The X-Files: Antibodies

The X-Files #5

by Kevin J. Anderson

When a deadly virus is unleashed, agents Mulder and Scully discover a cure that could be the key to eternal life, and they must race against time to stop it from falling into the wrong hands. Reprint.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Mystery, Horror, Thriller, Fantasy, Paranormal

276 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Yes, I have a lot of books, and if this is your first visit to my amazon author page, it can be a little overwhelming. If you are new to my work, let me recommend a few titles as good places to start. I love my Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I. series, humorous horror/mysteries, which begin with DEATH WARMED OVER. My steampunk fantasy adventures, CLOCKWORK ANGELS and CLOCKWORK LIVES, written with Neil Peart, legendary drummer from Rush, are two of my very favorite novels ever. And my magnum opus, the science fiction epic The Saga of Seven Suns, begins with HIDDEN EMPIRE. After you've tried those, I hope you'll check out some of my other series.

I have written spin-off novels for Star Wars, StarCraft, Titan A.E., and The X-Files, and I'm the co-author of the Dune prequels. My original works include the Saga of Seven Suns series and the Nebula Award-nominated Assemblers of Infinity. I have also written several comic books including the Dark Horse Star Wars collection Tales of the Jedi written in collaboration with Tom Veitch, Predator titles (also for Dark Horse), and X-Files titles for Topps.

I serve as a judge in the Writers of the Future contest.

My wife is author Rebecca Moesta. We currently reside near Monument, Colorado.

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nicely paced thriller with the familiar characters of Agents Scully and Mulder. This installment has them investigating a mysterious fire and an unrecognizable virus.

[Darya Silman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed ANTIBODIES. It has all thriller elements: captivating plot, likeable characters (especially the terminally ill boy), and bad guys trying to kill the good guys.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent X-Files story, but largely predictable and unremarkable. The origin and aims of the "sinister" forces opposing Mulder & Scully are not explored or explained nearly enough. This is the X-Files, so I expect to have some questions go unanswered, but this felt like a gaping hole.

[Rade · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another one of those books that I have yet I don't know why exactly. I am a huge fan of X-Files. I used to watch it like crazy when Netflix decided to put up all the episodes on Instant. This book read exactly like an episode of the show.

I got to say that this book was written full of coincidences. Bad guys look for heroes, they find them by interfering their cellphone frequency. Not only that but they interfere and hear the most crucial plan of their secret plan. Mulder and Scully pursuit one lead and suddenly something happens that is even more important and crucial to their investigation. They're just full of luck, aren't they? Another example is when a character gets shot and it comes off as just inconvenient since we know they survive due to their already mentioned ability to heal themselves. I was just reading and thinking "He'll heal" every time another character was sad/nervous about a person in front of them getting hurt. Bunch of other questions: How did the dog survive what happened towards the end? How does the dog know where to find his family? How is it not possible the bad nano did not escape into nature considering the person who had it was constantly leaking/melting? Why did they put the kid in a survivalist camp? He does not like people there much so wasn't there a way to find some relatives that would want to adopt Jody? I have a lot more questions but maybe I am looking into this book way too much.

Also, and this is a minor annoyance on my part, I keep thinking the boy is a girl because his name is Jody. It kept messing with my mind for some reason.

Honestly, the book read like a script for one of the episodes. The chapters are very short and I could have read it in a day or so if I wanted to. The story itself is alright but it does not really bring anything new to the table. Bunch of coincidences and cliches mixed with a mystery where Mulder and Scully ask bunch of questions and follow leads that are just laid out in front of them while the bad guys follow their steps and answer to the man hidden in shadows.

[Kandice · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't remember why I liked these books so much when they came out. I wanted more Mulder and Scully after that tease of a six-episode arc on Fox, but this just wasn't it. There was very little of the dynamic duo and what there was seemed thin and uninteresting.
Too bad I bought all the e-books I could find when the show was on hoping to extend the X-files high because I don't know if I even want to read the rest.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good X-Files novel. This novel dealt with nanotechnology and a horrible plague, and Mulder and Scully find themselves right in the middle of all of it. Of course, there's a government conspiracy lurking around the corner as well.

Great for fans of the series, like myself.

[Angus McKeogh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just average and okay. The story was not all that intriguing and you could’ve put in two other “cop” characters instead of Mulder and Scully and you wouldn’t have lost anything. On top of that a good 50 to 60% of the novel followed auxiliary characters. Overall failed to transport me back to the world of The X-Files.

[Alana · Rating 3 out of 5]

My car stopped running yesterday, just POOF, and it turned out to be the that transmission totally died. But! My boyfriend found this for me at the thrift store yesterday also. So God doesn't hate me totally, just mostly. I really needed some mindless escapism, and this provided nicely.

In the first chapter there were two great descriptions of flashlight beams in the darkness. This excited me, and I was going to collect all of them and retell them here. Sadly though, after chapter one, there were no more flashlights. But still, it brought a lot of what is good about the X files. Agent In Peril! is one of my favorite plots of all time. (The book was very plotty and not very crackedoutromance-y, which wound up being good as it was more like seeing an episode than reading bad fan fiction, and so was more engaging than it might otherwise have been.)

[Eric G · Rating 3 out of 5]

just like you are watching an episode

[K the Vampire Slayer · Rating 3 out of 5]

When you don't have any expectations for a book, it's easy to not be let down. So this was an okay read, decently written, but certainly nothing special.
Basically, it's one of those things I only picked up because I felt bad for loitering around/browsing the used book and video store for like an hour without buying anything so... yeah.

The story takes place sometime after The Cancer Arc-which I admittedly haven't watched yet-and revolves around a destroyed research facility where the scientists there were working on a cure, albeit a highly risky, unstable... and possibly dangerous and infectious one. There's a cover up, a strange "disease," missing people, a dog (who gets put through a Hell of a lot, that poor thing), etc. With all the hallmarks of your regular monster of the week case, except extended to full novel length, it's pretty standard X-Files stuff: a little weird, a little gross, a lot paranoid. Overall, it was alright, definitely better and more coherent/cohesive than some episodes of the actual show, and definitely better than some other books based off TV shows that I've read *glares at those awful Buffy novels*, but that's honestly not a hard feat to accomplish.

So, *shrugs,* interesting concept, if not exactly memorable within a week or so. I was pretty detached from the whole thing myself and mostly finished it just to catch up on my reading challenge, but it's not bad. I could say the same or even a whole lot worse about parts of the actual show, so I give this book credit where credit is due.

[Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Synopsis) - When a disease-ravaged body is found in the smoldering ruins of the federally funded DyMar genetic research lab, Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully fear that a deadly, man-made plague is on the loose. As the FBI agents investigating the "X-Files" cases the bureau has deemed unsolvable Mulder and Scully pursue the truth wherever it leads, even into the labyrinthine corridors of the FBI... and beyond.

(Review) - hindsight is a beautiful thing, it allows you to see things more clearly from an angle you never thought possible! And in hindsight now having lived in a world with covid and lockdown, no book about a deadly virus may should be read the same way ever again, as we all have our own experience and fears of it and what happened. And for me this is the experience i had. When a deadly new virus has been found that infects quickly and then turns the body into goop, only one team can solve this case. And another fantastic X-Files story, the author handled the subject really well, close to how it actually happened, the small town was on lockdown, everyone was tested. Now obviously this is X-Files so the true cause of this virus is more out there then just a simple man made viruss, but still makes it ever so real with hindsight and technology advancements, we are not there in tech yet but possibly by the decades end! Now I had always heard rumours that there was a bit of truth laced into the show, that the writer had a contact in high places that would drip feed him things, so with the knowledge of man made virus, could the other twist be possible now or in the future, well i guess time would tell, but I can say this one virus outbreak is enough for one life time!

4/5 Stars GoodReads ⭐⭐⭐⭐

90/100 GingerPoints 🔥

[Rayanne Craven · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this one. A dog trainer by profession and a lover of black Labrador Retrievers, the blurb had me hooked already. The book followed the typical pattern of an X-Files episodes with a few twists here and there I honestly didn’t expect. I highly recommend it if you’re an X-File fan and especially if you like dogs like me!

[Ellen · Rating 3 out of 5]

im love them........mulder and scully my children

[Brooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐️

[Jake · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked his other two X-Files novels but this one... It just lacked a little oomph. But I got through it none the less and was more than happy for whatever dose of Mulder and Scully I can get-

[Matt Spaulding · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent X-Files story. Perhaps a whisker too long (like five to ten pages) but other than that a good read with close to nothing I would call extraneous.

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not an X-Files TV show watcher and I have never read any of the other books, so I was surprised to find how much I enjoyed this book. The action didn't waste any time getting started and it never fizzled out either throughout the entire book. This book was very well written and easy to read and to understand. I like books that have chapters that aren't super long too, which was something this book fulfilled for me. I just think it is easier to read when you know you can stop at the end of a chapter instead of right in the middle. The descriptiveness of the writing was fantastic! I could picture everything that I was reading in very vivid detail. I was never wondering if I was following the correct thinking that the author hoped to accomplish. I also found that I was very excited to keep reading this book, I never once felt it was "work" to continue reading on, I was excited to continue. The characters were great too, the well know ones and the ones that were new to this book. This was a bit of a different read for me, but I loved it. It was mysterious and had so much action in it. I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a good read that will have you stuck to it from start to end. If the TV shows are anything like this book, I understand why it was so popular and why there are so many fans of the X-Files!

5/5 Stars!

[Christopher Hivner · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Antibodies, Mulder and Scully are investigating a strange death at a burnt out cancer research facility. A man who it was thought had died in the fire is actually alive because he injected himself with nanomachines which were created in the lab. But the version he injected himself with is unstable and has made him infectious to anyone he touches. The man is searching for a young boy and the boy's dog who has the stable version of the cure in his bloodstream.

Antibodies is an ok X Files story. As with Ground Zero, the characters of Mulder and Scully are not represented very well. The plot hinges on nanotechnology which has been used as a plot device everywhere from Star Trek the Next Generation to Mystery Science Theater 3000. I generally find Anderson to be a good writer but Antibodies is forced at places. There are too many metaphors and similes used throughout and besides the sheer number of them, some of them are truly awful. I got some enjoyment out of Antibodies but it's not the most original or well written book.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok admission time - I used to love watching X-files (ok the early ones before they changed all the cast about). That hour of make believe was great fun and at the time there was nothing like it (well at least here in the UK there wasn't).
Ok the book - well this books is written by Kevin J Anderson - (treading in the foot steps of Allen Dean Foster) he is noted both for his novelisation of popular shows and his original fiction (and co-authorship of the new Dune books). This books is great fun, its fast is furious and suitably unbelievable in all the right measures. It was never going to be a classic and never going to make you walk away with it buzzing in your head, It is what it is. A ripping story that rides on the back of the TV series, now some years after the dust has settled form the show it feels a little naked without all that supporting material and cast but its still vivid enough in my mind for me to quickly fall back in to the world of the Mulder and Scully

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know this was just supposed to be quick fiction, put out rapidly to supplement the show, but I expected a little more. The story and imagination inside was fine, but it got awful hoaky in parts. There was a great deal of internal thought that wasn't necessary and make the characters seem more generic, even cliche. I know it was constructed according to quick fiction requirements and within the boundaries of the show, but often Mulder and Scully felt more like sketches of themselves instead of being themselves. I probably shouldn't have expected so much, but I did and can't really help that.

[Blake Prosser · Rating 4 out of 5]

The novel reads like an episode of 'The X-Files', which is great! Just a sit back and enjoy the ride story. Easy to read and some good moments in there. I was happy being able to have another time with with characters I enjoy from my favourite television show.
I feel the moment when the Mum dies shocked me, the tension built up throughout was brilliant.
It wasn't the most life changing read, it was a fun story that you can enjoy on a Sunday afternoon.

[James · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm a massive X-Phile, but aside from graphic novels, I've not read any X-Files fiction. If it's all this boring I won't read any more. I only got about 100 pages through Antibodies before the amateur writing and dull, dull story convinced me that life's too short for crap books.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes, I am a nerd.

[Melissa White · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story was interesting and a quick read.

[Bryan Thomas Schmidt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Second best of Anderson's X-Files novels, solidly entertaining. Interesting tech elements and characters, good pacing. a fun read.

[TheGeeksAttic · Rating 5 out of 5]

The X-Files: Antibodies, is book five in an X-Files expanded series. This novel was written by Bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson and was published in July 1997.

SUMMARY
The DyMar genetic research laboratory was focused on a new form of cancer therapy, was, because the lab was destroyed by activists, and now the land has been sold off for development. An eerie death occurs on the closed lab grounds which is scheduled for demolition.

Mulder and Scully receive an X-File focused on the DyMar Lab death, the victim appears to have been killed instantly by some sort pathogen, looking like an insect killed by bug spay. It's assumed by the duo that it's likely that an animal, a test subject from the laboratory may have escaped when the place was burned down; it's possible that a new disease may be on the verge of breaking out.

A mother, her sick child suffering from Leukemia, and their pet dog are in hiding out in the woods of Oregon. The husband/father was a scientist at the DyMar lab, doing everything he could to create a cure for his son. The failed prototype and final product of the potential cure, a nano-tech that manipulates DNA, is released from the burring lab. Now a man hunt on multiple fronts for multiple causes is taking place across the state of Oregon.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
This is the first book in the series that makes me feel as though I needed to be up to date on the show, some things are mentioned that I don't recall happening in the previous book, but the details seem rather important as it affects Agent Scully.

Even though I just said watching the show would be beneficial, most of what happened is touched on in the book. This story is the best one yet, with a hook at the beginning that really pulled me in. Anderson did a great job setting the tone. This book was cut up into many small chapters, which was nice, for some reason that makes me feel like I'm moving along rather quickly while reading. At the end of each chapter, I wanted to keep going, keep reading, find out what happens next.

This story was wild! I feel like we may have less of Scully and Mulder in this book compared to the others, or maybe we just had so much of them in the previous book they felt absent here. This story was not only a race against the clock, but race against who would catch up with who first.

The climax of this X-Files book may be the most graphic/goriest in the series. I actually got grossed out by some of the highly detailed action. I enjoyed the characters in the story, though one of them seemed to really lack emotion at a point that I expected to see a lot of emotion. However, people are people and we all react in different ways to different things. The plot of this book was highly entertaining.

Do I recommend you read this book? Yes! An intense, fun X-Files book.

RATING
I will give The X-Files Book 5: Antibodies, an A.

[Em. · Rating 4 out of 5]

SHOULD be *FOUR & A HALF* stars!!

This review is not plot-driven. It won't be a summary, but it will tell you whether or not I think you should take the time to read
"The X-FILES: Antibodies.

Back in the day, my son kept all things X-Files on my bookshelves - all of which remained unopened by yours truly. It was my son who introduced me to the TV series halfway through the first season. I immediately felt like The X-Files had been written and produced just for me. I could easily fill a book of 300 pages with my thoughts, feelings and the whys of my love of the entire series... but will spare you ... and you're quite welcome. 😇 I'll just say this..
I'm currently in the middle of my sixth re-watch of the series and the Creator above willing, the tenth (or fifteenth) will be in my future. (A stroke some years back played havoc with my memory capability but it also had a plus side! The X-Files never fails to surprise me at least a handful of times per episode .. so it never gets boring!)

All said in an attempt to figure out why in the world I could NOT bring myself to pick up one page of written material having "X-Files" in the title. Reading has been my life for 68 years, with books about the paranormal (aka X-Files subjects) being my main interest. Yet X-Files books sat on the shelves untouched by me for decades after series end, until last night.

It's hard to admit one was a huge idiot for the past thirty-odd years! But wearing a sign reading "IDIOT WOMAN" would have been the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me Creator above.

Thank you, Kevin J. Anderson, for putting an end to my wearing of the dunce cap! That dang thing drooped down over my eyes and blinded me to all the reading enjoyment just waiting for my hand to reach out and grab it.

Hand finally grabbed and Mulder and Scully live again! Pick up "Antibodies" and you will hear Mulder's voice. You will see Scully's expressions, especially the ones she makes when Mulder can't see them. All the characters are very real, but best for me ... the storyline is UNreal. Oh... and the dog!! 😍

Anderson - with his wild imagination - takes Mulder, Scully AND the reader on one helluvah ride! A terrifying ride it is, too, because it seems so flipping possible in today's world.

The only neutral thing I could say about this book is I wouldn't complain if Mulder and Scully had gotten a little more "air time". Even so, I thoroughly enjoyed the story!

If you're a fan of The X-FILES but haven't yet read any of the book series, I recommend you make a change. If you've never watched the series but you appreciate things paranormal and related
stories, I believe "Antibodies" has no problem standing on its own!

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amid the burned ruins of an advanced medical research lab, the horribly disfigured body of a security guard is found. The guard’s body is riddled with hundreds of large tumors which appear to have spontaneously erupted, causing a massive shock and instant, painful death. The odd nature of his death captures the attention of the FBI’s Least Wanted – Agents Mulder and Scully. As their investigation into what, exactly, the research facility was working on begins, a second corpse is found. Could there be a man-made plague on the loose? Mulder and Scully scramble for answers, leading them on the trail of the lead researcher’s wife and son who went missing after the fire. From there, they are in a race against time to contain the outbreak, save the boy, and stay one step ahead of the sinister enemies who orchestrated the destruction of the research lab.

Kevin J. Anderson has written a good example of a worthy tie-in novel. The plot itself is gripping and propulsive. The writing is smooth and the pacing entices the reader to keep turning the pages. He has captured Mulder’s sardonic sense of humor with many cynically witty comments and shows Scully’s adherence to the provable scientific fact. As is typical in the X-Files, despite Scully’s skepticism, she expresses wonder at some of the events that transpire, while attempting to figure out exactly how it happened. This is a vast improvement over Charles Grant’s attempt at an X-Files novel in Whirlwind. Mulder and Scully are front and center in this book and sound like their TV counterparts.

The facility’s research involves nanotechnology. The head scientist, driven to cure his son’s leukemia, invented nanobots that could conceivably cure any disease, heal any wound, and could even be the key to immortality. It was an early version of this technology that causes the horrible mutations that drew Mulder and Scully to the case. While sticking with the X-Files tone of horror and suspense, Anderson also dips a toe into the Michael Crichton world of technological caution. Just because scientists could do something, doesn’t mean they necessarily should. Anderson shows both sides of the argument about creating such a nanotechnology, but leaves it up to reader

The climax is a bit larger scale than the typical TV episode, but this is a fun example of a classic X-Files Monster of the Week. As with all of the episodes, the proof of the X-File slips the agents’ grasp at the end and the book ends on a classic semi-unresolved note that is an X-Files trademark.

[Iris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Romanul Anticorpii sau pe numelel lui original Antibodies, a fost publicat în anul 1997, iar la noi în țară a apărut un an mai târziu la editura Fahrenheit.

Prima carte de Anderson pe care am citit-o a fost Ruinele și mi-a plăcut, însă aceasta mi-a plăcut mult mai mult. Acțiunea debutează în forță. Un cadavru deformat este găsit lângă ruinele unor laboratoare de cercetare a cancerului de curând distruse în urma unui incendiu. Multiplele semne de întrebare pe care le ridică acest caz: cum a fost adus centrul de cercetare în starea acutală și care este explicația stării neobișnuite a cadavrului fac ca acesta să se încadreze în rândul Dosarelor X și să ajunga astfel pe masa de la subsol a agentului FBI Fox Mulder. Odată ce atât agentul Mulder, cât și colega sa agentul Scully se hotărăsc să dezlege ițele acestei povești aiurisante, cititorul se afundă irevocabil într-o lume a minunilor tehnologiei, a conspirațiilor guvernamentale și a sacrificiilor pe care trebuie să le facem uneori pentru a ne proteja familia.

Capitolele sunt foarte scurte, ceea ce pentru mine este mereu o plăcere, acestea debutând cu locul, cu data și chiar și cu ora în care, respectiv la care se petrece acțiunea capitolului în desfățurare. Personajele și relațiile dintre acestea sunt satisfăcător prezentate, nici prea prea, nici foarte foarte, cu alte cuvinte, portretizarea acestora este suficientă pentru a te face să investești puțină empatie, însă nu îți provoacă vreun zbucium sufletesc, nu te leagă atât de tare de ele. Povestea în sine este interesantă, redată într-o manieră coerentă, intrigantă, cursivă și accesibilă tuturor.

Este o carte numai bună de citit pentru a te relaxa, deoarece nu-ți solicită prea mult logica, nici nu necesită atenția și concentrarea pe care le cer romanele lui Dostoievski. Pentru fanii acestui univers, precum și pentru cei pasionați de cărțile de duzină (semi)polițiste și ușor SF există iarăți o posibilitate mare de desfătare.

Acestea fiind spuse, eu nu aveam cum să nu-i dau patru stele din cinci, având în vedere fapul că eu sunt mare fan Dosarele X și că la final se întâmpă ce se întâmplă.

[Brett · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the X-Files when I was in high school, especially the monster-of-the-week episodes. (I had a hard time following the mythology episodes...wasn't a consistent enough viewer.) I also read several of these product tie-in books, which frankly were pretty underwhelming, even to me as a teenager. This is one I bought but somehow never got around to reading, and its been in a box in my basement for decades. Until now, I guess.

It's pretty much what you'd expect. It reads very much like an episode of the series. These novelizations of tv, film, or comic book properties are rarely very good because they are unable to break from the canon of their parent property. Obviously nothing serious is going to happen to Mulder or Scully, because they're going to be needed for next week's episode on TV.

Still, this book is better than it really had to be. It's not badly written, given the rather narrow structure is has to stay within. I'm bumping it an extra star purely for nostalgia value. There's nothing revelatory here, but I've seen every episode of the X-Files now (most of them more than once) and it was fun to have one more outing with Mulder and Scully after I figured that I had probably finished with them.