Pulse

Greek myth and biotechnology collide in Robinson's first in a new thriller series to feature the Chess Team, an elite Delta Force unit whose members each use a chess piece—king, bishop, knight, etc.—as a call sign. When the legendary Hydra, whose slaying was the second of Hercules' 12 labors, turns up in Peru alive (albeit in dormant form), Richard Ridley, the head of Manifold, a company “renowned in the world of genetics,” seeks to revive the beast. Ridley, who plans to use the Hydra's DNA to make humans immortal, transports the creature to the South Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha, where the Chess Team winds up blasting away at semireptilean “regens,” people infected with Hydra serum who can regrow damaged or missing body parts almost instantly. Robinson (Antarktos Rising ) will have readers turning the pages, but the resolution, which pulls many punches, will surprise no one. (May 26)