Book Review: The Curiosity, a Sci-Fi Medical Thriller from Stephen P. Kiernan

The Bottom Line: An ethically loaded gripper that delivers on a massive scale. The Curiosity is an irresistible spin on the age-old Lazarus tale that will keep you turning the pages into the wee hours. 

[easyazon_image add_to_cart=”default” align=”left” asin=”0062221078″ cloaking=”default” height=”160″ localization=”default” locale=”US” nofollow=”default” new_window=”default” src=”//ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51bvePeCc6L._SL160_.jpg” tag=”bestthricom-20″ width=”106″]Just admit it: each time you read news headlines about the latest human or wooly mammoth uncovered in Arctic ice, some part of you hopes a scientist somewhere has developed the technology reanimate them. You can blame Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein for putting the thought into our heads, but for a contemporary spin on the issues that Shelly once introduced, look no further than Stephen P. Kiernan’s excellent The Curiosity.

When Dr. Kate Philo and her scientific exploration team discover the body of a man buried deep in the Arctic ice, her egocentric and paranoid boss, Erastus Carthage, orders the frozen man to be brought to his lab in Boston and reanimated. The endeavor is named The Lazarus Project, and as the man, Jeremiah Rice, begins to regain his memories, the last thing he recalls is falling overboard into the Arctic Ocean in 1906. When news of the project breaks, it ignites a media firestorm and protests by religious fundamentalists.

Thrown together by fate, Kate and Jeremiah grow closer. But the clock is ticking and Jeremiah’s new life is slipping away. With Carthage planning to exploit Jeremiah while he can, Kate must decide how far she is willing to go to protect the man she has come to love. 

Expect the meticulousness of a journalist’s approach, a thriller novelist’s pace, and a dash of well-crafted romance to keep you reading until the final page. 

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