Too Short To Sink My Teeth Into

Curious Anomalies by Ryan Sean O'Reilly

Short Story/Science Fiction Thriller

It isn't a completely forgettable story but it isn't the greatest sci-fi I've read.  Somewhere in the murky middle.  It is a very short story-about a 20-minute read.

Rick is a scientist, a geneticist, who is wholly devoted to his work.  His entire world centers around a small lab set deep in a jungle, impossible for anyone to find.  Rick has been employed by a violent South American drug lord, Diego. Diego is due for a visit and Rick has to make sure everything is perfect if he wants his funding to continue.

Rick has been hired to cross-gene an African honeybee with a bat for use in guarding the drug lord's drug plants.  What could go wrong?  Plenty it seems.  The facility is set up like a line of dominoes to disaster and it only takes a small gesture to send the experiment out of control.  Nobody fools Mother Nature.

This plot is too intricate for the page length.  It's so short that the reader doesn't actually get to know anything really about the main character.  He is neither likable or unlikeable.  He didn't seem any better or worse than the drug lord.  As a reader, I now I am supposed to identify with the main character but I don't know why in this story.  The ending was left open so perhaps the author is going to do some more work on Rick.  While I didn't love the story, I was very intrigued by his ideas.  I would definitely read him again.