What do you think?
Rate this book
Silurid
There are over 2000 species of fish in the Siluridae family on the planet, many with unique defense mechanisms. They have impenetrable body armor plates, can walk on land, breathe air like humans, savagely electrocute, and impale their prey with lethal venomous barbs. In this exciting horror novel, Vernon Murdock, a young idealistic marine biologist, makes an incredible breakthrough with high hopes of ending world famine for the rest of eternity when he breeds a hybrid species guaranteed to put substantially more food on the dinner table. The only problem is that exhaustion and his obsession to engineer the perfect fish has impeded Vernon’s judgment causing him to let his experiment get away from him—as now his interbred leviathan monsters have ESCAPED—and they have no intention of being bottom of the food chain...
234 pages, Paperback
Published August 13, 2016
45 people are currently reading
40 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
March 15, 2022
Fun fish monster read
A noble cause leads to a nightmare. Vernon wants to end hunger, and make a name for himself in the science community. Coming from a family fishery, well, the idea was to create fish that reproduced quickly, grew really large, and would therefore be a great source of protein for areas in need. Only problem is, tinkering with genetics brought back some recessive genes like thick scales, and that rapid growth means it's more like plate armor. Add in the ability to shock its prey, and a growing fish's constant hunger...and you have a disaster in the making.
Spoilers ahead.
This started out a little shaky with a lot of rotating POVs. And, while this is Vernon's project, he is one of the ones we hear from least. But, once the fish escape, because otherwise this story wouldn't be half as fun, things pick up fast. The only thing was, by 65% the outcome was clear, it seemed like the fish part had been abandoned, and we have some major time jumps. We skip a few weeks, then months, then a year and a half, then days,... It bounced so much when the focus could have just shifted but still continued on the path of destruction. And it jumped from local issue to global really fast, but with none of the buildup. It was fun, I liked the concept of no good deed going unpunished. I would have enjoyed seeing Vernon's thoughts a bit more, why the shack, and the outside involvement be given a little more story. How would giant fish attacks not make headlines? As many witnesses as there were, in the days of easily snapped pictures, the story should have been all over the news. But, even with those questions, and the time skips, it was an entertaining read.
A noble cause leads to a nightmare. Vernon wants to end hunger, and make a name for himself in the science community. Coming from a family fishery, well, the idea was to create fish that reproduced quickly, grew really large, and would therefore be a great source of protein for areas in need. Only problem is, tinkering with genetics brought back some recessive genes like thick scales, and that rapid growth means it's more like plate armor. Add in the ability to shock its prey, and a growing fish's constant hunger...and you have a disaster in the making.
Spoilers ahead.
This started out a little shaky with a lot of rotating POVs. And, while this is Vernon's project, he is one of the ones we hear from least. But, once the fish escape, because otherwise this story wouldn't be half as fun, things pick up fast. The only thing was, by 65% the outcome was clear, it seemed like the fish part had been abandoned, and we have some major time jumps. We skip a few weeks, then months, then a year and a half, then days,... It bounced so much when the focus could have just shifted but still continued on the path of destruction. And it jumped from local issue to global really fast, but with none of the buildup. It was fun, I liked the concept of no good deed going unpunished. I would have enjoyed seeing Vernon's thoughts a bit more, why the shack, and the outside involvement be given a little more story. How would giant fish attacks not make headlines? As many witnesses as there were, in the days of easily snapped pictures, the story should have been all over the news. But, even with those questions, and the time skips, it was an entertaining read.
March 14, 2025
It could have been a better read if the author had spent as much attention in English class as he did learning about guns. The amount of errors really took me out of the story.
July 30, 2022
Watch out for giant catfish! They can walk to the shore and hunt fishermen.
November 29, 2016
The entire first part of the book is kinda meh, introducing us to characters who are bland, stupid, or completely stereotypical. Jess, the main character, is of course loved by everyone. For a while I tried to track the stereotypes for this review, but I lost count.
The fish brought me to laughter as they scuffled around on land using giant fins, knocking over trees to chase and eat people. I don’t think it was meant to be as silly as it was.
The time frame for the story keeps getting confused. Things like types of phones or computer data collection devices that are available seem to contradict each other. The narrative is also a bit choppy and confused, with multiple instances of one word substituted for something that definitely didn’t mean the same thing.
Part two of the book was… uh, slightly better? Slightly better characterization. Slightly better dialogue. On the other hand, the premise is ridiculous (I’ll leave it out, since it would give away the ending in part one). I’m also disappointed that this book is ostensibly about mad science, but there’s really no mad science done in the course of the book. It’s all pre-book.
My hope is that this book’s origin came when its author said, “hey, what’s the most ridiculous creature a mad scientist could muck with?” But since this doesn’t appear to be listed in any kind of humor or satire listing at Amazon, I have to assume not.
Original review on my site: http://www.errantdreams.com/2016/11/r...
The fish brought me to laughter as they scuffled around on land using giant fins, knocking over trees to chase and eat people. I don’t think it was meant to be as silly as it was.
The time frame for the story keeps getting confused. Things like types of phones or computer data collection devices that are available seem to contradict each other. The narrative is also a bit choppy and confused, with multiple instances of one word substituted for something that definitely didn’t mean the same thing.
Part two of the book was… uh, slightly better? Slightly better characterization. Slightly better dialogue. On the other hand, the premise is ridiculous (I’ll leave it out, since it would give away the ending in part one). I’m also disappointed that this book is ostensibly about mad science, but there’s really no mad science done in the course of the book. It’s all pre-book.
My hope is that this book’s origin came when its author said, “hey, what’s the most ridiculous creature a mad scientist could muck with?” But since this doesn’t appear to be listed in any kind of humor or satire listing at Amazon, I have to assume not.
Original review on my site: http://www.errantdreams.com/2016/11/r...
September 16, 2016
"Silurid" by Gerry Griffiths is the story of genetic modification gone awry and the protagonist's struggle to contain the menace released. Fast-paced, well-researched and surprising in a number of ways, I enjoyed reading this book more than I assumed I would. It was simply a FUN read.
I was hoping for a simple, entertaining story in this work and it delivered on the goods. Big bad scary monsters (giant mutated catfish for the WIN!), intrepid and often stupid characters to act as fish food, mucho action with explosions and tension. This book delivered on all the above. In the spirit of full transparency, it did feel like I was reading a novelization of some SyFy "Saturday Night Movie" special ala Sharknado, but who cares? It was a blast.
Don't get me wrong. If you're interested in subtle, psychological horror with terrifying insights into the deepest and darkest corners of the mind, move along. This book is very much WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) and that is why it works so well.
Many of the characters are straight out of central casting, the relationships are predictable, dialogue is read from a teleprompter at times and there are more plot holes than BUT...
The story is still entertaining as hell. And that is always enough to keep me turning the page.
I was hoping for a simple, entertaining story in this work and it delivered on the goods. Big bad scary monsters (giant mutated catfish for the WIN!), intrepid and often stupid characters to act as fish food, mucho action with explosions and tension. This book delivered on all the above. In the spirit of full transparency, it did feel like I was reading a novelization of some SyFy "Saturday Night Movie" special ala Sharknado, but who cares? It was a blast.
Don't get me wrong. If you're interested in subtle, psychological horror with terrifying insights into the deepest and darkest corners of the mind, move along. This book is very much WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) and that is why it works so well.
Many of the characters are straight out of central casting, the relationships are predictable, dialogue is read from a teleprompter at times and there are more plot holes than BUT...
The story is still entertaining as hell. And that is always enough to keep me turning the page.
October 16, 2016
Catfish
I was really looking forward to this book being a good read. It started off good but I got kinda lost. The science was sketchy and hard to follow and I don't know if the book ended with the death of all the bad guys...I mean fish. Oh well, wasn't bad enough for me not to finish it. Enjoy.
I was really looking forward to this book being a good read. It started off good but I got kinda lost. The science was sketchy and hard to follow and I don't know if the book ended with the death of all the bad guys...I mean fish. Oh well, wasn't bad enough for me not to finish it. Enjoy.
September 25, 2016
Wow
Experiments gone wrong. Great family and business owner surviving on a small lake.
I think this is the first time i was rooting for the unlikeable reporter to be eaten or killed in a crash.
This was a page turner.
Experiments gone wrong. Great family and business owner surviving on a small lake.
I think this is the first time i was rooting for the unlikeable reporter to be eaten or killed in a crash.
This was a page turner.
September 6, 2016
A better than average piece of cryptidfiction, dealing with genetically modified killer Siluridae, or catfish
September 19, 2016
Mutated fish story. Very enjoyable.
October 19, 2016
It's okay
Slow start, choppy in pacing and description. Really couldn't fully grab my attention. The characters seemed lifeless in speech and action.
Slow start, choppy in pacing and description. Really couldn't fully grab my attention. The characters seemed lifeless in speech and action.
December 11, 2016
Awesome
Much better than I thought it would be. Plenty of action, blood and guts. Who is having who for dinner?
Much better than I thought it would be. Plenty of action, blood and guts. Who is having who for dinner?
September 8, 2020
The story was decent up until it got to the end - then it seemed to derail a bit to me. Interesting characters that were fleshed out well. Didn't care for the creatures either.
February 27, 2018
A decent read.
A good story that had a lot of action. I recommend this book for anyone with a good imagination! Go for ot!
A good story that had a lot of action. I recommend this book for anyone with a good imagination! Go for ot!
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews