Irkalla

Project Proteus #3

by John Triptych

Jason and Penny Beringer lead a small cave diving team in a daring bid to become the first explorers of a newly discovered system of underwater caverns hidden deep in the Philippine jungle. But within this maze of sunken chambers lives a genetically engineered predator, a creature capable of spreading havoc on both land and beneath the lightless, suffocating depths of this mysterious underworld.Combining tense, white knuckled thrills and scientific horror, John Triptych’s newest release will surely interest fans of Michael Crichton, Peter Benchley, and Clive Cussler.

Genres: Fiction

268 pages, Paperback

Published November 29, 2019

Reviews

[Gilbert Stack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four cave divers exploring a new and elaborate cave system in the Philippines stumble into John Triptych’s version of a threatened zombie apocalypse. The problem begins with a billionaire industrialist with non-existent ethics who is funding a search for a cure for cancer. He has to do this in secret because he is already in legal trouble all over the globe for his gene and DNA manipulations. He has been creating a monster to test his cures on and—you guessed it—the monster has escaped. What’s worse, the monster has infected humans with a mutant form of rabies that has had the unfortunate side-effect of turning them into aggressive “zombies” who can infect others.

The cave divers find themselves in the middle of all of this when they stumble upon both the monster and some infected while exploring the cave network. The group was often frustrating as they made some truly terrible decisions but that is often par for the course in this sort of novel. It certainly breeds a lot more tension as the plot winds its way toward the conclusion.

If you liked this review, you can find more at www.gilbertstack.com/reviews.

[Red Tide · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Geek" tragedy

It's not a bad adventure story, except that it doesn't really have a third act ending. The first sort of Peters out with the end of the last challenge scene. The remaining characters are neither seen to be safe, not sure the plot point to anything more than further danger.

The characters are clueless in so many ways but while they are understandably human, their decision making is painful to watch. The world is filled with realistic interactions and he faithfully described what a typical rural Philippine setting is and how it might be structured. Sadly it doesn't seem to be as far fetched as you might want it to be.

The book is the same story as the previous books, replayed in a different setting. Imagine John Grisham writing science horror and you get the picture. The background is solid, the characters act out the tragedy but there are a number of loose ends and the real story should begin as the book comes to a close. There is an active infestation of zombie like creatures with no one to contain it, no notification of non-local military-police-political agencies, no explanation of the MC's sounds not causing infection, the prolonged survival of the crazy scientist and other plot holes.

The minor characters have no life and the major characters barely do. For all the reasons above, instead of a high energy horror story the book is a slowly unfolding duster tale with emphasis on slow. I'm still interested in reading his other series but am beginning to question why I had such high expectations from this writer.

[Richard Mendenhall · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought it was better than the first two

I read book two of the series first and thought it was pretty good. Good enough to read more anyway, so I read book one, which also was good enough to get me to continue with the series. Book three however was better than the first two. Irkalla had characters to actually cheer. The action was pretty much non stop and the diving scenes were so well described they were easy and fun to follow. This was a quick read, not one you can't put down but one that makes you eager to pick back up. The author did not overwhelm the story with a myriad of characters that make a book hard to follow. I gave the first two books three stars. I give this one four, but tempted to do five. Probably a 4.49 star book, rounding down to 4. I would definitely read more by this author as he really did a good job of bringing this book alive. One final thought. I thought he really telegraphed the ending at one point, making it clear where the climax was going. Oops. I was wrong. The ending I saw coming didn't. I liked that.

[Boomer · Rating 3 out of 5]

These books are billed as stand alone novels but they are part of a larger series, and since I like to get as much background info as possible, I went ahead and read the previous two novels before I tackled this one which filled in some blanks I otherwise wouldn't have understood. I'd recommend doing the same to get the most out of Irkalla.

The good news is that the writing has improved greatly from the horrific prose of the first novel. The characters are fleshed out and make mostly smart decisions given their situation. The creatures are suitably spooky and the story is interesting enough that I wanted to get through to the end. A fun read overall.

This probably would have been a four star book if not for the ending. There's no spoilers here but I was hoping for an epilogue that would wrap up the loose ends of which there are too many to count. I left the book with multiple questions unanswered. Perhaps the author is going to continue the series and flesh this out, but that won't change the lack of satisfaction I felt from getting through to the end

[Tommy · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fun book. I stumbled on this series and had a great time reading them. The books are loosely connected thru the main "villain" but they also stand alone. The characters are relatable and stories really moves along. I recommend these books and I am buying some of his others.

[Laura Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good read

A good read, pretty fast paced and the characters made the book come to life but the ending was a bit anti-climatic.

[gwen simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a real page turner

If you like underwater cave exploration and monsters, then this book is for you! I absolutely loved it. I'd read it a second time!