Dr. Jasmine Marks is an absolutely unbearable character whose trademark dialogue tag is "I said, stupidly (again)"; acknowledging her own stupidity does not salvage the fact that she is supposed to be a scientist of substance, yet she only becomes increasingly more stupid and childish throughout the novella. While this very well might be 'the point' (humans feel entitled to the world, the superiority complex of evolutionary man, yada yada), for me, a novella largely hinges on its characters, given the inherently short nature of the plot and thus the overall story. Ergo, her character's regressive trajectory, whether intentional or unintentional, dealt a lot of damage. 

The writer, to his credit, did a real solid job with everything else (big on the greater themes), and I'll definitely read more from him. I especially liked the analogy of a host's defense system against infection via fever to earth's global warming in response to human destruction, and the ending had a nice little twist as well. Ultimately, however, I found this novella as a whole to be a miss for me because of the insufferable protagonist. Hell, even the side characters who died within a handful of scenes were more worthwhile than our leading lady, in my opinion. #TeamAntagonist