Review: THE HARVEST by Scott Nicholson

I really wanted to like Scott Nicholson's "The Harvest" more than I did. The premise reads like a cross between “Night of the Living Dead” and “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”: ancient alien seed crash lands on Earth, alien seed attempts to devour/assimilate Earth's creatures (resulting in humans becoming zombie-like creatures), and a small band of heroes collect to save the day. Unfortunately this great premise may have raised my expectations a little too much.

Without a doubt, this is a full-on B-horror idea which, if you're even considering reading this book, is probably fine with you. Unfortunately, Nicholson got stuck somewhere between a fun B-horror novel and a character driven novel. Nicholson spends the first several hundred pages introducing character after character. I'm sure the purpose was to make us feel like we knew the characters but, for the most part, they were un-engaging and, in the end, unimportant to the story. It felt like a writer TRYING to make the characters come to life rather than actually doing so. The best part of the novel--brutal action and horrific twists--doesn't really kick in until the last 75-100 pages. I feel this story probably would have been better served in novella form.

If the premise intrigues you and you’re able to go into it expecting nothing more than an average B-movie in book form you shouldn’t be too disappointed. Otherwise you might want to pass this one up.

Rating:

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