Cover image of "Invasive," a novel about genetic engineering

We live in an era when breakthroughs in science and technology have immeasurably improved our lives. And we’re told by many of those in high tech that unimaginably new wonders are in store for us. Yet most of us are cautious, if not fearful—and for good reason. Our oceans are clogged by plastics once touted as miraculous. Chemicals that make wonder drugs possible now poison our waterways. The internet that binds us together makes us vulnerable to criminals and spies as well. And the threat of nuclear annihilation hangs over us. No wonder, then, that many of us rush to snap up techno-thrillers that offer vivid evidence that science holds the potential to make things even worse. And author Chuck Wendig gives us a good example of the genre in his fast-moving novel about genetic engineering in the wrong hands, Invasive.

Engineered ants that feast on human skin

You know you’re in for an uncomfortable ride when you see the novel’s central reality splashed on the very first page. It’s the definition of the word formication: “the sensation that ants or other insects are crawling on one’s skin.” If even thinking about that makes your skin crawl, stay away from Invasive. Because from its opening scene in rural upstate New York, this is a story about killer ants—ants designed to kill. And the FBI team called to investigate the first solo murder will witness thousands more before this story staggers toward its end.

Invasive by Chuck Wendig (2016) 384 pages ★★★★☆

Photo of a leaf-cutter ant on a leaf, a little like those in this novel about genetic engineering
A leaf-cutter ant at work. The species resembles the engineered ants of the novel. Image: Rainforest Alliance

An existential threat emerges from a lab

Invasive traces the emergence of an existential threat from its small-scale beginnings in a genetic engineering lab to a massive invasion that threatens to spread around the world. Two dogged FBI investigators follow the story from Day One: Special Agent Hollis Copper, formerly of the CIA, and the futurist who serves him as a consultant, Hannah Stander. They will face off with a visionary Norwegian billionaire named Einar Geirsson and the small team of genetic engineers he has assembled in a secret facility called Arca Labs on a tiny private island in Hawaii.

There’s no mystery here where those killer ants are from. Nor will we be surprised that things will quickly spiral out of control there—or that Copper and Stander will gain the upper hand in the end. The magic in this story, if magic it is, lies in the propulsive tempo of the action as the ants spread from Arca Labs and soon threaten to depopulate the world. Invasive is a techno-thriller, to be sure, but it might as well be termed a horror story.

The contrivance at the heart of this novel

Futurist Hannah Stander is the central figure in this story. It’s her job to advise the FBI on emerging threats to American society. Perhaps the FBI does employ someone like her, or engage in scenario planning to much the same effect. But, like the engineered ants she follows, Hannah is herself designed to be the protagonist of this novel. Her backstory makes it work.

Hannah’s parents are survivalists. Preppers. They live self-sufficient lives on an isolated farm essentially walled off from the world. And from an early age they have schooled Hannah in the belief that something—some natural disaster, some emerging technology, some blunder by the White House or the Pentagon—will bring civilization to a halt, leaving them virtually alone. Although Hannah never truly bought into their belief that the world would soon end, she grew up with detailed knowledge of the many, many ways it could. Which makes her more knowledgeable about the existential threats facing humanity than any scholar. But that’s not all.

As a child, Hannah once stuck her hand into the mailbox to retrieve the family’s meager mail, only to feel ants swarming up her arm. Yes, it’s Hannah who experiences formication, and the sensation repeatedly haunts her in her nightmares. And her tutelage at the hands of her mother into how to survive in a hostile environment ideally equips her to confront the life-threatening conditions caused by the release of the killer ants in the novel’s closing chapters. In a sense, then, this is not just a novel about genetic engineering. It’s also a novel about how to survive when things go very wrong.

About the author

Photo of Chuck Wendig, author of this novel about genetic engineering
Chuck Wendig. Image: Gage Skidmore

Chuck Wendig writes science fiction, comic books, screenplays, and a widely read blog. He is the author of twenty-eight novels and a slew of other material. Wendig was born in 1976 in a small town in Pennsylvania and lives in the state today with his family.

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