Review by Bigwig1973 -- Zona: The Forbidden Land

[Bigwig1973]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Zona: The Forbidden Land" by Fred G. Baker.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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Several attempted robberies and mysterious keys to unknown safety deposit boxes, secret scientific journals and classified documents, one dead - or perhaps murdered agent for the Ministry of Internal Affairs: that was Dr. Grant Taylor's first week in St. Petersburg, Russia after his arrival at the end of April of 2015 to investigate the disappearance of his uncle, Dr. Randall Taylor.

Fred G. Baker's novel, Zona: The Forbidden Land, is a murder-mystery with veins of science fiction and a touch of surreal fantasy. Grant's uncle, a well-known explorer, has been missing for a year and has been declared dead by the Russian government. Boris Ustinov, Uncle Randall's attorney decides, partly to fulfill an obligation to investors and partly to search for his friend Randall, to organize a second expedition to 3ona or Zona - a remote and unchartered area of Siberia, and the last place anyone had ever seen Dr. Randall Taylor alive.

The twenty-eight expedition members - four drivers, fourteen security personnel, and ten scientific and medical specialists, spend four months traveling across the Siberian tundra in snow crawlers. Their voyage is complicated by attacks by from massive animals, mechanical problems, and the bitter cold. Later, the explorers begin to experience inexplicable strange behavior and frequent disagreements. Exacerbated, it seems, by alcohol and stress, the disagreements escalate into drunken brawls, mutiny, and gun battle.

Meanwhile, some of the scientists theorize that there may be a connection between their unreasonable and irresponsible behavior and anomalies existing in the indigenous plant and animal life. The novel ends in August of that same year; only five months have passed, and while one mystery is solved, more questions have been raised than have been answered.

I would recommend Zona: The Forbidden Land to readers who like a good mystery. Baker does an excellent job presenting many of the characters in a dubious light to keep the reader wondering what happened to Uncle Randall. Additionally, due to the theory that plant and animal life may have some strange effect on human behavior, this novel might be of interest to readers who enjoy exploring such possibilities, however surreal or fantastic as they may seem.

I would not recommend this book for people who are sensitive to fighting, mutilation, and death as the novel contains several rather gruesome scenes. The book also has some profanity and vulgarity, and there are several mildly erotic scenes.

I enjoyed the mystery elements of the story and the author's writing style. The mystery is well-played throughout the novel. Baker's descriptions, whether they define a specific room in a house or describe how the explorers prepared for their journey, are interesting, vivid, and easy to follow.

I did not like that the book seemed hurried and unfinished. I felt, in fact, that the book could have been two separate books; the first book consisting of the time prior the expedition and the second relating what happens during the expedition. I think this would have allowed for more character development, more backstories, and for more of a background on the scientific aspects of the story.

I give Baker's novel, Zona: The Forbidden Land, 3 out of 4 stars. The characters are interesting, it is a good mystery, and the incorporation of the scientific theories and amazing animals gives it a nice twist. However, I feel more information on some of the characters could have been added without detracting from the elements of mystery in the novel. There were very few editing issues in the novel that could not be attributed to either poetic license or to e-book or e-reader formatting problems, such as word divisions occurring at the end of lines.

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Zona: The Forbidden Land
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