★Nayak, Michael. Symbiote. Angry Robot. Feb. 2025. 400p. ISBN 9781915998422. pap. $18.99. SF

DEBUT The 40-odd American scientists, engineers, and support staff overwintering at the South Pole are happy to be away from the potential World War III that seems to be heating up between the U.S. and China in this near-future sci-fi thriller—until they find their base invaded by a crew of desperate Chinese scientists and one seething corpse. Scientist Rajan Chariya, the only military officer at the U.S. station, fears that the situation is related to his own top-secret assignment, turning his crew into collateral damage in a clandestine operation that was designed to leave no survivors. Bioterrorism is just one of the terrors in this compulsively readable and utterly chilling SF thriller by DARPA researcher and polar scientist Nayak. The tension increases on every page, as the threat shifts from a distant war to a murderous man on the ice and gets both larger and paradoxically smaller as the polar scientists determine that it’s not the extreme conditions affecting the crew’s sanity: it’s an engineered microbe with a mind of its own—and out for theirs. VERDICT Highly recommended for readers of sci-fi thrillers, cli-fi, and bioterrorism thrillers, and Tom Clancy fans who enjoy a bit of SF in their political thrillers.