K-666

In Boccaletti’s thriller, an American scientist races to fight the spread of a deadly pathogen, unleashed as part of a Chinese conspiracy to establish global hegemony.

In 2006, a team of explorers on an expedition in Mongolia stumble upon a “mysterious, ancient virus” living inside the corpse of a mammoth, preserved within the icy ecosystem of a glacier. Once released, the virus kills every member of the group within a few days, but instead of seeing it as a tragedy, the Chinese government sees it as an opportunity—a “scalable and usable weapon against modern societies.” Wealthy businessman and chemist Dr. Li supervises an official project with the aim of weaponizing the virus, known as K-666; the ultimate purpose is to bring the Western world—and in particular, the United States—to heel, leaving China as the planet’s sole superpower. In terms that are evocative of a comic-book villain, Li explains his aspirations: “The Chinese Dragon, in the end, will have its own paws on the world, and whoever tries to change things will be squashed by the paws’ own weight.” Research is secretly conducted in the hinterlands of the South Gobi Desert, but when 10 shepherds die of the virus, three Russian scientists are called in to investigate, and they soon disappear without a trace. However, one was able to send the investigative data to Dr. Dario Casa, an American virologist working on cutting-edge research for the United States Army. Over the course of this thriller, Boccaletti offers a topical story that includes scenes in Wuhan, China, and displays an impressive level of scientific sophistication in its descriptions. However, the author’s prose style lacks flair; instead, much of the work reads like a white paper, replete with technical charts and maps. Furthermore, it’s a very short work—one that’s well under 150 pages in length—which leaves the author little time to develop authentic characters—most of them instead feel underdeveloped—or a plausible plot. In the end, the book reads less like a novella than notes toward a longer work to be composed in the future.

A dramatically flat and sketchy tale of dueling scientists.