science fiction and fantasy book reviewsFragment by Warren Fahy horror book reviewsFragment by Warren Fahy

I’ve read a number of reviews and comments that compare Warren Fahy‘s Fragment (2009) with Michael Crichton and Jurassic Park. Fragment and Jurassic Park have similar themes and bare bones basic concepts. Both stories involve humans battling supernatural, prehistoric monsters and self-centered murderous villains on the remotest of islands. Let’s be clear: stop there and consider the comparisons complete. Don’t get me wrong. I really enjoyed Fahy’s debut novel. It’s the perfect summertime beach or pool-side read, and its 500 pages fly by faster than the Hender’s Island Spigers rip apart defenseless characters in Fahy’s book.

The concept of Fragment is pretty cool. A reality TV show follows scientists on a round-the-world science-based cruise and comes across this ridiculously remote 2-mile wide island in the middle of the Pacific. The scientists and crew soon discover the island is full of extremely aggressive and creatively evolved creatures. Madness and mayhem soon follow as most of the cast is eaten within minutes of landing on the island. Once you throw in a couple of strong-willed and morally incorruptible good guys and add your obligatory military tough guys, along with a nasty bad guy, you’ve got yourself a pretty good action adventure.

Fahy makes a number of attempts at incorporating scientific theory into his story, including analyses of evolution, animal reproductive patterns, and a very Jurassic Park-like chaos / humans-will-destroy-everything-they-touch theory. These shades of Crichton were enjoyable and worked relatively seamlessly with the story, but they weren’t strongly intertwined with the action and, in the end, felt forced and unnecessary. The story was interesting and exciting and some of the key characters were reasonably well developed. But character development was inconsistent and, at times, absent.

If you’re looking for Michael Crichton, then you won’t really find it in Fahy’s first novel. If you’re looking for a solid monster story … then Fragment isn’t a bad choice.

Published in 2009. Aboard a long-range research vessel, in the vast reaches of the South Pacific, the cast and crew of the reality show Sealife believe they have found a ratings bonanza. For a director dying for drama, a distress call from Henders Island—a mere blip on any radar—might be just the ticket. Until the first scientist sets foot on Henders—and the ultimate test of survival begins. For when they reach the island’s shores, the scientists are utterly unprepared for what they find—creatures unlike any ever recorded in natural history. This is not a lost world frozen in time; this is Earth as it might have looked after evolving on a separate path for half a billion years—a fragment of a lost continent, with an ecosystem that could topple ours like a house of cards.

Author

  • Jason Golomb

    JASON GOLOMB graduated with a degree in Communications from Boston University in 1992, and an M.B.A. from Marymount University in 2005. His passion for ice hockey led to jobs in minor league hockey in Baltimore and Fort Worth, before he returned to his home in the D.C. metro area where he worked for America Online. His next step was National Geographic, which led to an obsession with all things Inca, Aztec and Ancient Rome. But his first loves remain SciFi and Horror, balanced with a healthy dose of Historical Fiction.

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