by the author (in a debut novel, nonetheless!). Of course, the same fate that tempted the Nazis tempts Meersohn's father, and the story that began over six decades ago flashes forward to a future ... where the aftermath from monsters of the human variety (the terrorists of the historic 9/11 events) is being dealt with in the renovations to the Pentagon.
Ed Jeffers, the Pentagon facilities manager, is posed with a unique problem: a constructor worker has gone missing under curious circumstances that point to a saboteur or, worse, a wayward crocodile nesting within the massive walls of the building. Jeffers seeks out the counsel of Dr. Andrea DeLuca, a herpetologist, to provide answers to some questions, but what she discovers only raises the stakes ... and Dr. DeLuca insists upon joining the search for what could possibly be a thousand-year-old species long thought extinct. As matters continue to escalate, Terrill Hodge, America's finest Navy SEAL, is brought in to eradicate the creature ... and thus begins an odd love triangle between the three principal characters.
"Sleeper" doesn't exactly move along at a brisk pace. Like the unravelling of any "X File," the story has a fair amount of events, largely told in flashback, that need to be explained, and this keeps the narrative slow during the first half of the book. However, the novel has its share of surprising plot twists, and the author occasionally strays into areas that other authors would've avoided or found unnecessary. And, while others might take issue with the string of coincidences that eventually binds this house of cards together, the author deftly manages to keep the story on track, moving forward, never sacrificing the human element ... even that of the vicious Meersohn.
So many other themes are explored in "Sleeper" that it's difficult to wrap your arms around them all. Genetic engineering. Alzheimers. Disability. Attraction. Revulsion. The author went to great pains to pen a human story in the world of monsters, and the result -- while some moments involve too much internal character angst -- is still a well-deserved beast that deserves to be found by a wide audience.
The clever moral of the story here is that, through purely inadvertant chance, one monster (terrorists) ultimately unleashed another (Meersohn). That's a lesson for the ages.
August 13, 2018
NO SPOILERS!! A really fun and quick read. The descriptions of the Pentagon interior and personnel/hierarchy systems are accurate. The story itself was understandable, the writing clear and succinct. Yeah...stories like this require a certain amount of the suspension of disbelief but ultimately, the reader buys in because the writing is good. The pace of the story is excellent and there are only a few places where the author gets a bit verbose about emotional components of the story. BOTTOM LINE: this is a really good book and something you can just pick up and run thru with relative ease/little effort.
December 27, 2019
4.2 stars!
Wish I could find more monster horror like Sleeper. Fast, fun read. Spooky Nazi horror elements fishtail into Pentagon panic. Welcome addition to any serious horror collection.
Wish I could find more monster horror like Sleeper. Fast, fun read. Spooky Nazi horror elements fishtail into Pentagon panic. Welcome addition to any serious horror collection.
April 17, 2020
When a construction worker stumbles across a cylinder labeled “Abwehr” underneath the Pentagon, he releases a teratogenic amphibian/human hybrid created by Nazi scientists for underwater sabotage.
July 25, 2024
Honestly took a bit for me to get into it, but after that it was all smooth sailing. Really enjoyed the historical aspect of this story which is not something I usually get into.
March 27, 2017
This is the third time that I've read this, but it had been a while. While it left a lasting mark in my memory and I could remember most, if not all, of the major plot points, the last time I had read this was back in middle school before I had a Goodreads account. Now, reading it as an adult, this was how I felt about the book.
First of all, you have to take the science in this book with a major grain of salt. And I do mean major. This book is science fiction, meaning they get to make some leaps and you just have to roll with it. Still, if you're okay with a suspension of belief regarding the science of how things came to be, the main creature in the book is very interesting. In fact, it reminded me a whole lot of the Alien movies, except without all the craziness regarding eggs and face huggers.
Historically, the book takes place in the reconstruction following 9/11. (I'm fairly certain most of the staff names were entirely fictionalized, which is fair.) However, it also frequently flashes back to World War II as well, more specifically Nazi Germany. There are little kernels of history in there, but obviously much of the details are fabricated.
I think, now reading this as an adult, I'm less forgiving of poorly written chemistry. This book harps on and on for the entire story about who wants to bone who and who's going to get the girl/who the girl is going to choose. Hint: it's not the douchebag who's a personality clone of her ex-husband. While all the characters are realistic on their own, the constant questioning of who Andrea was most interested in seemed really unimportant considering there's a monster snatching people from the hallways of the Pentagon and eating. I legitimately could have cared less about who Andrea chooses at the end. The love triangle felt forced and stupid to me. I don't care how stressful the situation is, nobody falls head over heels in love over the course of a week. Life isn't the movies.
The other thing that I found to be really unrealistic is how much Ed Jeffers, one of the main characters, dwells on his arm. As a side effect of a drug his mother took while pregnant, Ed has a stunted and partially functional arm that, in order to appear normal, is equipped with a fake arm. When you're seeing things from his point of view, there isn't a page that goes by where he isn't obsessing about who cares about the arm and if they care enough for it to affect him. Especially in the romantic vein of things, which is utterly inescapable, he wonders how it might affect a potential relationship with Andrea. As someone who is described as being in his late thirties or early forties, the fact that he has lived his whole life with a series of fake arms should not be something that is on his mind this constantly. Sure, I can see it being mentioned a few times, or of a character noticing, but there's this degree of self-hatred there because he isn't normal because he has a fake arm in place of a real one. I feel that this author could have done a little more to make Ed's perspective on his disability feel more realistic. The extent that he thinks about it seemed a little too excessive.
The monster and the actual plot are actually really fun, once you dig past the romantic commentary every other paragraph and Ed's self-consciousness. I mean, who doesn't want to read about . The story itself is a lot of fun and the creature itself was the most interesting character in the story for me. In all honesty, the other characters being so bogged down by their hormones easily helped the creature to the top of the list.
I had previously rated this at four stars, but due to my realization of how much obsessing the author did over the romance and Ed's fake arm, I downgraded it to three. The nostalgia value didn't hold up on this one as well as I'd have hoped.
First of all, you have to take the science in this book with a major grain of salt. And I do mean major. This book is science fiction, meaning they get to make some leaps and you just have to roll with it. Still, if you're okay with a suspension of belief regarding the science of how things came to be, the main creature in the book is very interesting. In fact, it reminded me a whole lot of the Alien movies, except without all the craziness regarding eggs and face huggers.
Historically, the book takes place in the reconstruction following 9/11. (I'm fairly certain most of the staff names were entirely fictionalized, which is fair.) However, it also frequently flashes back to World War II as well, more specifically Nazi Germany. There are little kernels of history in there, but obviously much of the details are fabricated.
I think, now reading this as an adult, I'm less forgiving of poorly written chemistry. This book harps on and on for the entire story about who wants to bone who and who's going to get the girl/who the girl is going to choose. Hint: it's not the douchebag who's a personality clone of her ex-husband. While all the characters are realistic on their own, the constant questioning of who Andrea was most interested in seemed really unimportant considering there's a monster snatching people from the hallways of the Pentagon and eating. I legitimately could have cared less about who Andrea chooses at the end. The love triangle felt forced and stupid to me. I don't care how stressful the situation is, nobody falls head over heels in love over the course of a week. Life isn't the movies.
The other thing that I found to be really unrealistic is how much Ed Jeffers, one of the main characters, dwells on his arm. As a side effect of a drug his mother took while pregnant, Ed has a stunted and partially functional arm that, in order to appear normal, is equipped with a fake arm. When you're seeing things from his point of view, there isn't a page that goes by where he isn't obsessing about who cares about the arm and if they care enough for it to affect him. Especially in the romantic vein of things, which is utterly inescapable, he wonders how it might affect a potential relationship with Andrea. As someone who is described as being in his late thirties or early forties, the fact that he has lived his whole life with a series of fake arms should not be something that is on his mind this constantly. Sure, I can see it being mentioned a few times, or of a character noticing, but there's this degree of self-hatred there because he isn't normal because he has a fake arm in place of a real one. I feel that this author could have done a little more to make Ed's perspective on his disability feel more realistic. The extent that he thinks about it seemed a little too excessive.
The monster and the actual plot are actually really fun, once you dig past the romantic commentary every other paragraph and Ed's self-consciousness. I mean, who doesn't want to read about . The story itself is a lot of fun and the creature itself was the most interesting character in the story for me. In all honesty, the other characters being so bogged down by their hormones easily helped the creature to the top of the list.
I had previously rated this at four stars, but due to my realization of how much obsessing the author did over the romance and Ed's fake arm, I downgraded it to three. The nostalgia value didn't hold up on this one as well as I'd have hoped.
April 2, 2012
An entertaining book where a little Nazi fetus is merged with a frog, kept in suspended animation behind the drywall of the Pentagon, only to break free and wreak bloody havok in the air conditioning system.
The reptile expert they get in to deal with it (with a dark family history) and the Navy SEAL with a Pringle can sized chip on his shoulder to deal with this little problem (on the same day that the Russian minister of course is touring the Pentagon) are a little one dimensional and outlandish.
Still I liked it. Good, fast read if you're like in the airport or something.
The reptile expert they get in to deal with it (with a dark family history) and the Navy SEAL with a Pringle can sized chip on his shoulder to deal with this little problem (on the same day that the Russian minister of course is touring the Pentagon) are a little one dimensional and outlandish.
Still I liked it. Good, fast read if you're like in the airport or something.
May 31, 2009
good airplane book...
April 21, 2012
This book bored the hell out of me. Very predictable and slow.
March 31, 2014
nice read, kinda spoiler the last 75 pages throw alot at you.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews