In this powerhouse of suspense-as brilliantly imagined as "Jurassic Park" and "The Ruins"-scientists have made a startling discovery: a fragment of a lost continent, an island with an ecosystem unlike any they've seen before...an ecosystem that could topple ours like a house of cards.

The time is now. The place is the "Trident," a long-range research vessel hired by the reality TV show "Sealife." Aboard is a cast of ambitious young scientists. With a director dying for drama, tiny Henders Island might just be what the show needs. Until the first scientist sets foot on Henders-and the ultimate test for survival begins...

For when they reach the island's shores, scientists are utterly unprepared for what they find-creatures unlike any ever recorded in natural history. This is not a lost world frozen in time, an island of mutants, or a lab where science has gone mad: this is the earth as it might have looked after evolving on a separate path for half a billion years...

Soon the scientists will stumble on something more shocking than anything humanity has ever encountered: because among the terrors of Henders Island, one life form defies any scientific theory-and must be saved at any cost.