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The Variant Effect
The Variant Effect
Part One: Skin Eaters
VARION was a popular medication that could cure anything from Anxiety and Depression to Schizophrenia and Zoophagia. Everybody took it back in the day, because there were no side effects... ...AT FIRST. By the time they learned about the Variant Effect it was too late. The old building in a rundown part of Metro was a perfect place to find a body, but they wouldn't have dragged Joe Borland out of retirement if it still had its skin. It's been 20 years since Borland battled the Variant Effect, and 20 since he let his partner get skinned alive. Now both of them are ordered back into action to meet a terrifying new threat.
Book Excerpt
er the edge. Having a bunch of Biters holding you down while the Alphas locked their teeth and started skinning. Borland felt a twinge of guilt for going at him the way he did. But he knew the man from back in the day, back when he had a skin to bruise and he knew that Hyde was living up to his name now, hiding from life by living in the past. What was the point of surviving? Otherwise Hyde was just a scar that everybody saw and everybody talked about.
Borland drained the mickey before returning to the crime scene. That's what it was now, nothing special about it. Just a place somebody got killed. He tossed the bottle into a trashcan, and then opened a fresh pack of peppermints. He paused for a minute looking up at the big old building from the new angle, appreciating the bits of extra scrollwork around the windows, and the greenish copper roof eight floors above the street. They really made them to last.
The bagged-boys hadn't found a body, just a stain. But Variant protocols had to be
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Readers reviews
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I'm really enjoying this book - great characters, and an excellent way to introduce the zombie theme.
Borland is an unusual hero-type - his body is falling apart, and he's definately a bit insane, and there is a good opposite balance with Hyde (the skinned "partner").
Definately can be reccommended. A well written and flowing story.
Borland is an unusual hero-type - his body is falling apart, and he's definately a bit insane, and there is a good opposite balance with Hyde (the skinned "partner").
Definately can be reccommended. A well written and flowing story.
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This book is amazing. A fresh take on the zombie theme that features surprisingly deep characters, and a truly engaging plot. Get this book. Read this book. I promise it won't disappoint.
11/01/2010
a very good gripping drama. the story has a good balance of characters and the pace of the book is kept up thoughout. a well though out story line with a great ending
09/09/2010