When I first requested this book, I did not realize that it was the second book in a series. It read well as a stand alone book though.

On an oil rig in a remote area of Alaska, government researchers and doctors are doing the unthinkable. Death row inmates are being used as lab rats to enhance the human body, to create a new race of super soldiers The stem cell therapy worked, and created humans that were stronger, faster, smarter, and more deadly than thought possible. When things start to go array and the inmates escape, they are set on only one thing, ultimate destruction. The story follows these inmates, the doctors who created them, and all who got in their way.

This book is broken up into two parts. The first few chapters are a bit slow and choppy, but then the story really picks up as you begin to learn about the characters, and feel the terror at what is happening. It scared me to think about the governments role in our own lives and how much we may or may not know about what actually goes on. The storyline is pretty violent though, and detracted from what you were supposed to be focusing on. But the story had me hooked and I needed to know what was going to happen, so I kept going. The second part of the book still had that bit of terror running through it, but I also started to feel frustration at the constant cat and mouse game that was being played. The excessive violence in this half was almost too much for me at points and I got to the point where I couldn't wait for it to be over. The end wraps up quickly and maybe a bit too neatly.

Overall, this story invoked a fear in me that I wasn't expecting and kept me reading until the end. It was way too violent for me, but may not bother others as much.

Thank you Netgalley and Aspen Press for giving me the chance to read and review this book.

I would like to thank netgalley and aspen press for the review copy...now to my review.

So to start with I would recommend reading the first book, I didn’t and I was confused by some things but mostly it was explained later in the book. I’ll start with the opening...it was unneeded the whole intro about Tom in Canada was really unneeded in my opinion.

Moving past that it starts to pick up rapidly hearing about Karl in China and moving to Dr. Ellen Azamor arriving on the oil rig that contains the subjects, to the subjects escaping the rig and even the swim from the rig to the mainland was thrilling.

Then it kinda just flatlined and around the 60% mark I was struggling to finish it, there was a few minor issues I found as well like, there was words missing from sentences which, to me, are hardly that big of a deal but I know to a lot of people it might be a big deal.

So in conclusion I’m gonna have to give it three stars because although I feel like the intro was not needed and it flatlined I did enjoy the largest portion of the book. I would certainly recommend it for a read but I would suggest reading the first book for full understanding.

Good book! Reminded me of The Twelve - a group of death row inmates experimented on by unaccountable agency. "experiments' then break out to wreak havoc.

This was so not what I expected, but in a good way. At first. It was a book in two parts. This was also a follow-up book to Reardon's Prometheus Man which I haven't read, but you didn't need to read it to follow the action.

The story started off really well. It seemed a bit sci-fi and I thought it may devolve into some horror. All good. On a de-commissioned oil rig off the Alaskan coast the Government is conducting ultra secret research into augmenting human beings into ultimate warriors with superior strength and speed using stem cell technology. Only the procedure ends up killing the test subjects after turning them into unpredictable killing machines. Only one man has survived for any length of time. Tom Reese, and here I'm guessing he must have escaped the program at the end of the first book, is in hiding with his girlfriend Silvana when they come for him again and they go on the run.

Meanwhile, Dr Azamor, a psychiatrist, is rushed to the oil rig to assist with screening the current test subjects. They have 15 death row prisoners that have had the procedure and one of them, Kronin, a giant of a man, is so strangely persuasive that he somehow forced his last psychiatrist to commit suicide. They are scared of him. Then a huge storm lashes the sea and the electronic security measures fail when the power goes out. you can guess what happens next.

At that point the book turned into a dystopian, apocalyptic gore fest that went on a bit too long as Tom (finally re-captured by the CIA) and his death defying handler Karl Lyons take on an army of super human fighters who want to literally destroy the joint. At one point I thought - perhaps this story is a metaphor for our corrupt, nihilistic society as Kronin seemed to ponder the meaning, or lack thereof of life and society. But it got a bit too negative for that. In the end, it was feeling like a zombie apocalypse without the zombies.

If you like fast paced, no supercharged, action and with plenty of violence and gore thrown in you will love this. I thought the story had promise and it ended on a better note but the constant killing took something away from any possible message the story may have had IMHO.

With lots of helpful reviews already posted, I'll just comment that I liked this overall. It's a solid thriller with good action and interesting characters. Recommended for those seeking a tense scifi tale.

Thanks very much for the ARC for review!!

3 and 1 / 2 stars

Warning: much violence and gore. Do not read if you are timid about those things.

The world has gone crazy with extreme violence and skyhigh unemployment. Shadowy, scary people are hunting other people. Unnamed government agencies are taking over. Or, are they?

In order to prepare for the war they predict is coming, in order to create the “perfect” soldier, a horrible experiment is taking place. Death row inmates have been chosen to participate. What will be the outcome?

Tom Reese, the only surviving test subject of the first round of “stem cell enhancement” and still relatively sane, is on the run with his girlfriend. They have been found by agents of the government. A wild chase ensues.

Meanwhile, Karl Lyons, undercover CIA Agent, is captured in China and sent to a place where you get “disappeared.” Badly beaten under the guise of “interrogation,” he plans a bold escape from the facility.

In a secret location in the ocean near Sitka, Alaska, a freak storm hits the old oil derrick that is not anchored to the bottom. The derrick rocks, is damaged and the inhabitants are released!

When Tom and Karl team up to do something about the escaped convicts running wild and being destructive throughout the US, things get very tense and wild.

Dr. Azamor, a psychiatrist, also stars in this book. She is an interesting character with some interesting ideas. I like the way that psychology is used in the first half of the book. Dr. Azamor constantly questioning herself and speaking with the various inmates, especially Kronin. Kronin's manipulation of the people to whom he spoke reminded me strongly of Hannibal Lector and his machinations regarding the use of other people.

This is a fast-paced, tension-filled story of what happens when self-important men get ideas above their stations. It was well written and for the most part followed a logical path. There were a few typos and the novel sometimes took leaps that I couldn't quite follow. All in all an engaging read. If you like apocalyptic reads, this book is for you.

I want to thank NetGalley and Aspen Press for forwarding to me a copy of this good book for me to read, enjoy and review.

The United States government is researching and attempting to enhance the bodies of test subjects on an unsanctioned oil rig just off the coast of Alaska. These fifteen men not the first but they were chosen for a reason - they're all on death-row. Not only to the researchers succeed in their endeavor but they get more than they bargain for in the process. The subjects are led to escape by the mysterious and exceedingly intelligent death-row inmate with no apparent background and other than the fact he's on that rig he doesn't exist. 

Tom Reese and Karl Lyons are the two of the select few people that fully understand what the test subjects are capable of but even they are blindsided. Forced to cross portions of the United States that have been ripped apart, isolated and in the dark they will come face to face with the horror of the government's hubris.

I love reading author's descriptions of abandoned cities, a lot of times they seem more realistic and easier to imagine than descriptions of highly populated cities. You could almost split this book into two genres via the internal split of Book I and Book II - the atmosphere of each section is quite varied. The couple of chapters of the story shortly before Book II starts seems rushed after such a long escalation. I'm honestly also wondering how the good doctor kept up at sea as much as she is. The ending of the novel was also fairly anticlimactic in my opinion and suffers the same fate as the last chapters of Book I mentioned previously. The book overall is fairly fast paced with a lot of action, bits of horror, gore, murder, murder and more murder. The murder and gore in the book can get a little repetitive after a while and seems to be there more for a shock factor than anything else. I would also like to note that this book is the second in a series, the first book being The Prometheus Man. It isn't essential that you read The Prometheus Man first because I believe this book functions well on its own but I believe that the backstory would be beneficial to fully grasp the certain interactions and background information in The Dark Continent.

There are portions of this book that remind me of Resident Evil - mainly the God gene the prisoners are enhanced with (without the monster and zombie aspect of Resident Evil) and the location. I could definitely see a Resident Evil game taking place somewhere similar to the Alaskan oil rig the test subjects are kept on or the abandoned Chinese city of Kangbashi. If I were to play this book as a game I would expect it to be a similar play style to the Resident Evil series. There are also certain elements of it that remind me of Fallout. Instead of irradiated Yao Guai or Deathclaws the suspects are similar to a human appearing version of a Super Mutant. The factions that blossom in Book II are also reminiscent of Fallout but more of the bloodthirsty carnage variety than The Minutemen and The Brotherhood of Steel. I'm sure that this book will remind any reader of movies, books or video games that they've experienced as some portions of the book are similar to works in these areas. 

There really is A LOT of gore and indiscriminate murder in this book. I really do mean indiscriminate - men, women, young, old, children etc. If you are sensitive to books about mass murder, in depth descriptions of murder and gore I would avoid it. I would suggest this novel to those who love books that feature conspiracies, action, war, thrillers, horror, societal collapse, and apocalyptic type events. I would like to thank NetGalley and Aspen Press for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Fast paced action story. Government created super human monsters combined with cool guys don’t look at explosions. I liked this story quite a bit. I plan on reading the first book in this series, The Prometheus Man because there’s a great backstory that I missed. If a third book comes out, I’ll buy it in a heartbeat.

This book reminds me of a staff pick from Powells’ Bookstore – a great airplane read. Good job Scott.

Intense and violent, yet fascinating. Parts of the book are horror, but I couldn't turn away. A gripping page-turner. Read with all the lights on.

*** I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review ***

OK, so there was a point when reading this book where I just went... what happened. The first half really had me going with a horror thriller kind of vibe, trying to figure out what the heck the researchers were doing and all of this backstory, but then the second half left me scratching my head.

The book itself: Like it was really going somewhere with all of the "who did what" and "what happened here" among all the other things going on. It gave me the creepy vibes that I look for when I read horror books. I liked that! I also felt like I didn't have to go back to read the first book and was just able to jump cheerily in to reading this one, which I'm grateful for.

The second half of the book was downhill from there, though. I wasn't a fan of the fact that it just threw everything out of the boat and went a different direction, nor was I really happy with the sudden incredibly patriotic theme that overtook the rest of the book. It was grating, and it didn't feel like it added anything additional to the plot this way, feeling more like an interjection of some weird feelings just because the author could (e.g. the note about the French Canadians being "backwardly cheerful" and the tidbit on tolerance/diversity).

TLDR: Not sure if I can recommend reading this just for the first half alone.

"There was a secret that the world ignored, and it was this: the future wasn’t forged by majorities. The future was forged by very tiny, very motivated minorities."

NOTE: Spoilers if you haven't read book one.

This book continues the story from THE PROMETHEUS MAN and you should really read the first book to get the full effect of this story.

Illegal stem cell research on humans continues in this book. Tom Reese is back, drifting from job to job, trying to keep his identity low key - because there are people all over the world that want to find out why the experiments done on him seem to be a success.

Karl Lyons is still trying to shut down the illegal operations and when both he and Tom hear about testing going on at a deserted oil rig off the coast of Alaska, they head there (separately) to try to stop it.

What happens next I didn't expect. I enjoyed the first book even though I usually don't read spy thrillers. This book was much better to me. I liked all of it but especially about the last 2/3 of the story.

I highly recommend both books if you like spy thrillers, medical thrillers, horror tales and exciting stories.

I received this book from Aspen Press through Net Galley in the hopes that I would read it and leave an unbiased review.

Let's get one thing straight - Reardon is a master at building tension and writing tone. Throughout The Dark Continent, he manages to create an ambiance of helplessness and ennui, as his characters begin to understand more and more the peril in which they've become entangled. Thrust into a situation without their consent, his three protagonists' fear and doubt are palpable, flavoring the entire novel. Reardon takes the time to set the framework of his universe, so even if you haven't read the first of the series (I hadn't read it), you don't feel lost, and he manages to do so without feeling heavy handed in his exposition. The story builds to a solid climax, with enough action to leave the reader feeling sated. I struggled to find comparable authors, but maybe a blend of Lovecraft (without the racism), Tom Clancy, Robert Parker and Brad Taylor would get you close to Reardon's style. I'm planning on tracking down book one, and keeping up with the rest of Reardon's novels.

So. I found this book on NetGalley and was intrigued by the description. I didn't realize when I requested it that it was the second book in a series. However, a note at the beginning mentions this and says that it's not necessary to read the first book before reading this one.

Well. I kind of disagree. Yes, this is a different story. But it does reference the first book quite a lot, to the point where I wish I would've read that book before this one. This is a standalone story but I think I would've been more comfortable with the first half of the book and the Prometheus experiments if I would've read that story first.

So. The first half of the book was a little rocky and took me a bit to get into. It follows three different characters and, honestly, I was lost for a while. Mostly because Tom and Karl's opening stories play heavily (I'm assuming) into the events of the first book.

However, once I reached the second half of the book, I was totally hooked. Once the power went out and the continent "went dark" and the world started slipping into anarchy, I loved this book a lot more. It's definitely dark and gritty and a ton of gore and action. If you're a fan of action movies, you'll probably love this book. It had lots of Apocalypse Now vibes, especially toward the end.

But, it's also definitely not exactly what the description advertises. I think I expected to get the contents of the first book. Because the description sounds more like it's about the Prometheus project. It is for the first half. But the second half of the book (and more the central theme) is about what happens when the world as we know it changes and rules no longer exist. And that's the part that really fascinated me.

So overall, I think I did like this book. It definitely took me a little bit to get into but the second half of the story was well worth it. I would recommend reading the first book before jumping into this one, just so you have a better sense of the project and of who Tom is and what happened to him. (There are definitely puzzle pieces in this book but I think I would've jived with this book better if I would've known more about Tom going in.) So if you're a fan of action or war films, I definitely recommend this book!

And thank you so much to NetGalley and Aspen Press for allowing me the chance to read and review this book!

As someone who has seen Roland Emmerich’s 1992 classic Universal Soldier more times than I care to count, and as a fan of Warhammer 40,000 (the most famous protagonists of which are the genetically engineered superhumans known as Space Marines), on paper, The Dark Continent should be exactly my kind of fare. Opening with a note to the reader that it follows on from another novel (2017’s The Prometheus Man), knowledge of which is not essential for this story, the plot follows three different characters - Tom Reese, survivor of the Prometheus Program, a top secret, experimental program to enhance human beings with stem cell injections; Karl Lyons, the CIA agent who recruited Tom, now out to shut down other Prometheus sites; and Dr. Azamor, the scientist working with the death row inmates who have - somewhat inevitably - been selected for the current wave of enhancements. I say “somewhat inevitably” because, well, isn’t it always the way? Just as with Dolph Lundgren’s gleefully demented Andrew Scott in Universal Soldier, as well as Justin Cronin’s 2010 epic The Passage, those surprisingly short-sighted boffins have decided that the best candidates to receive a leg up the evolutionary ladder are the most depraved murderers and psychopaths they can lay their hands on. It’s here we first meet Dr. Azamor, as she assesses and acquires yet another specimen. Speaking of The Passage, in fact, it’s worth mentioning that The Dark Continent is at times cut from a cloth so similar it could be mistaken for the same book - the recruiting of death row inmates for genetic enhancement, the dynamic of a similarly capable being tracking down the rogue subjects, even the mind games played on the research team by those subjects. And the most dangerous, most devious subject, who masterminds everything, is somewhat tellingly named Kronin.

Where The Passage trilogy spanned generations over its combined (and whopping) 2000 pages plus length, The Dark Continent weighs in at a much more free time friendly 400 or so, without taking into account the preceding book which, as mentioned, is not essential reading for enjoyment of this one. I did find there was perhaps the odd occasion where I wanted to know a little more about a character, or their relationship to someone else, so if you’re someone for whom FOMO is the worst feeling imaginable, picking up The Prometheus Man before this might be a good call. These instances were very rare however, and didn’t bother me untowardly. In fact, for the first half of the book, I was mostly just concerned about flying through as quickly as possible - varied locations, interesting characters and pacey action kept me turning the pages late into the night. Having never read any Robert Ludlum, I can’t say how accurately his work has been translated to screen, so it’s the films that I’m thinking of here, but Tom Reese demonstrates his formidable capabilities with Bourne-like prowess. Chase scenes in particular, not just involving Tom but also Karl, are also high octane and exciting.

Of course, the big bad psychopaths are what the story is really leading up to, and when we eventually meet Kronin, he doesn’t disappoint. The philosophising, menacing alpha of this particularly rabid pack is equal parts Hannibal Lecter and Dracula, with some shark DNA thrown in for good measure. He glowers behind the plexiglass screens of his cage, biding his time and laying his plans until his inevitable breakout. It’s once the subjects are on the loose that the body count really starts to climb, unsurprisingly, with their escape itself positively nightmarish, all darkened corridors and stormy weather. It’s a high point which the novel struggles to reach again, in all honesty. The second part of the novel lacks the pace of the first, with the characters much more prone to introspection. It felt a lot like the first half of the novel existed as a set up for the situation in the second, with said situation then not really being capitalised on in terms of the stories that could have been told. A lot of the moral debates and dilemmas that Tom in particular has also feel at odds with the content of the rest of the novel - whilst they serve the purpose of reminding us that Tom is different to the other subjects, they feel very heavy handed and none too subtle at times, making some sections feel like something of a slog, and quite depressing. Some let up from the relentless savagery and depravity would have worked wonders in this section, and overall it leads to a feeling that this is two different books stitched together. Appropriate, perhaps, to think of it as a bit of a literary Frankenstein’s monster, given the subject matter.

In conclusion then, The Dark Continent is an enjoyable grab bag of influences, and for the most part it’s well executed and tautly plotted. Reardon writes well, indeed at times there are real flashes of brilliance, particularly in terms of setting - many locales are depicted so vividly that I’m still seeing them in my mind’s eye days later. Action set pieces are entertaining and frantic, but it’s a pace that’s difficult to sustain over the course of the whole novel, and when the foot comes off the gas it almost stalls. A strong finish, however, leaves the way open for a sequel, and I would be interested to see where this story goes in the future.

What a book. Thoroughly enjoyed it. The characters were believable, I loved the many narratives running alongside each other. Fast paced, energetic, gorey and brilliant.

I did not read the book that precedes this, it's not necessary. I really loved this book! Is definitely be interested in a follow up sequel.

This is the second book, after The Prometheus Man, although you don’t have to have read the first book, it would be a good for the background info. In the first book, we learned that a secret government lab was creating super humans by injecting them with experimental stem cells to enhance their bodies. The subjects became stronger, faster and had no moral compass. They were also highly unstable and more likely to maim/kill their handlers and themselves. In this book, the lab and new subjects have been move to an oil rig off the coast of Alaska. The test subjects are all men who were sitting on death row for various appalling acts of murder or terrorism. They have all been injected with an updated version of the stem cells that, though making them stronger and faster, has also made them more stable mentally. During a massive storm the test subjects escape the sinking oil rig and are able to reach land. They hatch a plan to bring America to its knees by destroying power stations, which proves successful. Americans are suddenly without power, internet or access to basic information. Anarchy arrives when Americans start looting stores and each other for necessities. Meanwhile the test subjects are searching for the man who was the brains behind the stem cell experiments. The pacing of the book is quick, most of the chapters are only a few pages or less long. There is a lot of violence. The subjects have no moral compass and kill anything that they encounter, the manner in which they dispatch some of these individuals, men mostly, can get quite graphic. If you have an aversion to violence, you should skip this book, otherwise, the book is enjoyable, but I wonder if there is a third book on the horizon as the ending was ambiguous. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Most certainly this was an exciting read. I always tend to drift toward books that don't have alot of action but this captured my attention from the first chapter. The characters being very believable and made you actually feel like you were going through this dark story with them. I would certainly recommend it. It's an exciting story that will keep you hooked till the end.

The Dark Continent by Scott Reardon
Genre: Mystery & Thriller, Sci Fi & Fantasy
Publisher: Aspen Press
Publish Date: 28 January 2020

The Government is experimenting on the human body. They want it to perform better, they want it enhanced, they want the perfect soldier...and the test subjects: Death Row Inmates. But there is no need to worry, the experiments are taking place on an oil rig off the coast of Alaska. If anything went wrong they would never reach the mainland, they would simple cease to exist lost in the sea.

The Dark Continent is the second book in the Prometheus Man Series. I haven't read the other book in the series but I requested the book anyway because it also stated that the book worked as a stand alone and the synopsis was too inviting. Death row inmates being experimented on, off the coast of Alaska? How could I not? I'm glad I did, the story was much more than what I was expecting. And it does work as a stand alone!

This book is dark, pitch black even, gory and very very violent. So if you are put off by these things, this book is not for you. There are good guys and bad guys or maybe its not that simple. Its hard to explain without giving away spoilers. The death row characters are fully developed, they are terrifying and their logic is alarming. These are not the people you want to make into super soldiers.

The only disappointing part of the book was the ending. This book was a five out of five for me until the last 50 pages. That ending came out of no where, I felt the decisions that where made didn't fit with the characters or what was building up. I assume that is because the story is not over and there is another book around the corner, but it did ruin it for me. It was so perfect until this point. Even if there is another book coming the ending could have been much much stronger.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an E-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

The Dark Continent is a superlative example of a page turner. Scott Reardon's pacing is pitch perfect. This action packed book races along at top speed and the various plot lines are skillfully brought together to an epic showdown. The madman Kronin is memorably monstrous and as unconscionable as any you'll find in fiction. The threat he presents is nightmarish. Thank goodness for Tom Reese. It's an exhilarating read and it's one of those books that would make a fantastic film (if they're faithful to the source material).