The Dark Continent could be an ominous book to read during the lockdown and the global pandemic. It is the kind of book that alarms you when your life is going smoothly. When you have a lot to lose, but reading it now, it suffers, it loses in shock-value.
But that only applies to the second part of the book. The beginning is an intense, action-packed thrill ride; I haven't read action scenes like this in a long, long time. The premise is that humans are genetically modified into powerful fighting machines on a decommissioned oil rig of the Coast of Alaska. It is all very Karl Malus, and it made me miss Jessica Jones. Because the gene enhancement to their physique is so extreme, only the truly degenerate can withstand it— stonecold killers, and psychopaths.  The 15 on the oil rig are all death row prisoners. Now before one of the most destructive prison breaks ever described happens, wheels are set in motion to get our three protagonists involved in the plot. This is the part of the book that blew me away. Karl Lyons works for the Cia and is looking for a lab in China where they perform the same experiments.The Chinese adventure is so entertaining that I would read a whole book only about it. Tom Reese, in the meantime, a genetically modified subject, the protagonist of the first book in the series, Prometheus man, the only still alive from his batch, is in Canada on the run from the police with his girlfriend, Silvana. Yet, again another sensational chase scene ensues. And Dr. Azamor arrives on the rig and meets the villain of the story Kronin in a few Clarice Sterling, meeting doctor Hannibal in extremis scenes.
But then the men led by Kronin, escape with a plan to destroy the world as we know it. And the book turns incredibly Dark. And endlessly violent. Firing off from the premise that if civilization is threatened, people go back to the notion of kill or be killed. This The Road horror version fell flat.
This past period we have watched how people behave in an emergency, and I don't see much evidence supporting the notion that we will all turn into savages. Maybe if I had read The Dark Continent before the pandemic, it would've been swept up into its nightmarish vision, but I didn't buy the second part: so unbelievable first part and not believable second for me.