07.07.2025--Symbiote: A way-too-long review

I'm gonna list some things I like: Antarctica, zombies, and speculative fiction. World War III fiction, books whose main characters are scientists, and gay people. (This is not an exhaustive list, and it's in no particular order.)

So, when I visited the Strand in NYC, promising (and lying to) myself that I wouldn't buy any books, and I saw Symbiote by Michael Nayak, I was pretty excited.

It takes place during World War III, on the continent of Antarctica (where no active war is waging due to weird Antarctica geopolitics). The main characters are a crew of scientists and supporting employees at the American South Pole base (and some of them are gay, which is why I mentioned I like gay people, though it's always worth mentioning). Suddenly, a group of Chinese scientists--who survived some kind of attack at their base hundreds of miles away--show up at the South Pole asking for help, and a zombie parasite spreads. Zombie book hijinks ensue, with the new and exciting twist that everyone is very cold all the time.

Alas.

I was just... constantly disappointed with this book.

--Spoilers for Symbiote here on out!--

I'll start this by saying that I think this book's premise is great. Thermophilic parasites as a zombie virus that starts in Antarctica? That's fucking awesome. And I think Michael Nayak has a lot to work with. I read in the acknowledgements that he actually worked as a "Polie" studying astronomy, which is pretty neat. Obviously the isolation of a place like an Antarctic research base is an interesting setting, and a thermophilic parasite is an interesting driving conflict, but...

Your story can't just have an interesting setting and an interesting driving conflict for the story to be interesting. It needs interesting characters! I may be biased, because I have a true love for character-driven plots, but man, I had nothing to work with here! The characters were just so, so flat. I didn't get attached to anybody. Without reading back, I'm going to recount to you what I remember about the characters from the 420ish-page book I finished a couple hours ago.

Rajan: Kind of the main character, if you can call him that. Works for the CIA or the military? Killed a guy in the Gulf War and feels really guilty about it.
Wei: Side character doctor who is addicted to percocets
Siri: She is a woman and a scientist
Ben: He is gay and a scientist
Summer: She is a woman and a scientist
The lead of the station (don't remember his name): He's an alcoholic and bad at his job
Rob: First infected
Chinese scientists: Chinese scientists

Genuinely, out of the 15-odd important characters, in more than 400 pages, that's all I can remember about any of them, and not because I have a bad memory. They just literally barely have distinctive features aside from "main character," "woman," "gay," or "addict." Or "Chinese," I guess.

I get where this issue comes from. There's 41 employees at the South Pole base, plus the 3 Chinese scientists they keep as prisoners and barely talk to, and a CIA operative that we cut back to every once in a while. That's a lot of names to keep track of. But here's my secret tip, from a reader to any writers in the audience. You actually get to write your story. So just... don't put 45 named characters in a 400-page book! You can choose not to do that. You know that, right, Michael Nayak?

My main other gripe with this book was a combination of the way the zombie parasite worked, and the pacing of the book. At the beginning of the book, there's the first generation of the parasite, which only activates when it gets to a certain level of cold and turns you into a fast, super-strong, body horror zombie (think: All Of Us Are Dead). The characters figure out you can kill the parasite with heat, like from their sauna or sciencey heat guns. They work that out after lots of violence and drama around page 220. If there was some more character development in there, and 30 pages of resolution ending on a cliffhanger to set up a sequel, I think this book would be great.

But there's still 200 pages!

So then there's a second generation of the parasite, where it's mutated to have some weird... hivemind thing? But if you got infected bad enough with the first generation, you can read people's minds but not in a zombie way? And the thing that gets the second generation to work on people is smoking weed??? I just... don't... understand. There's a lot happening.

I think a good way to explain my issues with this book is to compare it to Leviathan Wakes by James SA Corey, the first installment in the Expanse series, which I believe is near-perfect sci-fi. Both books have a zombie-ish virus that spreads with a microbe, an isolated setting, a decently large cast of characters, and want to set up a series.

In Leviathan Wakes, the virus (called the protomolecule) is interesting because it is scientifically explained within the fictional parameters of the book, does something not yet overdone in sci-fi to its victims, and directly affects the main characters past them having to run away from it. Symbiote almost gets there. It's explained, kind of, but why is there a hive mind? And what' with the weed? I can get behind a MacGuffin, especially in zombie fiction, but I can only suspend disbelief so far. Symbiote's cold-zombies are interesting and new, so, check. The main characters have some stake in the zombie situation, especially Rajan, because of his CIA job and the parasite's origin, so, check.

Isolated setting? Check for both books. Space, Antarctica, whatever. If it's cold and dark, cool.

But then... the characters...

Part of what makes Leviathan Wakes so good and what sets it up to be an awesome series is how attached you become to the characters. I mean, you meet a ton of them, and some of them die within minutes of introduction, but the main characters are all individuals, with complex motivations, histories, relationships, you name it. You just fall in love with them, and the world they've built for themselves, and you want to read the rest of the series just for one more interaction between Amos and Clarissa, Holden and Naomi, Miller and... anyone.

But in Symbiote, I stopped caring after the 15th backstory was explained. They're all sad for one reason or another, and that's why they're studying science in cold, dark, Antarctica, and you don't need to know more because there's 45 of them and they'll all become zombies anyways.

I don't quite know how to end this. I'm glad I read Symbiote, because if Michael Nayak works on a different project, I'll probably read it. His style is super compelling, and he knows how to come up with a good concept. I just wish it was better, in all honesty.

Save yourself the time. Read Leviathan Wakes for geopolitical warfare with zombies and isolation instead.

(Expanse propoganda?)

Sincerely,

Sam