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EAT: ΣΔΤ Book One: Sigma
Welcome back to the food chain…'A chunk of white rested inside the dip of her collarbone. She fished it out and flicked it away, its rattle echoing as it bounced under a display table, alerting her to the silence. The ringing in her ears had finally stopped. The mask and goggles were long gone; fallen off in her haste. Pointless to wear them now, anyway, not with stocky Mike’s blood smeared all over her. Soon she’d be one of those things, if she wasn’t already. It was hard to tell. 'Terry and his team made a discovery that will change the course of human evolution forever. Instead of celebrating, he puts a gun to his mouth and pulls the trigger. Caede is all set to complete her master's degree, refresh her dating profile, and finally join the land of the living. Instead, she wakes up surrounded by dead bodies and ferocious monsters. Kai waits anxiously for his sister to return from the world's longest night shift. Ravi hides under a desk in his office, and Efia lays unconscious in a garage. Recently dumped Jonathan drinks himself to death in an empty apartment. The end can't arrive quickly enough - until a grizzly attack sends him stumbling into the path of Caede and all the horrors of an apocalyptic London.“Gripping from the very first chapter!” - Sam Pillow“Jesse Brown has a terrific knack for vivid description and emotional storytelling.” - Dan ‘Animal’ Pendleton
440 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 2, 2023
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16 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 19, 2025
DISCLAIMER - I received a free copy of this book to review for the 2024/25 Self-Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC).
I am a bit conflicted about reviewing this book. On the one hand, it is well-written, action packed, full of interesting characters, and focuses on a possible dystopian future. On the other hand, it is more horror that sci fi and the science is more than a bit questionable.
Jesse Brown’s writing in their first novel definitely sets the foundation for a successful writing career. In EAT they avoid many of the mistakes new authors often make and manages to quickly connect with her audience. From the short, action filled prologue they quickly segue into introducing, Caede, who opens her eyes to find a nightmarish world of dead, dying, and decaying bodies. Brown slowly reveals more and more of what has happened to the world while introducing more heroes, antiheroes, and villains.
There is a lot to like about this book but as a science fiction entry, the horror put me off.
(I would have given this book 3.5 stars but, as that is not an option, I skewed upwards.)
I am a bit conflicted about reviewing this book. On the one hand, it is well-written, action packed, full of interesting characters, and focuses on a possible dystopian future. On the other hand, it is more horror that sci fi and the science is more than a bit questionable.
Jesse Brown’s writing in their first novel definitely sets the foundation for a successful writing career. In EAT they avoid many of the mistakes new authors often make and manages to quickly connect with her audience. From the short, action filled prologue they quickly segue into introducing, Caede, who opens her eyes to find a nightmarish world of dead, dying, and decaying bodies. Brown slowly reveals more and more of what has happened to the world while introducing more heroes, antiheroes, and villains.
There is a lot to like about this book but as a science fiction entry, the horror put me off.
(I would have given this book 3.5 stars but, as that is not an option, I skewed upwards.)
April 7, 2025
"Night of the living furries" is how a character describes their situation a little more than midway through Jesse Brown's EAT. I laughed when I read that line and I also nodded. That's a good description of the basic premise, though replace cute or weirdly sexualized furries with the sleek, muscle-bound, eat-your-face-off variety.
Caede wakes on the pavement one cold morning surrounded by dead bodies, some look like they died in mid-transformation, others look like something has been eating them. She doesn't quite remember how she got there or what the heck is going on.
So begins a story that borrows heavily from zombie genre stories like The Walking Dead or 28 Days Later (More the latter as EAT has a distinctly British flavor that it shares with the Danny Boyle film). Like those stories with which it shares some DNA, EAT is a tale of survivors finding each other, working together and sometimes losing each other again.
The only differences here are cosmetic. Replace zombies with humans mutated into animal hybrids and you're halfway there. Some of the mutations aren't so bad, others are absolute horror shows. Brown does a fine job of taking the reader into the dark and showing them monsters.
She also does a great job of developing real human characters that are all flawed and screwed up, but they each have a heart. A heroine shutdown with impenetrable boundaries, a hero with a drinking problem, a kid who might be a sociopath, a doctor who's a coward. And then the author combines them into a found family that must fight through madness to survive.
The action scenes are frequent, the violence is visceral, and the monsters are man-eaters. Throw in a well-crafted romance thread and you've got a book that reads fast and fun. It's not meant to be anything more important than a scary joy-ride but that it does very well.
I'm giving this book 4 out of five stars only because there's room for improvement, but you should get this book if you like a good zombie survivor tale.
Caede wakes on the pavement one cold morning surrounded by dead bodies, some look like they died in mid-transformation, others look like something has been eating them. She doesn't quite remember how she got there or what the heck is going on.
So begins a story that borrows heavily from zombie genre stories like The Walking Dead or 28 Days Later (More the latter as EAT has a distinctly British flavor that it shares with the Danny Boyle film). Like those stories with which it shares some DNA, EAT is a tale of survivors finding each other, working together and sometimes losing each other again.
The only differences here are cosmetic. Replace zombies with humans mutated into animal hybrids and you're halfway there. Some of the mutations aren't so bad, others are absolute horror shows. Brown does a fine job of taking the reader into the dark and showing them monsters.
She also does a great job of developing real human characters that are all flawed and screwed up, but they each have a heart. A heroine shutdown with impenetrable boundaries, a hero with a drinking problem, a kid who might be a sociopath, a doctor who's a coward. And then the author combines them into a found family that must fight through madness to survive.
The action scenes are frequent, the violence is visceral, and the monsters are man-eaters. Throw in a well-crafted romance thread and you've got a book that reads fast and fun. It's not meant to be anything more important than a scary joy-ride but that it does very well.
I'm giving this book 4 out of five stars only because there's room for improvement, but you should get this book if you like a good zombie survivor tale.
August 25, 2024
This isn't my usual preferred genre of book, but I thought I would give it a go and I am really looking foward to reading the rest of the series when released.
As someone with an internal voice I can find it really difficult to imagine the scenes of what I am reading, but the descriptions in this book helped me to picture what was happening and the monsters within
As someone with an internal voice I can find it really difficult to imagine the scenes of what I am reading, but the descriptions in this book helped me to picture what was happening and the monsters within
January 3, 2024
As the title so kindly suggests to, I devoured this book. Jesse's vivid descriptions combined with the pacing of this book made it so gripping that I couldn't put it down. I'm very excited to see where they take the story with book two!
February 12, 2025
This review was originally posted on SFF Insiders. This was read for SPSFC4 purposes.
The title of this book is very apt: I absolutely devoured EAT. With tense horror, electric action, and an immensely gripping cast, EAT is a fantastic read for those craving a great monster horror. Jesse Brown absolutely nailed this one.
The year is 2030 in London. A government-funded research lab has produced strains of a gene therapy called Sigma. One strain is like CRISPR on steroids; another reverts those mutated by it to their basest animal instincts…and that is the one that has been unleashed. After finishing a long shift at work, Caede awakes surrounded by monsters on the streets of London. After enduring a devastating breakup, Jon is on the brink of ending it all. But when the attacks force these strangers together, they know there is nothing they can do to stop them. There is only one thing they can do: survive.
Right from the jump, Brown pulls you in with Caede witnessing a man turn into a monster right before her eyes, and they do not let you free from their grasp until the final pages. This is a credit to Brown’s mastery of atmosphere and prose. The hallmark of a good horror story is that feeling of tension, that no character feels safe, or that anything that can happen will happen, and Brown nails all of that. Intense moments fly off the page, transporting you into these claustrophobic situations that, at times, had my heart pounding and had me reading between my fingers.
The monsters—or chimaera, as they’re called in the story—are both dangerous and terrifying, a hybrid of man and beast intent on hunting survivors and turning them. The hybrid nature of these monsters made for a unique antagonistic group, as the chimaera count among their ranks humans fused with everything from snakes to spiders to wolves—and some even more and inventive combinations beyond that. The groups of chimaera take on the characteristics of their respective beasts, presenting a variety of situations for our protagonists to escape and survive, but always making clear that these monsters can—and will—savage someone, given the opportunity.
Make no mistake—EAT is a violent story, but it’s handled with restraint. While there are very gory moments, Brown uses these scenes sparingly, and that allows these instances to shine. It’s made clear what the chimaera could do to the protagonists, and that makes the moments of danger all the more tense when they come to pass.
And all these moments of dread are carried by a well-realized and multi-dimensional cast, each with their own distinct personalities and motivations, all doing what they can to survive this post-apocalypse. The horror-filled chases, monstrous stand-offs, and explosive fights wouldn’t work half as well without this cast there to support it. In a lesser author’s hands, I wouldn’t care for the well-being of some of these characters, but Brown absolutely nails each one, from the determined to the annoying, that no matter who was in the most danger at any time, I would be laser-focused on the action, hoping that they would make it out okay.
There’s very little I can raise as issues with EAT. At times, the pacing felt a little off—a moment or two where some minor conflict is resolved too quickly, such as when one character “quits” in one chapter, only to immediately change his mind in the next chapter for plot convenience—but these moments are few and far between. I could also raise issue with a moment involving the central antagonist where they have a few of the characters cornered, and then does the ol’ villain trope send-off of “This isn’t over, we’ll meet again.” But honestly, any issues I could raise are just nit-picks that do very little to diminish how much I enjoyed this book.
I can’t sing EAT’s praises enough. I’m not normally a horror reader, but this book gripped me right from the start. I’m already hungry for more from this series. Be thankful I only (knowingly) included two eating-based puns for this.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go pre-emptively snake-proof my entire house, because, I mean, well…Christ, why’d it have to be snakes?
The title of this book is very apt: I absolutely devoured EAT. With tense horror, electric action, and an immensely gripping cast, EAT is a fantastic read for those craving a great monster horror. Jesse Brown absolutely nailed this one.
The year is 2030 in London. A government-funded research lab has produced strains of a gene therapy called Sigma. One strain is like CRISPR on steroids; another reverts those mutated by it to their basest animal instincts…and that is the one that has been unleashed. After finishing a long shift at work, Caede awakes surrounded by monsters on the streets of London. After enduring a devastating breakup, Jon is on the brink of ending it all. But when the attacks force these strangers together, they know there is nothing they can do to stop them. There is only one thing they can do: survive.
Right from the jump, Brown pulls you in with Caede witnessing a man turn into a monster right before her eyes, and they do not let you free from their grasp until the final pages. This is a credit to Brown’s mastery of atmosphere and prose. The hallmark of a good horror story is that feeling of tension, that no character feels safe, or that anything that can happen will happen, and Brown nails all of that. Intense moments fly off the page, transporting you into these claustrophobic situations that, at times, had my heart pounding and had me reading between my fingers.
The monsters—or chimaera, as they’re called in the story—are both dangerous and terrifying, a hybrid of man and beast intent on hunting survivors and turning them. The hybrid nature of these monsters made for a unique antagonistic group, as the chimaera count among their ranks humans fused with everything from snakes to spiders to wolves—and some even more and inventive combinations beyond that. The groups of chimaera take on the characteristics of their respective beasts, presenting a variety of situations for our protagonists to escape and survive, but always making clear that these monsters can—and will—savage someone, given the opportunity.
Make no mistake—EAT is a violent story, but it’s handled with restraint. While there are very gory moments, Brown uses these scenes sparingly, and that allows these instances to shine. It’s made clear what the chimaera could do to the protagonists, and that makes the moments of danger all the more tense when they come to pass.
And all these moments of dread are carried by a well-realized and multi-dimensional cast, each with their own distinct personalities and motivations, all doing what they can to survive this post-apocalypse. The horror-filled chases, monstrous stand-offs, and explosive fights wouldn’t work half as well without this cast there to support it. In a lesser author’s hands, I wouldn’t care for the well-being of some of these characters, but Brown absolutely nails each one, from the determined to the annoying, that no matter who was in the most danger at any time, I would be laser-focused on the action, hoping that they would make it out okay.
There’s very little I can raise as issues with EAT. At times, the pacing felt a little off—a moment or two where some minor conflict is resolved too quickly, such as when one character “quits” in one chapter, only to immediately change his mind in the next chapter for plot convenience—but these moments are few and far between. I could also raise issue with a moment involving the central antagonist where they have a few of the characters cornered, and then does the ol’ villain trope send-off of “This isn’t over, we’ll meet again.” But honestly, any issues I could raise are just nit-picks that do very little to diminish how much I enjoyed this book.
I can’t sing EAT’s praises enough. I’m not normally a horror reader, but this book gripped me right from the start. I’m already hungry for more from this series. Be thankful I only (knowingly) included two eating-based puns for this.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go pre-emptively snake-proof my entire house, because, I mean, well…Christ, why’d it have to be snakes?
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews